Well the excitement of the Isle of Man General Election 2021 has now translated into the 24 MHKs taking their seats and settling down to the hard work in the five years ahead.

Many issues were highlighted during the campaign trail island-wide, including getting the island back on track post-pandemic, housing generally but in particular making sure we have affordable housing and good jobs to encourage our young people to return after further education and widening their horizons and experience elsewhere.

Waiting list times that have been detrimentally impacted in the last 18 months.

The new green economy and other emerging niche sectors that we can forge future opportunities for our nation.

We have always had to reinvent ourselves and now seems such a time. We must not though disregard the importance more traditional industries such as tourism can play.

I will say it again but I do believe the sector deserves more priority, with obvious assets such as our heritage, footpath network, adventure experiences, railway systems, cycling and an increased emphasis on specialist sporting and cultural activities.

Also I am sure I’m not alone in looking forward to welcoming back the TT and Manx Grand Prix.

A focus also on vocational skills, which will always be valued, training and retraining for an ever-changing environment.

There is no doubt that this was a historic election for a number of reasons, not least the election of 10 females and, for Douglas South and Douglas East, for the first time ever having two female representatives.

I have said here before and still believe it to be the case that we must have the best representatives with a diverse set of skills no matter what their gender, however the House of Keys and Tynwald must represent the diverse nature of our population.

Females and males often think differently about certain issues and I’m sure the need to modernise and update certain social issues such as maternity and paternity provision, family-friendly facilities and improved and affordable childcare will now rightly come under the spotlight in order to have our best people available to play their part in taking a sustainable economy forward.

I have to say my two former colleagues on the Legislative Council, Jane Poole-Wilson and Kate Lord-Brennan, are exceptionally talented and I feel they will be playing an important part in policy development in the time ahead.

I felt the election of five female members of council enhanced its make-up and more accurately reflected our population.

Sadly there were occasions when they came up against barriers but now, as directly elected members, there will be no stopping Kate and Jane.

Much has been said about the chief executive officers of departments having more say than some ministers.

I think the allegation is sometimes overplayed in as much as officials can be an easy but inappropriate target for some politicians.

The clue is in the name, the elected member is responsible for the policy direction of the department and the chief executive has to deliver that on a day-to-day basis.

The elected member holds the chief executive to account for any failures in respect of this.

It is most important that both parties understand each other’s role and my experience was that this was the case much more often than not.

That is not to say that my relationship as a minister of several departments over 18 years was always a happy one.

Indeed one officer did express concern as to my requirements of him but that in my opinion was because he failed to appreciate the difference of the two roles and that ultimately the buck stopped with me.

MHKs are elected by a several thousand interview panel for a five-year fixed-term contract and, ultimately even if the chief executive disagrees, the requirements of the minister prevail.

But there are rightly rules in place to protect chief officers from abuse or misconduct in office of politicians.

I feel the only thing that may have played a part in the last five years was lack of experience in some quarters and with a significant turn over it will be important for the respective roles to be clarified to prevent any misunderstanding.

The outgoing Speaker of the House of Keys again had an exceptional result in Rushen where for the fourth occasion he received a resounding endorsement.

Juan Watterson has also been the chair of the influential public accounts committee which has on a number of occasions rightly held government to account and a strong proponent of an independent Tynwald Auditor General.

If experience elsewhere is anything to go by the post would easily exceed its cost in terms of financial savings within government.

David Ashford after a very challenging 18 months heading up, understanding and communicating the health department response to the pandemic and he would be the first to admit that in this unprecedented situation with the benefit of hindsight some decisions would have been different.

His constituents in North Douglas returned him with a thumping 80% of all ballots placed and double the votes of his nearest rival.

Other exceptional performances and every one of the 24 elected from the 65 candidates deserve our congratulations, include Alf Cannan returned with a substantially increased vote, up from 1,839 in 2016 to 2,117 in this election.

Currently favourite for Chief Minister I trust the new House of Keys will require him to also spotlight social reform required in any programme for government.

Jason Moorhouse increased his support despite a lower turnout from 1,006 in 2016 to 1,988, almost double this time. It was also a very credible result for first-time candidate Tim Glover, fewer than 200 votes behind in Arbory Castletown and Malew.

So how did the political parties fare?

Well, Lawrie Hooper was the only successful Liberal Vannin candidate. He topped the poll in Ramsey, closely followed by Alex Allinson.

The Green Party, despite in my opinion a very strong candidate in Andrew Langan-Newton, obviously up against tough opposition, failed to pick up any seats.

In 1985 I was elected to the House of Keys together with two other Manx Labour Party members who, together with two MLP members of the Legislative Council, made an impact working with others, on the big issues of the day, including the 3,500 people out of work and no financial reserves to speak of.

We worked in a pragmatic way with both sides of industry.

In 2021 the MLP had three very credible candidates.

Unfortunately Gareth Young just fell short but had a tremendous first attempt in Garff.

In Douglas East MLP leader Joney Faragher topped the poll in spectacular fashion and Sarah Maltby topped the poll in Douglas South.

Sarah has had an ambition to stand for the House of Keys for a very long time and obviously, as her father, it was a very proud moment for me to see her achieve this.

Joney is known island-wide for her work in relation to green issues and Sarah has a strong interest in social justice.

I obviously wish the newly elected House of Keys the very best in the time ahead.

One final point. With two vacancies in the Legislative Council now to be filled I have to disagree strongly with a former MHK on the radio.

In my opinion unsuccessful candidates at the election should not be considered.