The Isle of Man goes to the polls in less than two weeks.

Voters get to decide who’ll represent them in the House of Keys for the next five years on September 23.

Isle of Man Newspapers has asked every candidate to fill in a questionnaire to find out more about them.

The results will be printed this week.

We asked them a range of questions about various issues, not only to get a sense of what they would like to see but also to get a sense of themselves.

The idea is to see if they have coherent political beliefs and therefore will be more predictable when in office.

We asked candidates to be concise and to the point. (Not all of them seemed to understand the word concise.)

Also, some didn’t actually answer the questions we posed but went off on tangents. Telling in itself. So we are having to abbreviate some answers.

But we’d like to thank the candidates for taking part and hope that the answers shed more light on them.

The questions are:

Occupation (before politics)

Name just one specific thing we should do to cut the island’s carbon footprint.

Would you vote for an increase in income tax to pay for social care?

What extra measures should be introduced to persuade more people to have Covid-19 vaccinations?

The government payroll has grown as more staff have been employed. Name one cut you’d support to reduce headcount and expense. (We suggest that this is a chance to be specific rather than just saying something generic like ’bureaucracy’.)

Should cannabis for recreational use be decriminalised?

How many local authorities should there be in the Isle of Man?

If we keep the Legislative Council, should MLCs be elected by the public?

Should the Bishop have an automatic voting position in the Legislative Council and Tynwald?

Did you support the abortion reform legislation?

Did you support equal marriage?

Will you support the principle of legislation to permit assisted dying?

How would you encourage young people to return to the island?

What measure(s) would you back to make it easier for first-time buyers?

1. Relaxed planning regulations to make it easier to build more houses? (We’ll take it as read that you’d prefer brownfield development over greenfield, but we’re happy to be surprised.)

2. A residency qualification for property purchase?

3. Punitive taxes on second home owners?

4. Much more generous government schemes to subsidise the cost of homes for first-time buyers?

Should we introduce an all-island speed limit?

Guernsey has a nationalised airline. Should we?

We know it’s too early to say for definite, but indulge us. Who should be the next Chief Minister?

To how many Afghans should we offer refuge?

What piece of legislation would you like to bring to Tynwald?

We also ask them to answer questions that we hope will separate the ’potholes and dog poo’ politicians - who might be better suited to a role local government rather than framing and scrutinising legislation and formulating national priorities - from those with a passion for politics and a coherent range of views.

We believe that it’s revealing in itself when candidates describe these questions as ’irrelevant’.

If you could vote in Great Britain, which party would you support?

If you had a vote in 2016, would you have voted for Brexit?

If you were a professional athlete, would you take the knee?

Who is your favourite writer?

Who is your political hero?

The constituencies will be listed alphabetically from Arbory, Castletown and Malew to Douglas South in Tuesday’s Isle of Man Examiner and the remainder in Thursday’s Manx Independent.