The final sitting of the current House of Keys could lead to a rule change on the process leading up to the election of the next chief minister.

Chris Thomas (Douglas Central) has tabled a motion that would see the standing orders - rules of the House - altered to allow time for a full policy debate to be held in the Keys before voting for Howard Quayle’s successor.

At present the standing orders say a special sitting of the House of Keys to elect a chief minister should take place within 10 to 14 days of the general election.

Mr Thomas wants to change that to within one month.

This, he believes, would allow for more debate and increase the likelihood of a chief minister being elected based on policies rather than personality and what is on offer to individual MHKs who vote for the successful candidate.

The longer timescale could allow time to schedule a full-on policy debate on the floor of the Keys.

When Mr Quayle was elected chief minister by Tynwald members in 2016, proposers and seconders of the candidates were allowed to speak in support of them ahead of a vote by the branches of Tynwald but there was no debate. Since then, the rules have already changed so that only MHKs will vote for the chief minister after the September election.

Depending on whether MHKs’ appetite for change - or to at least discuss it - is greater than their appetite for the Speaker’s lunch that usually takes place on the day of a final Keys sitting of a session, there could be plenty to digest.

As we may have mentioned, this will be the last sitting of the House of Keys before the September general election.

As you might expect, the question paper is quite busy, with a range of subjects to be covered.

These include library provision, support for first-time house buyers, Manx Telecom’s decision to charge for paper phone bills, plans to move Senior Race Day to a Saturday, the criteria for who can donate blood, the demise of the Corrin Memorial Home, the number of disability parking spaces on Douglas promenade and the planned community infrastructure levy to be imposed on developers of major schemes.

And in what is becoming a trend, permission has been granted for an urgent question to be raised at today’s sitting.

This time it is about the possible chopping down of elm trees in St Mark’s, which to be fair has blown up quite quickly, if you don’t count the length of time since the planning application was first lodged.

MHKs’ final act in the Keys could be to consider the Legislative Council’s amendments to the Liquor Licensing and Public Entertainments Bill, which has completed its passage through the upper chamber.

However, that may depend on whether Legislative Council sends the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill back with any amendments that may need to be agreed.

The above covers nearly all of Legislative Council’s business for today, too, save for its requirement confirm the appointment of Joann Corkish as clerk of the council, with effect from September 13.