We have invited every MHK to write a column for us in our new feature. We start with Dr Alex Allinson, one of the MHKs for Ramsey.

It was a bit daunting being offered a column in your newspaper.

Politicians often rely on the press to get various messages across and connect with the people in their constituency.

But on the island we don’t really have career politicians.

Current Tynwald Members come from a wide range of backgrounds.

Some continue to work part-time in their previous jobs; in some ways being taken back into the ’real world’ is a useful reality check.

Looking around the chamber since the last election proves how our system works and has chosen people who truly represent our community; diverse, inquisitive, intelligent, hardworking and bolshie when they need to be.

I hope we can start off 2022 with a renewed sense of confidence in ourselves and what we can achieve given everything the world has gone through.

One of my main roles in the Department for Enterprise will be to help conjure up an economic strategy to drive our island forward whilst not leaving anyone behind.

Growth has to result in a more diverse economy, improved productivity, better jobs, increasing wages and the chance to learn new skills.

But also economic growth should provide for everyone to have a decent standard of living and the time to enjoy the beauty and tranquillity that lies on our doorstep.

We have some gifted people in our community; a youth alert to a range of challenges ahead, business leaders and entrepreneurs, hardworking staff with creative ideas, a dedicated public sector who have worked tirelessly to support our island, a third sector who have re-established links with some of our most vulnerable and disenfranchised and an older population which reminds us all what a real community should feel like.

Government’s job is to respect all these views and ideals and enable them to take us forward together.

I’m confident that we have politicians and a civil service ready to listen, translate and relate to our people. Communication is always important, but it has to be honest, clear and resonate with our fears, hopes and ambitions.

There are now a bewildering amount of ways to connect.

I have four email addresses, several social media accounts and still get daily letters and phone calls from people in Ramsey with various issues or ideas.

For more than five years Lawrie Hooper and I have been running regular political surgeries together at the Town Hall on the second Saturday of every month.

But to understand what people are thinking about you have to be there.

Whether it’s chatting to people in shops, along Parliament Street, in a pub or Mooragh Park, that social contact is so important and being denied it during lockdowns showed its true value.

It’s that connection that first lured me to this wonderful island and has kept me rooted here for the last 20 years. If we can continue to share ideas, build understanding and stand against conspiracy theories and intolerance we can achieve so much together.

Happy New Year, let’s hope it’s a good one.

*David Ashford writes a column in this week's Isle of Man Examiner, which is on sale now.