Humbug all round - the House of Keys is squeezing in one last sitting before Christmas.

It had been widely expected there would not be a sitting this week for what is effectively an optional sitting.

However, it appears the keenness with which the government wants the Dormant Assets Bill to be in the system means that MHKs will be turning up this morning to give it a first reading.

Unless Treasury member Bill Shimmins (Middle) really wants to wind up those of us with Christmas shopping to do - by seeking a suspension of standing orders for the second reading to take place - there will be no debate.

Those of you with long memories may recall that last year the ’extra’ Keys sitting option before Christmas was also taken up. That was down in part to the sense of urgency to consider the Credit Unions Bill. Guess who was in charge of that one? That’s right. Bill Shimmins.

Can I suggest that, next time Mr Shimmins suggests that we have some sittings in September, everyone agrees, because I reckon he’s going to keep spoiling our Christmas preparations until he gets his way?

Of course, once there’s a sitting, then questions will be tabled, and so it is today.

Julie Edge (Onchan) does not appear to be doing much to repair relations with the Department for Enterprise members.

In Tynwald last week members of the DfE - which is the sponsor department of the Post Office, which Ms Edge chairs - lined up to criticise Ms Edge in a manner rarely seen.

Given Ms Edge sits behind her Onchan constituency colleague Rob Callister and next to Lawrie Hooper - both DfE members and both at the front of the queue to mete out the critiques last week - frosty may not come close to describing the atmosphere today.

This week, Ms Edge is asking Enterprise Minister Laurence Skelly what he’s going to do to address a decline in tourism figures and also what the procurement processes was for the installation of the small fairy houses that have appeared around the island.

It’s probably just a coincidence these questions have arrived in the aftermath of the acrimonious Post Office debate.

Ms Edge also has a question about a report into the colonoscopy service.

Jason Moorhouse (Arbory, Castletown and Malew) wants to know how the preparations are going at Castle Rushen for the swearing in of the next Lieutenant Governor and will also seek an update on the new school in Castletown.

The written question paper is long. Instead of writing to Santa, Mr Hooper appears to have spent his time tabling questions of the written variety, covering data protection, the parole system, planning rules, complaints to the health department and the Programme for Government.

Others do get a very small look-in covering whether delivery people have any right to enter a house and how many children and family cases have been referred to the Department of Health and Social Care.

The one consolation with the 17 written questions, of course, is that we don’t have to sit through the delivery of the answers.

Here’s a question I have, though. Does it cost the taxpayer more if an ’extra’ House of Keys sitting is put on?

Technically, it is not ’extra’ as the way it is put in the calendar is that this sitting is one that MHKs can choose to forego. In the past, they have done that. It has been highly unusual to stage a Keys sitting between the December Tynwald and Christmas. Indeed last year, there was a genuine reluctance to do so.

Last week the Legislative Council managed to deal with amendments to a piece of legislation during a lunch break at Tynwald, rather than hold a sitting today.

Given that a first reading of a bill does not involve any actual debate, if it has cost the taxpayer extra to put on this sitting today, are any of the oral questions so important they could not have waited? Could the written questions have been held over or dealt with by a letter?

Mind you, if it means we have the chance of seeing Mr Callister and Ms Edge duetting on Fairy-tale of New York, with Mr Hooper on percussion, then maybe it will be worth it.