In the final run-up to the 2026 general election I can’t help being reminded of the classic definition of insanity.

Which is, of course, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Every five years we declare the outgoing government to be the worst ever. We then re-elect most of its members and hope for a fresh start.

We tend not to punish individual politicians for collective failure. And credible alternatives can be in short supply.

This time it might be different. The last administration was a real shambles and there is a large, if mixed, field of challengers. A wave of voting against incumbents is more likely now, but I still wouldn’t bet on it.

Our system makes it difficult to hold MHKs responsible for the overall performance of government. They can always blame colleagues or the civil service for a lack of progress. There is, in short, no ownership of the outcome at the end of five years.

The absence of accountability may be one of the reasons why the performance is so often disappointing. If no-one is going to lose their job for a collective failure to deliver at the national level, then there is less incentive to deliver.

In the Manx non-party system the electorate votes for constituency representatives but not for a government. The disconnect between people and government is not only undemocratic, it creates weak governments with no public mandate for action.

General elections here produce, at best, an agenda of issues of concern with no consensus on solutions. The Chief Minister chosen by the House of Keys has no mandate from the Island as a whole, nor is there one for the policies that emerge from his or her Council of Ministers.

With no direct backing from the nation, the government leadership lacks the authority to overcome the vested interests, internal as well as external, that can stand in the way of beneficial change.

The Isle of Man is now facing serious challenges - economic, social and fiscal. To deal with these we need a stronger political system, one that connects the government to the public and provides a democratic endorsement for its direction of travel. A system that makes government properly accountable to the people, and clearly responsible for performance and delivery.

This could be done through a public vote for the Chief Minister, or an Island-wide election for the Legislative Council, from which the Chief Minister and senior ministers could be chosen.

The exact mechanism is a matter for discussion. But the first step is for the new House of Keys to recognise, as a point of democratic principle, that the people should have a say in choosing their government.