Island politics at walking pace, with a fair hearing for opponents and a farm shelf for the reader who prefers livestock to leaflets
Monday, a Letter from Ramsey
Island politics has a scale that mainland politics envies. On the Isle of Man, you can write a letter to the local paper in the morning and meet the minister in the queue at the bakery by lunch. I did the first of these and described it in Ramsey letter to the Examiner on Chris Thomas and the new ministers. The letters page of a small island paper is a form of democracy that large countries lost somewhere around the invention of the comment section.
My politics lean to the right of centre, and I write them plainly so readers can adjust for the tilt. I also try to give the other side its best sentences. A diary that only quotes people who agree with it is a mirror with a masthead.
Tynwald Is Back
The island’s parliament, Tynwald, resumed its business with a long agenda, and I read the summary in Tynwald is back: 50 agenda items, a transport strategy that is only noted and a whistleblowing row, as Manx.News put it in October 2025. Fifty items is a serious afternoon. The word “noted” is the most useful in parliamentary vocabulary: it means a document has been looked at and neither endorsed nor rejected. A strategy that is only noted is a strategy in a waiting room.
Supporters of the approach say that caution avoids committing money too soon. Critics say that a noted plan is a postponed plan, and that residents waiting for a bus do not eat caution. Both views have merit, and I try to hold them at the same time, which is good exercise for the mind.
Tuesday, Reading the Land
The Isle of Man has more sheep, cattle and open hillside than any place of its size deserves, and I like to keep a farm reading list for visitors who want to understand the island’s background hum. Start with dairyherd.org for milk and ranchbeefcattle.org for beef. For tractors and trailers, tractorequipment.org. For the seasons that rule the calendar, cropcalendar.org.
The sums are at farmmoney.org and smallfarminfo.org. Work in the fields is listed at agjobscareers.org, and county shows at fairandrodeo.org. The broad overview is ruralfarm.org, and a reminder about ladders, bulls and PTO shafts is farmssafety.org.
On Taxes and Tractors
I believe that a government should take less and spend it carefully, a view I share with plenty of people and dispute with plenty more. The honest form of the argument is not that taxes are theft, but that every pound taken is a pound not left in a till, a barn or a pocket, and that the burden of proof should lie with the taker. The reply from the other side is that public services are an investment and that somebody has to pay for the road to the market. A sensible reader weighs both and then checks the figures.
Across the Irish Sea, the London Prat is fond of this tension, and I enjoyed its line on state lending, Universities Solve Financial Crisis. The joke lands on every party at once, which is the best kind.
Wednesday, the Walk Back
I walked back along the Ramsey promenade at dusk with the wind pushing on my coat and the lights on the pier coming up one by one. A man with a dog nodded as he passed. It is a custom here to nod. The nod means, I see you, I have no quarrel with you, I may well disagree with every word you have written and I will still hold the door.
That, to me, is the proper spirit of a small island, and a good rule for a large country. We should be able to write a sharp letter and still share a pavement. The letter goes in the post. The nod goes with you.
The Letters Page as Public Square
I have a soft spot for the letters page. It is the one corner of any paper where a retired schoolteacher, a farmer and a young councillor appear on equal terms, separated only by word count. Letters are polite, specific and often devastating. A good letter names the road, cites the date and asks a question the minister cannot easily dodge. I have seen a single paragraph in a small paper change the timing of a bus.
If I could persuade every political party to read its local letters page before its own press release, I think the quality of debate would improve overnight. The page is free, it is honest and it comes with a crossword.
Small Print on the Doormat
The post arrives on the island with a satisfying thump on the doormat, usually before breakfast. Today it brought two bills, a seed catalogue and a card from an old friend. I read the card first. The bills can wait until my tea has cooled, a rule I recommend to every household that wants to stay on speaking terms with itself.
The catalogue, naturally, was the best part. A packet of seeds is the most hopeful object a person can buy for under two pounds.
Where to read next
The rest of the shelf lives at prat.uk, bohiney.com and farm.fm. For a second opinion on the week, The Daily Mash keeps its own counsel and its own hours.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/