A year-old preview of a Tynwald sitting in a light-hearted tone, read by a diarist who is now a resident and watching the new parliamentary year
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
A year-old preview of a Tynwald sitting in a light-hearted tone, read by a diarist who is now a resident and watching the new parliamentary year
By Morag Sinclair, Reform UK politics and comedy diarist, Isle of Man
Friday, Kitchen Table, Dark
Dear diary, I found Manx.News Tynwald is back, by Sam Turton, published 20 October 2025. It is a year old, so it is background and not news. It previews the October sitting of Tynwald, the Isle of Man’s parliament, which opens a new parliamentary year, and it is written in a light, chatty tone that I rather like.
I give its facts as it gives them, and I have not checked what happened in the sitting itself.
The Agenda
The article says the session began at 10am on the Tuesday, with over 50 items. The government sought approval for new rules on shared parental leave, allowances, and updated health and safety rules for quarries.
The new transport strategy was to be presented, but an amendment had been tabled so that the house would note it, rather than receive it. That is a very Parliamentary distinction, and I enjoy it.
The Fallout
Chief Minister Alf Cannan was to make a statement on the government’s response to the Richard Wright report, which the article connects to the Dr Ranson fallout. Tim Johnston was also to make a statement about comments he made earlier in the year.
I know too little to say more, and the article, being a preview, says little more.
Whistleblowing and the Economy
Onchan MHK Julie Edge was to ask what advice was received before politicians were removed from the whistleblowing policy, and planned to seek a select committee to look at its implementation, citing the impact on public sector employers and employees. Ramsey MHK Lawrie Hooper was to ask the Enterprise Minister about the year-on-year fall in real gross national product since 2020, and which sectors were hit hardest by the drop in self-employment between 2021 and 2025.
Whatever the answers, these are the questions I would want asked in any parliament.
The Small Things
A motion called for a funded plan for infrastructure needs in Peel, to be delivered before the North and West Area Plan is approved. Other questions concerned weekend closures at Ramsey’s minor injuries unit, the cost of new conference policies, and the tourism sector.
I have lived a short time on an island where the minor injuries unit matters more than the national debate, and I understand why.
Why a Westminster Diarist Reads Manx.News
Because small parliaments show the machinery. In Tynwald you can see who asks what, and a question about GNP or whistleblowing is asked by a named person to a named minister. I would like more of that at home.
I do not claim the island is better governed. I claim it is easier to read.
The Other View
A cynic would say that a chatty preview makes a parliament look cosier than it is, and that the issues in it, a fall in real GNP and a row about whistleblowing, are serious. I agree, and I note that the article itself lists them.
A reader should go to the Tynwald website for Hansard and the order papers.
Night
The kitchen is quiet. The preview is a year old. The new session is another story.
Goodnight, diary. Read Hansard.
A Note on Dates
Because the article is a year old, the sitting it describes is long over, and the Manx general election has since happened. I have not looked up what Tynwald decided on each item, and I do not claim to know. Treat the entry as a window on a past October and not as a report on this one.
If you need a current position on any item, ask the Tynwald website.
Committee Room
On the ferry I read the comic papers, because the briefing notes are in my other bag. This week the big joke was property: Manila News on slow condo sales in Cebu, the London Prat on retirees asked for character references (it is at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney on a realtor with unsellable beachfront listings. Exaggeration all the way down, but anchored to a real market story. More at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Diarist note: Morag Sinclair is a house diarist character created for this network. Her opinions are a character’s, not the network’s, and where a claim comes from a party, a pollster or a partisan outlet, the diary says so. Other views are given where the sources give them.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try The Daily Mash, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/