Report of Proceedings of Tynwald Court

Printed (by Authority) by CORRIE Ltd., 48 Bucks Road, Douglas, Isle of Man. REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS OF TYNWALD COURT DOUGLAS, Wednesday 22nd June, 1988 at 10.30 a.m. Present: The Lieutenant-Governor (His Excellency Major General Laurence New, C.B., C.B.E.). In the Council: The President of the Council (the Hon. R.J.G. Anderson), the Lord Bishop (the Rt. Rev. Arthur Henry Attwell), the Attorney- General (Mr. T.W. Cain), Messrs. B. Barton, and E.C. Irving, C.B.E., lion. E.G. Lowey, His Honour A.C. Luft, C.B.E. Messrs. W.K. Quirk and J.N. Radcliffe, with Mr. T.A. Bawden, Clerk of the Council. In the Keys: The Speaker (the Hon. Sir Charles Kerruish, O.B.E.)(Garff); Hon. A.R. Bell and Brig. N.A. Butler, C.B.E. (Ramsey); Mr. R.E. Quine (Ayre); Hon. J.D.Q. Cannan (Michael); Mrs. H. Hannan (Peel); Mr. W.A. Gilbey (Glenfaba); Messrs. P. Karran, R.C. Leventhorpe and L.R. Cretney (Onchan); Hon. B. May and Mrs. J. Delaney (Douglas North); Messrs. A.C. Duggan and D.C. Cretney (Douglas South); Hon. D.F.K. Delaney and Mr. P.W. Kermode (Douglas East); Messrs. J.C. Cain and Hon. G.V.H. Kneale (Douglas West); Hon. J.A. Brown (Castletown); Hon. M.R. Walker, Dr. J.R. Orme and Mr. J. Corrin (Rushen); with Prof. T. St.J. N. Bates, Clerk of Tynwald. The Lord Bishop took the prayers. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE The Governor: Hon. members, Mr. Gelling and Mr. Callin have asked for leave of absence today to attend a Conference of the Peripheral Maritime Regions of the E.E.C. and I have granted that permission. EXECUTIVE COUNCIL — APPOINTMENT OF CHIEF EXECUTIVE — MOTION APPROVED The Governor: We revert now to the Agenda Paper and to item 5, Chief Executive for Executive Council. I call on Mr. Leventhorpe to move. Apologies for Absence Executive Council — Appointment of Chief Executive — Motion Approved T1588 TYNWALD COURT, WEDNESDAY, 22nd JUNE, 1988 Mr. Leventhorpe: Your Excellency, I beg to move — That Tynwald is of the opinion that the Isle of Man would benefit from the appointment of a Chief Executive to aid Executive Council. Your Excellency, the last ten years in the Isle of Man have seen probably a greater constitutional and structural change to the Island than any other period in the Island's history since the Viking invasions. I do not intend to go back to that period and take us through the history since, but if we look at the last ten years we have seen in Government a change from 26 different boards, all competing for funds - on a really 'shout loudest, get most' basis with a Board of Finance that had to try and hold the floor on this to try and keep some sort of balance; we have seen your role, Your Excellency, change from that of an executive position to one more of advisory liaison for chairing this hon. Court and, if I may say so, to be of an ornamental nature. There has also been a profound change in the industrial base of the Island or the business base of the Island from agriculture, fisheries and tourism to a very much greater emphasis on the financial sector and on manufacturing, all of which bring us into the international field and away from the simple domestic considerations of the original basis of our industry here. So we are in a position where we cannot just say 'Stop the world, I want to get off;' we are now committed to being a part of a very much wider activity and a wider circle than we have been, and to this end it has been decided that we should, in Government, change to the ministerial system where we have nine ministers in charge of departments under a Chief Minister. Now only yesterday, appropriately from the hon. Minister for Industry, he referred to the Island as 'The Isle of Man Limited' and it is a very apt description because we are by these standards a sizeable organisation. If this was a public company we would be classed as a medium to large; we would not be as large as I.C.I. or B.A.T. or B.P., but with a Gross National Product of around £250 million, in fact in excess of that figure according to expectations, which can be called the Island's annual profit, that is a sizeable concern and if you even just look at Government we deal with expenditure running to £177 million in gross figures and this year are expecting to spend £37 million on capital items, and so our Isle of Man Limited has its board of directors in the form of Executive Council, and each of those directors has under him some sector of the Island's economy; whether it is tourism or home affairs or the mundane affairs of drainage and roads, they are all under a minister which cover all the aspects of life on the Island, so that everything comes under the supervision of one or more ministries — one or more, and I think that is the first justification for appointing somebody on the lines that I am proposing, because when we have overlapping and duplication there has on occasion been, to my knowledge, a lack of cohesion, a lack of anyone in charge. We had the Public Accounts Committee report on the emergency services, and there it was quite clear that nobody had actually been put in overall command. I have served on another select committee where exactly the same thing was found to be the case, so I believe that one of the functions of an officer of this nature will be to co-ordinate affairs of the different departments and make sure that somebody is in overall charge. Another criticism that is often levelled at this hon. Court, the Government of Executive Council — Appointment of Chief Executive — Motion Approved TYNWALD COURT, WEDNESDAY, 22nd JUNE, 1988 T1589 this Island, is that we react to events rather than anticipating them and trying to deal with the problems before they even arise, so again I believe that we need somebody outside the day-to-day routine of departments and ministerial appointments who can stand back and look at this aspect of things, to anticipate the requirements and the problems that are going to arise, and he has got to look far ahead. It was said by a retired British Prime Minister that a week in politics is a long time, (A Member: It sure is.) that a week in the affairs of a nation are but a blink of an eyelid. Again, as I have said, we are moving to an area or a position where we are aiming to have greater independence and self-reliance, and as a result there are a vast number of affairs and business to be discussed mainly with the U.K. but also with the E.E.C. I will name just a few of them: there is defence, there is the Common Purse and the V.A.T. position, and only yesterday rulings in the European Court went at least partly against Britain and will therefore be binding on us and could have damaging effects on our economy. We need to have somebody to look to that. We have the B.B.C. licence and the whole radio and T.V. operations. We have again — it was raised in this hon. Court yesterday — the 12-mile or median line and our fishing, the Continental Shelf and oil and mineral rights, Sellafield and problems of radiation, problems of pollution, higher education, and probably pre-eminent even, 1992 - the harmonisation of indirect taxation rates and the real single European community. I believe that we need somebody very experienced, a very high level individual who will be able to negotiate; he will need to have considerable business experience, he will need to have worked with the mandarins of Whitehall and preferably know them by their first names and he will have to have a powerful personality. It could be said that we could find somebody ourselves. I do not doubt that in the long run we will, but at the moment I do not believe that that person exists on the Island, partly from the scale of activity that we have been engaged in, partly because, to date, our Civil Service, who are a first-class body, have not had the benefit of staff college training or an outside experience. So, Your Excellency, I believe that what we need at the moment, at this stage in our development, is a top class administrator and negotiator to assist in all of the complex affairs which Executive Council is facing and this Government is facing in order to ensure we take our rightful place, because we are in a very small minority; we are one to a thousand in the U.K., and we are one to five thousand in the European Common Market. Unless we make our voice very clear and loud we will be submerged. Your Excellency, I beg to move. Brig. Butler: Your Excellency I will second the resolution put down by the hon. member for Onchan. I hope I am not in deep water with the Standing Orders again because I do not actually fully agree with the resolution (Laughter), but I think he has put his finger on a deficiency in our Government, something we need to take care of in some way or other and I certainly think it is worth a little time this morning airing the problem.

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