Revolting Spectacle of Manx Government Representatives Fawning Over English Governor

There has been lots of excitement about the newly elected female Members of the House of Keys (MHKs). The House of Keys being the directly elected lower house of Tynwald, the parliament of the Isle of Man. Ten women were sworn-in as MHKs after the recent Manx General Election, which is the highest number ever elected. It clearly is a good thing to get a gender balance. However, time will tell whether they, as well as all the other newly elected representatives, will make a positive contribution to politics on the Isle of Man.

For a start they can prove their worth and stop bowing, or curtseying as the case might be, and fawning over the arrival of the new English Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man. There was a ceremony to 'welcome' him earlier this week where Manx Government representatives crawled and prostrated themselves at the feet of this colonial throwback. The Lieutenant Governor is the representative of the British monarch, who acts as the Manx head of state. The Isle of Man is an internally self-governing Crown Dependency. In reality the Lieutenant Governor represents the interests of a foreign power, the United Kingdom, in its colonial possession the Isle of Man (Mannin).

Now is the time to scrap this ridiculous institution of Lieutenant Governor of the Isle of Man. There may be a few obsequious Manx and homesick English settlers who will miss it. But it has no place on Mannin, which should now move the short step needed to complete national independence as a sovereign state. The Isle of Man is not, and never has been, part of the United Kingdom, or Great Britain and is not represented at Westminster. Tynwald, the Manx parliament, is in fact older than the UK parliament at Westminster. An Island that proudly states its claim to be the: “Oldest Continuous Parliament in the World” does not need the ridiculous feudal rule of a British Lieutenant Governor. We need to gain some self respect and go on to form good and cooperative relationships with our neighbours as an independent sovereign state.