Delaney in top form at Municipal Association AGM

Former Tynwald Member and DLGE Minister, Dominic Delaney was guest speaker at last Thursday’s (26^th June) Municipal Association AGM.

Held at the Glen Mona Hotel in Maughold, the well attended event, of a large number of local authority members, elected Marinda Fargher as President and Robert Moughton as Chairman. Both are members of Maughold Commissioners.

Outgoing President, Brenda Crellin of Malew Commissioners and Chair Wendy Megson, who lost her seat in the recent local authority elections, were thanked for their hard work during the last year. Special thanks were offered to Ms Megson for her enthusiasm and for breathing new life into the Association; and Mr Moughton said he fully intended to build on her successful efforts.

Once the formalities were concluded, and members had consumed a fine buffet, Mr Delaney was then invited to speak.

In an often amusing presentation, full of anecdotes of his thirty odd years in Manx politics, Mr Delaney kept reiterating the point that local authorities have an important role to play in the Island.

He pointed out that local authority members help keep Tynwald members on their toes. He assured the audience they are always fearful that there are plenty of other people prepared to step into their shoes, at election time, if they fail to do their job.

He also constantly reminded members that they are representatives of the people, and that a good representative will always see how they can help a member of the community rather than how they can be of help to them.

He gave colour to this advice by describing how a representative of the people will go to the aid of an injured person in the street whilst a politician will think – how can I use this situation to my advantage.

He said that he was impressed by the aims and objectives of the Association, but as a marketing man, he felt that the Association doesn’t promote itself enough. The public need to be informed of the good work it does, he advised.

It came over clearly that there are two issues that continue to grieve, and concern, Mr Delaney; who, in his time, was known for some pretty blunt views on a number of issues.

He expressed dismay that the Mount Murray Report, which he said had found there had been a ‘corruption of the systems of government’, had effectively been ignored; and that this had allowed the ‘corruption’ to continue.

He described the MEA ‘affair’ as unfinished business and said he was staying in the Island, whilst his wife went on holiday, in order to attend the next sitting of the Select Committee.

Choosing his words carefully, as he said he didn’t wish to be sued, the ‘overspending’ of £120m of the publics’ money, and the use of the £10m ‘budgeted’ for wind farms for other uses, he finds totally unacceptable; and he wants to know who is politically responsible for the situation.

He pointed out that the Island’s most senior civil servant had been writing to the MEA for over three years and getting nowhere. He added that the next time Tynwald politicians try to deflect attention away from problems of their making on to the local authorities, or to criticize them over small issues, local authority members should remind them of the MEA.

During a question and answer session at the end of his presentation, he recounted how he had attended the very first Council of Ministers meeting in 1986. He said they spent the first 20 minutes arguing about who would pay for the coffee! In the end they decided that as the Chief Minister had effectively invited them - it was his responsibility.

He also told members that in those days Tynwald managed with only the Clerk and a secretary but the administration had now grown beyond all recognition.

He went on to say the growth of the bureaucracy was a result of too much power in the wrong hands, and that the bureaucrats had a vested interest in growing it because it led to more important titles and bigger salaries.

He suggested that everybody should read his too favourite books ‘Yes Minister’ and ‘The House of Cards’; because it isn’t just like that in the UK but here in the IOM as well.

Staying on a similar theme, he claimed that the government was wrong to identify US Presidential candidate, Barack Obama as the biggest threat to the Island, as in his opinion the biggest threat, by far, is from the EU.

“They hate us” and want to close down all the off-shore Islands, he stated. He added he had listened to the ex-Governor, Lawrence New on Manx Radio, talking about the EU, and said it was one of the few times he agreed with what he had to say.

Link: www.iom-ma.org