On Monday 17th April, Reayrtys Co-founders, Simon Collister and Nick Hawkes appeared in Tynwald to provide oral evidence to its Constitution, Justice and Legal Affairs (CLAJ) Committee. The evidence session was part of the CLAJ's inquiry into the Isle of Man's current constitutional arrangements.
The discussion was wide-ranging and in-depth, suggesting the Committee had done a really good job of interrogating our whitepaper which we submitted at the end of 2022.
There were several liens of follow-up and we look forward to updating you on those in due course.
In the meantime, the full text of our opening statement to the Committee is shared below:
Fastyr mie and gura mie eu, committee for welcoming us here today.
It is an immense honour to be invited to our country’s parliament to speak with you on our constitutional arrangements.
We welcome this discussion and believe that it is long overdue. It is over 20 years since any serious consideration to our constitutional status as a crown dependency was last raised in this place. And it has been over 30 years since the last raft of substantive reforms to our political system were implemented.
A lot has changed in that time. The Manx political system has matured and been stress tested, we have faced economic, political and social change and challenges, both domestically and as a result of world events, we’ve seen a resurgence of Manx culture and a global push towards greater autonomy outside the traditional nation state context.
We believe that the time is right for us to look at whether our constitutional status and the way in which we do politics is best serving the people of the Isle of Man.
Now we know that talking about the constitution is not everyone’s cup of tea. Some see constitutional reform as an abstract distraction, a theoretical exercise which often gets in the way of actual policy making. We take a different view.
Our constitution informs and provides structure to our legislative process, it shapes how we present and are able to present ourselves internationally and has a whole host of other implications - from elections to immigration, health care to transport.
That is why we believe that far from being a theoretical distraction, ensuring that our constitution is delivering is essential to the proper functioning of our country.
Whilst we are not constitutional reform experts. We created Reayrtys because we noticed that many of the questions which other countries are asking themselves around identity, society, political engagement and the function and the form of the state simply weren’t being asked on the Isle of Man.
We believe that these topics are fundamental to good policy-making and that is why we aspired to create a forum for those discussions. Over the last year we have engaged in open conversations with members of the public and politicians, academics and community groups to start developing ideas about who we are as a country, who we aspire to be and how we can maximise the benefits of our constitutional status to deliver for Manx people.
We do not claim to have any quick fix answers to the issues facing the Isle of Man. And we do not believe that is what is needed - issues of constitutional reform are often highly emotive and interwoven into many policy area and as such must be carefully considered in both the political and public sphere.
However, in order to move the conversation forward, we first looked back to the 2000 ‘Implications of Independence report’ and we have developed a number of suggestions which we feel would benefit further exploration by Tynwald and Government.
Our Whitepaper, ‘Towards Strategic Autonomy or Greater Dependency’, which we submitted originally as written evidence to the committee, makes the following general recommendations:
A full and independent exploration of all available options for constitutional reform should be undertaken. This did not fully happen in the 2000 report.
A new strategy to strengthen the Island’s international position and its international relations should be developed. We argue we are not currently making full use of our autonomy
The tangible benefits of Manx identity as raised in the 2000 report should be quantified. The 2000 report dismissed ‘Manxness’ as intangible but academic research suggests significant economic, social and health benefits of strong civic identity, particularly for small countries
As per Tynwald’s own suggestions at the time, we believe an ongoing evaluation of the opportunities or risks of greater autonomy for the Island should be undertaken, rather than sporadic reviews
Finally we recommend that the Manx public is actively engaged in constitutional reform, to ensure that the Government does not need to initiate a reform agenda from a standing start. Having an understanding and buy in from the Manx public is essential for achieving successful outcomes.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss some of these areas and findings today.
We would also like to take this opportunity to respond to some of the evidence previously made to this committee.
An assertion was made previously that there is no real desire among the Manx public for further autonomy or independence. This was based on the issue not appearing in candidate manifestos during the last general election.
Research from the International University of Applied Sciences in Berlin, Germany which has been tracking the issue of independence and autonomy in multiple European small states since 2019 shows that in 2021 just over 70% of the Manx public were in favour of more autonomy or independence.
While this is one peer-reviewed study, in the absence of other empirical data, it certainly suggests the topic is one in which the Manx public is interested.
Finally, given the changes in the international context over the past 20 years and recent political and economic evolution of our neighbours around the Irish Sea Space, we were concerned to learn that there appears to be very little engagement with Ireland and the devolved nations beyond the British Irish Council.
All these countries have very well developed international relations strategies designed to grow their economies, boost educational and cultural opportunities for citizens and drive inward investment - especially in a post-Brexit environment in the case of Wales and Scotland.
We believe this is a huge opportunity for the Isle of Man and something we would like to explore with the committee today.
A full audio recording of the session will be available shortly on the Tynwald website.
Comments