:00:10. > :00:14.Welcome to the Isle of Man. This is one of the best but turfed medieval
:00:14. > :00:22.castles in each Europe. For hundreds of years it was the seat
:00:22. > :00:30.of power here on the islands. This was the old capital. Now it has
:00:30. > :00:35.moved to the Tynwald building in Douglas. It contains the upper and
:00:35. > :00:45.lower houses of parliament. On 29th September, the Ireland goes to the
:00:45. > :00:49.polls to elect the eight members of that house. Election comes at a
:00:49. > :00:53.crucial time for the Isle of Man. We will be looking at the major
:00:53. > :01:03.issues and asking some of the candidates how they would tackle
:01:03. > :01:11.
:01:11. > :01:16.. When this castle was built and the Middle Ages, the Isle of Man
:01:16. > :01:21.was rolled over by the Norse King's. It has been fought over by the
:01:21. > :01:26.Scottish and the English and eventually became a British
:01:26. > :01:36.dependency in 1765. How has it done since then and how does it compare
:01:36. > :01:40.
:01:40. > :01:49.to the North West of England? His our look at the vital statistics.
:01:49. > :01:58.1.9% of the population is unemployed. North West unemployment
:01:59. > :02:08.is a 0.1%. The average house price here is nearly �289,000. The North
:02:09. > :02:15.
:02:15. > :02:24.This here her national income is expected to be �535 million. We are
:02:24. > :02:31.expected to spend 533 million. is spent on benefits and nearly 31
:02:31. > :02:39.% is spent on health. Nearly 22% of the population are employed by the
:02:39. > :02:48.Government. 23 % and employed by insurance, banking and the finance
:02:48. > :02:54.business. Those are some of the statistics, but what are the big
:02:54. > :03:01.issues? Possibly one of the biggest issues at the moment is VAT. I am
:03:01. > :03:06.in the north of the island. Back when the Isle of Man was a major
:03:06. > :03:14.smuggling centre boats from here supplied Scotland and Cumbria with
:03:14. > :03:24.contraband. In the last two years the UK has changed an agreement
:03:24. > :03:25.
:03:25. > :03:30.costing islanders around one-third of their income. Since the 13th
:03:30. > :03:40.century the Isle of Man has enjoyed a variable relationship with its
:03:40. > :03:41.
:03:41. > :03:45.neighbour across the Irish Sea. For the past 250 years the Isle of Man
:03:45. > :03:52.and the UK has had an agreement which means neither pays import
:03:52. > :03:59.duty. The VAT is divided out between both jurisdictions. That is
:03:59. > :04:04.all well and good until 2009 when the UK Government decided the
:04:04. > :04:13.calculation needed looking at. That resulted in the island having its
:04:13. > :04:23.share reduced, this year it again took another 75 million, altogether
:04:23. > :04:24.
:04:24. > :04:31.around one-third of the annual budget. It is a lot of money.
:04:31. > :04:35.think it is unfair and the UK seems to regard the Isle of Man as fair
:04:35. > :04:40.game for raiding their reserves. have to challenge the British
:04:40. > :04:46.Government and come to a proper agreement on VAT. It is like when
:04:46. > :04:52.we had reads from the Vikings. At least the Vikings settled here and
:04:52. > :04:57.into married. A survey was commissioned on key election issues,
:04:57. > :05:02.one of them is the relationship with the UK. Half of the people
:05:02. > :05:07.felt we had the right amount of independence, the other half felt
:05:07. > :05:12.we should have more independence. We asked about the quality of the
:05:12. > :05:17.relationship with the UK and overall it was slightly better than
:05:17. > :05:24.before. We asked if it had got better, worse or stayed the same,
:05:24. > :05:30.it was said to have Beattie related. The Channel Islands have their own
:05:30. > :05:40.sales tax. The business community here says that would not work.
:05:40. > :05:40.
:05:40. > :05:46.of the things that makes the Isle of Man a good place to do business
:05:46. > :05:55.is our VAT arrangement. If it was discarded we would have to look at
:05:55. > :06:04.what was in its place. Here in the Manx Museum the island's history is
:06:04. > :06:10.laid out. It is largely independent but still with important links. In
:06:10. > :06:15.recent years the UK has faced calls from Scotland and Wales for more
:06:15. > :06:23.independence. Is it time for de Isle of Man, too, to loosen those
:06:23. > :06:30.ties. People are British and happy to be part of the British Isles.
:06:30. > :06:40.They want to remain so. With me is the man who presided over at those
:06:40. > :06:43.
:06:43. > :06:53.two Cannes adjustments. When you got back where you two week? -- two
:06:53. > :06:58.
:06:58. > :07:04.VAT adjustments. I do not think so. The basis of the agreement goes
:07:04. > :07:10.back some time. The UK was keen to readjust the aid payment due to
:07:10. > :07:16.changes in the economy of the Isle of Man. The Isle of Man fought its
:07:16. > :07:20.case and we argued our. Very firmly, we have been able to get to a State
:07:20. > :07:25.of agreement. It is difficult but we will deal with that and our
:07:25. > :07:35.economy continues to develop. It could have been worse if the UK had
:07:35. > :07:39.
:07:39. > :07:44.made a decision to end the customs agreement. Some people clearly feel
:07:45. > :07:52.there should be a referendum on the Isle of Man before that deal is
:07:52. > :07:56.formally expected, do you think that is at goal were? No. I think
:07:56. > :08:06.they would have to explain to the people the complexity of the
:08:06. > :08:12.
:08:12. > :08:16.agreement. -- goer. We hear that we are lacking commercial ability and
:08:16. > :08:22.strong leadership, what has gone wrong? I do not think anything has
:08:22. > :08:29.gone wrong, those are the views of a few individuals. The Isle of Man
:08:29. > :08:38.economy has continued to grow year on year. I think we have been very
:08:38. > :08:43.effective especially in the current global economic situation. What
:08:43. > :08:48.will you be doing in your retirement? Hopefully not too much
:08:48. > :08:56.but I will have interests in my local community and continue to be
:08:56. > :09:01.involved fear. The biggest employer on the island is the Government.
:09:01. > :09:05.Because of the VAT deal, tens of millions of pounds have to be saved
:09:05. > :09:11.and a debate has begun on whether the Government should be scaling
:09:11. > :09:19.back. It has become a difficult journey for Protours, a travel
:09:19. > :09:24.company that can trace its ancestry to the 1920s. We go back to what
:09:25. > :09:34.was tour's Isle of Man. Now its future is in doubt after losing a
:09:34. > :09:40.valuable Government contract. is a slogan, Freedom to Flourish.
:09:40. > :09:43.It is not helping us to flourish. Some of the dead wood should be cut
:09:43. > :09:49.out and we should get a new Government with commercial ability
:09:49. > :09:55.which I think has been lacking in this last one. It is not just
:09:55. > :10:01.private sector worries but unions to. As ministers retune the
:10:01. > :10:08.economic engine 400 posts have so far been closed. Unions question
:10:08. > :10:13.the plan. What we need to see from the Isle of Man Government is some
:10:13. > :10:21.strong leadership. We need a strategy to deal with common
:10:21. > :10:25.problems. Those things have been absent. Both unions and business
:10:25. > :10:31.will be expecting a lot from whoever takes over here at
:10:31. > :10:37.Government House. The Treasury is going to be driving through a one-
:10:37. > :10:42.third cut in public spending. Things will have to come into
:10:42. > :10:48.consideration, for example, whether we should carry on running our
:10:48. > :10:54.local bus service, should we done our airport, should we be running
:10:54. > :11:00.leisure centres? It may not be a case of cutting those services but
:11:00. > :11:05.finding a commercial way of being able to deliver them. Those
:11:05. > :11:09.decisions will change the way the next generation of islanders live
:11:09. > :11:17.their lives. Charities and voluntary groups are likely to
:11:17. > :11:22.become more important. Small island, Big Society. In the last few years
:11:22. > :11:28.we have worked very closely with the Isle of Man Government. They
:11:28. > :11:33.are much more savvy about what the third sector does and how much we
:11:33. > :11:41.are putting into the economy. Together we are working side by
:11:41. > :11:51.side which is actually a real first for the Isle of Man. There are a
:11:51. > :11:52.
:11:52. > :11:57.lot of churches on the island? churches. I hope very much that the
:11:57. > :12:01.people who are elected will not only be those who are worried about
:12:01. > :12:06.the prosperity of the island but are actually bothered about
:12:06. > :12:14.individuals. For this bishop that means cuts would be balanced with
:12:14. > :12:22.tax increases. Isn't it almost morally obligatory that richer
:12:22. > :12:29.people pay more tax? Simply for me to say that without knowing how far
:12:29. > :12:36.you could call with increasing the taxes without effectively telling
:12:36. > :12:44.the goose that lays the golden egg, I don't know. The island has a
:12:44. > :12:49.major advantage, reserves of about �1 billion. Unlike the UK, they
:12:49. > :12:59.really did save up for an rainy day. The trouble is, nobody knows how
:12:59. > :13:09.
:13:09. > :13:12.This is Cregneash Folk Village. The place to come to come to get a
:13:13. > :13:16.taste of what rural life was like here in the 19th century. Back then
:13:16. > :13:20.if you wanted a house you built your own. These days, it's a bit
:13:20. > :13:29.more expensive. House prices here are around 75% higher than the UK
:13:29. > :13:32.average. This is undoubtedly a beautiful place to live. Norman
:13:32. > :13:36.Wisdom, Jeremy Clarkson and Nigel Mansell just a few who have made
:13:36. > :13:41.the island their home. But these days, many born and bred Manx are
:13:41. > :13:44.having trouble doing the same. The Isle of Man has some of the highest
:13:44. > :13:54.house prices in the region - the average �288,000 - and politians
:13:54. > :13:55.
:13:55. > :13:58.realise this is an issue that can't be ignored. Paul and Jessica Norman
:13:58. > :14:01.moved into their house in Douglas with their 18-month-old daughter
:14:01. > :14:10.Rebecca a year ago. It's brand new and spacious, but most importantly
:14:10. > :14:15.it's theirs. There is a primary school and park and it is all
:14:15. > :14:21.within 10 minutes' walk. We can be happier, very lucky. When I left
:14:21. > :14:26.school and started work and time was burning, I was looking into
:14:26. > :14:34.properties and I thought that is not even in reach, the price. It
:14:34. > :14:38.was very intimidating, so to speak, the housing market. They were held
:14:38. > :14:43.by something called the first time by a scheme, and grants and loans
:14:43. > :14:50.scheme to help them get on the property ladder. Over the last 10
:14:50. > :14:55.years the island government has also funded and invested in housing.
:14:55. > :14:59.To have waiting list has risen and there are more than 900 people on
:14:59. > :15:09.the first time buyers register. Then there are those who are not
:15:09. > :15:11.
:15:11. > :15:13.even on a list. Shaun and Hannah are just two of the many who've
:15:13. > :15:17.sought help from the island's homeless charity. Different stories
:15:17. > :15:21.that brought them to the same place. Shaun had his own business, a home.
:15:21. > :15:25.But circumstances meant he ended up in a guest house. Hannah and her
:15:25. > :15:34.family were evicted when she was 15, they ended up on the streets, then
:15:34. > :15:39.she was taken into care. We ended up one day at the autumn of
:15:39. > :15:43.Broadway with the back, in the rain with my mum and step dad who are
:15:43. > :15:45.both registered blind. And nowhere to go. Both have now got
:15:45. > :15:53.accommodation, but the charity believes the island's homeless
:15:53. > :15:57.population is bigger than people like to think. It needs to be
:15:57. > :16:01.excepted as a social issue and with a new administration coming in
:16:01. > :16:06.September it needs to be on the agenda and we need to discuss the
:16:06. > :16:11.causes of homelessness and what we can do to reduce to Lovells. Much
:16:11. > :16:15.of the homelessness that people refer to would be called so for
:16:15. > :16:18.certain. It is people that have a room over their head due to the
:16:18. > :16:24.generosity of friends and family but don't have a permanent place of
:16:24. > :16:27.residence. We have to prioritise resources to where everything we
:16:27. > :16:30.can make most benefit. But even with budgets squeezed, the Manx
:16:30. > :16:37.Labour party believes a large scale building programme is the answer to
:16:37. > :16:42.the island's housing problems It's called the Jewel of the Irish Sea.
:16:42. > :16:45.We cannot budget for a deficit. There are sectors of the economy
:16:45. > :16:49.which are presently having a difficult time, such as
:16:49. > :16:55.construction, and they could not be a better time to continue a
:16:55. > :17:00.programme of housebuilding and improving the infrastructure.
:17:00. > :17:09.called the jewel of the Irish Sea. But for many, owning a bit of this
:17:09. > :17:14.precious island is still just a little out of their reach. This is
:17:14. > :17:18.the old House of Keys whether politicians sat until 1874 when
:17:18. > :17:24.they moved to their current premises in Douglas. I am joined by
:17:24. > :17:29.six of the candidates contesting the seat in the constituency. They
:17:29. > :17:38.are Treasury minister Anne Craine, economic to the German minister
:17:38. > :17:42.Alan Bell, former MHK and pharmacist, Leonard Singer, John
:17:42. > :17:48.McDonough, Business woman Linda Bowers-Kasch, and accountant Lawrie
:17:48. > :17:54.Cooper. The island faces difficult times, I think he would all agree.
:17:54. > :17:58.The cut in budget of around a third. The big question is how we is to
:17:58. > :18:03.Ireland go to deal with that? Anne Craine, as Treasury Minister, the
:18:03. > :18:10.burden falls upon you. Is it time that taxes need to be raised on the
:18:10. > :18:18.island? We did raise taxes 18 months ago and I think that we need
:18:18. > :18:21.to bear in mind very clearly that the Isle of Man knees to retain a
:18:21. > :18:28.competitive tax rate so I do not personally think it is time to
:18:28. > :18:34.raise taxes again. Readjusting our budget will be addressed by many
:18:34. > :18:37.strategies, raising taxes is one of them, contracting power capital
:18:37. > :18:46.programme is another, reducing government expenditure is yet
:18:46. > :18:52.another. Alan Bell you are also a former Treasury minister. If you're
:18:52. > :18:57.not going to raise taxes, it looks tours job losses, doesn't it?
:18:57. > :19:01.worth reflecting that we have already embarked on replanting
:19:02. > :19:07.programme. I started it when I was Treasury minister some 18 months
:19:07. > :19:13.ago. We have a five-year recovery plan which has included tax rises.
:19:13. > :19:17.We have already bought that in. We are already substantially reducing
:19:17. > :19:22.public expenditure. We are looking at all ways of raising funds and we
:19:22. > :19:28.must not lose sight on the fact that we have strong reserves and no
:19:28. > :19:31.external debt. Linda Bowers-Kasch, you have worked in the banking
:19:31. > :19:37.industry, do you think the government is going down the right
:19:37. > :19:43.route? I think we do need to stay competitive. What I would like to
:19:43. > :19:49.see more of his driving value-for- money. What do you think they
:19:49. > :19:57.should be doing? A think it is well known to people in business that
:19:57. > :20:03.there are ways to work more efficiently. Looking at the way
:20:03. > :20:07.services are provided. If you can drive economies and deficiencies in
:20:07. > :20:17.that way that will help us to protect impact on frontline
:20:17. > :20:18.
:20:18. > :20:22.services. The difficulty here it is that this Government, or to last
:20:22. > :20:26.government, did not prepare properly. They knew that they were
:20:27. > :20:31.getting far too much in the VAT agreement and yet instead of
:20:31. > :20:37.putting money aside trying to us news that the economy, it did not
:20:37. > :20:44.happen and money was allocated. We're dipping into the researchers
:20:44. > :20:48.now. No, we are not. You have said you're going to. That was an option
:20:48. > :20:55.and we have not dipped into any reserves and we are ahead of
:20:55. > :21:04.programme. Are you going to have to? The that may well be the
:21:04. > :21:09.situation. We had 140 million taken from us and before the Budget
:21:09. > :21:15.everyone had to pull in their belts. We then had a budget which was all
:21:15. > :21:19.smoke and mirrors are. And then the UK took another 75 million from us.
:21:19. > :21:25.In two years' time we'll be 200 million shorten this island and we
:21:26. > :21:30.have to try to replace that. you get the figures right in the
:21:30. > :21:38.first place because we were not talking about 140 million, we were
:21:38. > :21:44.talking about 100. It is to just put in the VAT level. Lawrie Cooper,
:21:44. > :21:49.you're an accountant. How would you deal with this? We have to be ready
:21:49. > :21:59.to consider everything. The right approach is to look at the current
:21:59. > :22:22.
:22:22. > :22:24.taxation system and say is this right for the Isle of Man? This is
:22:24. > :22:28.the proper on the previous administration has that they have
:22:28. > :22:33.things that they want to investigate. They like things the
:22:33. > :22:40.way you it is you have to look at everything government is doing.
:22:40. > :22:45.would companies queue this if they change the way there tax was done.
:22:45. > :22:49.It is such a large part of the island's business, with companies
:22:49. > :22:55.setting up on the island. We cannot afford to scare them off so we need
:22:55. > :23:00.be very careful what we do. We are seen as a low-tax jurisdiction and
:23:00. > :23:10.we don't want to upset that. this economic climate can you
:23:10. > :23:14.afford still live like that. Let us face it, we should build on the
:23:14. > :23:19.things that work for us as well. should look to how we improved in
:23:19. > :23:25.other areas, such as smarter working practices, but also, when
:23:25. > :23:30.we look at the groom is that we have in place, how robust is a
:23:30. > :23:35.review process of those agreements internally? Is there room to
:23:35. > :23:42.improve upon that? Learning lessons from the passer that in the future
:23:43. > :23:47.we are better prepared and we have better contingency for that.
:23:47. > :23:50.need more government scrutiny. There has been very little if any
:23:50. > :23:54.Cubbon scrutiny. We are not going to have that money in the future
:23:55. > :24:02.and I really believe that we have to look at economies, we have to
:24:02. > :24:06.look at savings. Should any of these responsibilities be put out
:24:06. > :24:12.to the private sector? government here on the island to
:24:12. > :24:17.be? Does it need to be scaled down? Do you need to be contracting out
:24:17. > :24:23.services? I have warned on the number of occasions that government
:24:24. > :24:30.was getting to pick. We employ something like 20% of the Ireland's
:24:31. > :24:35.workforce. That is unsustainable in the long term. The government is
:24:35. > :24:38.not like a private company. It to shed staff in one sector of
:24:38. > :24:48.government than the bill is passed on to social security or other
:24:48. > :24:53.
:24:53. > :24:58.areas. I should just picking up about zero rate of corporation tax.
:24:58. > :25:06.We would lose a substantial part of economy and it would derail any
:25:06. > :25:11.balancing that we were doing. This is why people are asking the
:25:11. > :25:21.question, people on the street asking are we doing what is right.
:25:21. > :25:22.
:25:22. > :25:25.Government continued tells us to trust us in what we're doing.
:25:25. > :25:30.very clear and when we refer back to the comments about greater
:25:30. > :25:34.scrutiny, let us look at the record that the Isle of Man has had over
:25:34. > :25:42.the last 25 years of economic growth. The spending that we have
:25:42. > :25:47.made into the infrastructure, new hospitals, a new sewerage system.
:25:47. > :25:53.John, how do you think all of this with the VAT agreement has
:25:53. > :25:59.effective relationships with UK and how can the island go for it?
:25:59. > :26:03.danger it is, I feel, that the case is a Sussex certain to them. Do you
:26:03. > :26:10.think the Isle of Man has been hit unfairly? Yes, I think we should
:26:10. > :26:14.stand by our ground. We'll have to stop it there - thank you very much.
:26:14. > :26:16.And you can get a full list of all the candidates by going to our
:26:16. > :26:20.website - that's bbc.co.uk/isleofman - and clicking
:26:20. > :26:23.through the links. Now let's go to Arif - who's at Tynwald Hill in St
:26:23. > :26:27.John's. This, of course, is the site of the
:26:27. > :26:32.old Norse Parliament and on July 5th, the site of Tynwald Day, the
:26:32. > :26:37.big national day for the Isle of Man. One of the annual rituals is
:26:37. > :26:40.the laying down of the petitions of redress. Members of the general
:26:40. > :26:44.public can walk up this path and lay down a petition asking their
:26:44. > :26:49.Government to right a wrong. Gill Dummigan has been to meet some of
:26:49. > :26:53.those who've done it - with varying degrees of success. If you've got
:26:53. > :26:56.something to say, Tynwald Day's is your big chance to have it heard by
:26:57. > :27:00.the law-makers. Marjorie McMullen and her neighbours put their
:27:00. > :27:07.petition in in 2009, asking for more rights for freehold home
:27:07. > :27:14.owners. We had explored every other avenue to sort out the dispute that
:27:14. > :27:19.we had. This was a last resort. year before, Rob Farrer's petition
:27:19. > :27:25.was accompanied by demonstrators. Rob was forced to retire from his
:27:25. > :27:32.job as a painter and decorator because of Parkinson's Disease. He
:27:32. > :27:36.wants the benefits system improving for the long term sick. People who
:27:36. > :27:42.were chronically ill with no chance of working should be on a higher
:27:42. > :27:47.benefit. The process is that they march up ceremonially and hand it
:27:47. > :27:52.to me and I handed to the Governor he formally handed over to the
:27:52. > :27:57.standing orders committee and they formally refer it. To be successful
:27:57. > :28:00.your petition has to be taken up by a Member of the House of Keys, and
:28:00. > :28:06.discussed in committee. And then it might pass. But the odds are not
:28:06. > :28:09.great. This is the list of petitions submitted since 2006. The
:28:09. > :28:19.vast majority of them got absolutely nowhere - including
:28:19. > :28:20.
:28:20. > :28:26.Rob's. However, he's still a fan of the system. I think it is such a
:28:26. > :28:30.unique and wonderful opportunities to present a problem in society,
:28:30. > :28:35.which you cannot do any other way. Marjorie and her friends were more
:28:35. > :28:42.successful. Theirs might even lead to a change in the law Direct
:28:42. > :28:49.democracy in action there. We are quite proud of the fact we have