Candidate Views - Malew & Santon

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I feel the Island provides an excellent Health Service.

With what I have experienced myself of the health care, I think it is good, but only once you get to see the doctors. The waiting lists are far too long and this needs to be addressed, along with the availability of NHS dentists.

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Does the Island provide a good education?

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The Island's schools provide the means for any student to obtain a first class education if they are willing to take advantage of the provision.

We have a good education system, from primary up to A-levels.

There is then the IOM College and also fees that are paid for some individuals to attend university in the UK after finishing school to carry on their education, so there is good further education provision as well.

But we must not get complacent and must aim to keep class sizes down so our children get the full benefit of the system.

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Should the Island be independent?

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This is not a decision that should be made without a suitable stratagy to allow such a transition although I do feel that in time this will be the way forward for our Island.

Until a feasibility study is done to see where the Island would stand financially, I don’t think I could make a fair comment.

However I do think we should be looking at trying to stand on our own two feet apart from the UK, instead of running to them for help every time there is a problem.

The VAT reduction has given us the perfect reason to look into what we could expect if we claimed our own VAT back, and would be the first step to determining whether independence is a possibility.

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What are your views on the islands taxation regime and VAT?

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At present the current taxation regime operates as a fair system to individuals and businesses.

As to VAT - this would be up for discussion as part of the drive to independence.

We have enjoyed a low tax regime that has benefitted the people and companies of the Island greatly. And we should do all we can to try and keep the income tax at a low level to help the people and businesses, though, in these uncertain times, we may be forced to raise this level to overcome the problems we face for the time being. But hopefully an in-depth look at government spending and ways to reduce the outgoings will cover the loss of the VAT, and keep taxes low.

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Is inflation hurting the Isle of Man?

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Isle of Man inflation rates must not be allowed to go any higher as rampant inflation obviously would be catastrophic to any economy .

Yes without a doubt.

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Should there be state owned monopolies or free market competition?

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I am opposed to any State intervention in any business and will always favour a free market for private companies to flourish.

I believe there should be free market competition, because if we stop free markets and the government controls everything, then we turn into a communist state, and without free markets the innovation of ideas is lost. But there are times when we cannot have this luxury where we can always have a free market, as explained below.

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Should we have an open seas policy like the open sky�s policy?

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A most definate YES.

I don't think the Isle of Man could have an open seas policy. And here I am contradicting myself in the answer above.

Economies of scale do play a huge part in the Island, and that has been shown with an added freight service that was put on by a local company that did not last because it was not viable for them.

But we need to make sure that the people are getting value for money form any private company that has a free run in one type of market on the island; we have to make sure those companies are not profiting at the expense of the island people, and need to be kept in check by the government.

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Does the Island do enough to protect its environment?

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This is a much bigger question than it first appears to be..I feel there are times when the Government tries a little too hard to please Brussels.

I think we do protect the environment well in the Island; however one concern is the state of the tracks which are in disrepair.

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Where do you see the future of the Islands economy?

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As long as all Companies, whatever their field of expertise, are allowed to trade freely and without Government intervention there should always be a rosy future for the Island as a whole.

We have to look at the future in every sector on the Island. Concentrating on just one sector is putting all your eggs in one basket; we need to improve all sectors so we have a wide spread of jobs, so when one sector declines as these things do in the world economy we do not feel the full brunt of that.

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Where do you think new jobs can be generated?

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Within a free market system jobs will be created. This also represents 'true' employment as opposed to 'created' jobs which means those thus employed make a worthwhile contribution to our economy.

People investing in their own ideas, starting new companies from their ideas and establishing themselves in the market place - we need people with creative ideas.

I believe we should also look at attracting high tech companies, bio industries and the like.

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Should the Chief Minister and MLC�s be publicly elected?

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YES -PLEASE !!