An enquiry into registration problems which bedevilled the last Isle of Man General Election has been labelled 'bizarre' by the Islands main newspaper within hours of being published.

The issue which seems to have 'excited' the newspaper most is that the person conducting the probe chose to include anonymous contributions from internet forum posters and hence the contributions appendices of the report lists inputs from 33 'posters' examples of whose pseudonyms the paper has delighted in listing. The paper seems to pose a question as to the value and weight that can be given to such submissions.

What the paper however seems to have overlooked in its haste to focus on the 'bizarre' is the general paucity of contributions to the enquiry.

Leaving aside the forum posters contributions only eight members of the public and only nine members of the legislature submitted views.

Given the level of contribution it is unlikely that Tynwald and the Government can justify any radical changes to the current system.

However, perhaps most 'bizarrely' Tynwald and Government will now face a dilemma as the distaste for some amongst their number towards anonymous forums or news sites on the Internet is well known. Indeed in the past it has been asserted that behind the scenes pressure from government has resulted in some Internet sites either closing or being 'watered down'.

What is not in dispute is that even in pre-internet days government irritation with free (and often anonymous speech) via the weekday Mannin Line phone-in station on Manx Radio was palpable. Whether this lead to the ultimate truncating of the radio phone-in to one weekend day is still unclear.

What then will the Manx government now do in the face of this latest report defined in part from anonymous voices from cyberspace? Will the 'oldest parliament in the world' bow to the inevitability of new technology or follow its usual dusty course!

J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

17/11/07

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