Interviews with existing MHKs seem to be slower coming through for some reason but straight off the back of the House of Keys being dissolved we now get Paul Moulton and Isle of Man TV broadcasting a reasonably lengthy interview with Ramsey's Ginga Ninja himself Dr Alex Allinson.
Isle of Man TV's video in full can be found here:
As expected its a relatively slick and engaging performance which covers the main points that are presumably relevant to the voters of Ramsey. But its clear who has the upper hand at all times - and it certainly isn't Paul Moulton! On watching the clip our main issue with Dr Allinson is that he's a man who doesn't sound like he's giving politicians answers while at the same time very craftily and frequently giving politicians answers. No doubt what we're seeing is the inevitable end result of years of well practised bedside manner as a GP - but he really does appear to possess an ability to authoritatively and confidently bat away most inconvenient or uncomfortable questions without actually making it that obvious that he is batting away inconvenient or uncomfortable questions. For that reason Moulton struggles a bit to keep up in favour of simply dropping some helpful subject headings in for the good Doctor to comment upon and nodding his head quite a bit.
To summarise Dr Allinsons main points:
He still feels that there is unfinished business to deal with next time round
He's done some of the things that he set out to do this term but not all
The big debate he says is on the future direction of government
Do they invest for the future or reign in expenditure in favour of austerity
He favours the approach of investing into the future
Environmentally they have local issues to deal with in Ramsey like flooding
The marina is also a big issue - which he is a supporter of
They could solve some environmental issues with careful changes to the marina plans
He likes to balance time spent on local and national issues
He likes to spend as much time as he can in Ramsey
And he enjoys getting accosted in the Co-op on local issues
He also hopes to be out knocking on doors very soon
He admits government comms could be better despite the number of comms staff
He believes they should move away from the tired 4pm meeting format
He clearly is up for the challenge of being Chief Minister!
Although he says he'd equally be fine with Education, Health or anything else
Then he makes a good point on his PM Bill being easier to push as a back-bencher
But he won't specifically comment on any of the above options at the moment
He certainly didn't commit on his actual views regarding collective responsibility either
And he still has time to fit in a bit of Doctoring [but not of documents like Ashford!]
Aside from the government communications comments the interview is relatively covid-free and carefully side-swipes any mention of the unmitigated disaster that was home schooling during the lockdown periods. That said we have little doubt that Dr Allinson will get re-elected in September - in fact if nobody else comes forward in Ramsey its pretty much guaranteed that he and Lawrie Hooper will get back in as the only two candidates currently standing.
Pictured: The Ginga Ninja Dr Alex Allinson MHK for Ramsey
