150 YEARS OF ELECTORAL REFORM
150 YEARS OF ELECTORAL REFORM The Isle of Man: the world’s oldest parliament and the world’s youngest voters
The Speaker of the House of Keys explains the significance of the year 1866 in the constitutional history of the Isle of Man, and outlines developments since that date in the Island’s electoral system.
Hon. Steve Rodan SHK is the Speaker of
the House of Keys in the Tynwald, the parliament of the Isle of Man and the Joint President of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Isle of Man Branch. He is Member for the constituency of Garff, to which he was elected in 1995. In his parliamentary career, he has served on many Committees and has served as a Minister of the Isle of Man Government. His political interests include constitutional matters, external relations and economic, social and environmental policy.
Readers of The Parliamentarian will be well aware that Tynwald, the legislature of the Isle of Man, is the world’s oldest parliament in continuous operation, having celebrated its millennium in 1979. The ceremonial sitting of the Manx parliament which is still held annually at Tynwald Hill in the centre of the Island follows a pattern which was first documented in detail in 1417 but which has its roots in Viking days. What is perhaps less well known is the more recent history of Tynwald. Although the annual Tynwald Day ceremony remains the centre point of the parliamentary year, the composition of the legislature and its nonceremonial procedures have gone through many changes. In 2015 and 2016, the Isle of Man commemorates the anniversaries of two significant milestones on Tynwald’s journey from its Norse origins to the modern parliament we know today.
156 | The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue Three
First, in 2015 we mark the 250th anniversary of the Revestment Act of 1765, the moment in Manx history where the Island became a Crown Dependency. Second, in 2016 we mark the 150th anniversary of the House of Keys Election Act 1866, the moment where the Island took its first steps towards being a truly representative parliamentary democracy. Located as it is at the geographical centre of the British Isles roughly equidistant from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the Isle of Man has always sought to take advantage of its location together with its constitutional right to make its own laws. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Island did this through the ‘running trade’, sometimes referred to in the Island simply as ‘the trade’, but in the United Kingdom as smuggling. In 1405 the ancient Kingship of Man had been given by Henry IV to Sir John Stanley. His heirs and successors continued to rule the Island for 360 years, first as ‘Kings of Man’ and from the early sixteenth century as ‘Lords of Man’. By the 1760s the British government had decided that the only way to bring ‘the trade’ under control was for the British Crown to buy back the
sovereign rights of the Isle of Man from the descendants of Sir John Stanley.1 The Revestment Act enacted at Westminster in 1765 therefore returned the principal rights of the Island to the Crown (for which reason, to this day, the loyal toast in the Island is to ‘Her Majesty the Queen, Lord of Man’). At the same time, the so-called ‘Mischief Act’ of 1765 gave the English customs authorities powers to search all ships in Manx harbours and waters.2 The direct importation of all foreign goods was prohibited as was the export of goods likely to compete with British produce.3 From the point of view of the Island’s autonomy the Revestment Act of 1765 was a low point. The Island’s customs establishment was brought under the control of the UK parliament and its expenses were met by taxes paid by the Manx people at rates
“To this day, the loyal toast in the Island is to ‘Her Majesty the Queen, Lord of Man.’ ”