SPECULATION abounds today in the corridors of political power as the new Members of the House of Keys met together for the first time since last week’s General Election to be officially sworn into office.
Members old and new were all offering their opinions on who should take the role of Chief Minister, with Allan Bell the clear favourite to win the vote over Peter Karran - the only other member whose name has so far been put forward.
But the real speculation amongst the MHKs and their supporters outside the House of Keys this morning was over who would be given the nine Ministerial positions by the new Chief Minister.
Members with previous Ministerial experience are high on the list of those most likely to be given department Minister positions, such as John Shimmin, David Cretney, David Anderson, Eddie Teare and Phil Gawne.
But with another four positions to be filled, there is lots of debate over who will be the others to join the Council of Ministers, although it’s virtually certain that the seven new MHKs will not be given such a role, even if they have previously served as an MHK.
There are also some MHKs who, even with previous experience, have virtually excluded themselves from becoming a Minister either by choice or, more likely, shooting themselves in the foot once too often.
This means that members who have served more than one term, such as Juan Watterson, Geoff Corkish, Chris Robertshaw, Tim Crookall, Bill Henderson and Graham Cregeen, will probably go into the melting pot for the four remaining Minister positions.
Other members who have served previously, but are perhaps less likely to be “team players” or have been long-term critics of the Ministerial system, include Peter Karran, Brenda Cannell, John Houghton, David Quirk and Leonard Singer.
It all depends, of course, on who becomes Chief Minister. If it’s Allan Bell - which seems a foregone conclusion - then the identity of the people who will be sitting around the Council of Ministers for their first meeting later this month becomes a fair bit clearer, although one or two big surprises might not be out of the question.
Photos: Bill Dale
