Outgoing president says politics 'not for the faint of heart'

The outgoing President of Tynwald has warned those set to contest September's House of Keys general election that politics "is not for the faint of heart".

Laurence Skelly has retired from national politics after 15 years, including five as the parliament's most senior presiding officer.

The former government minister said making progress in Manx politics was akin to a "team building exercise", where you "have to bring people with you".

"There are highs, there are lows and you've got to maintain the courage of your conviction," he said.

First elected to the House of Keys for the constituency of Rushen in 2011, he served a brief stint as infrastructure minister three years later before being appointed to head up economic development, which was later rebranded the enterprise department.

Skelly said that was a role he relished as the need for a rejuvenation of the Manx economy - after a renegotiation of the island's VAT sharing arrangement with the UK saw its income slashed by a third in the wake of 2008's global banking crisis – motivated him to enter politics.

He said he hoped the island now had a "more resilient, diverse economy" as a result of the efforts put in since that period.

National politics was "hugely rewarding but hugely challenging", he said, with humility and integrity being "two key qualities that you really should aspire to".

"It doesn't matter whether you're backbench or whether you're a minister or whether you're the President of Tynwald, you are here to serve the people, and you must think always of the people," he continued.

He warned it was "fair to say it's not for the faint of heart, particularly today with the exposure".

However, he said social media was not everything when it came to being an effective politician, and conversations face-to-face were "best of all".

"You cannot beat that in terms of reading people and understanding people," Skelly said.

The poll to elect 24 members of the House of Keys takes place on 24 September.

Elected president in July 2021, his final official engagement in the role came last Tuesday when he delivered an address to welcome King Charles III to Tynwald, an experience he said was "a huge honour and a great privilege".

He said while the role of President of Tynwald was "very much a figurehead", it was "quite a significant role in terms of the ambassadorial aspect to it".

It was "a different role with different responsibilities", he said, adding: "You're always there promoting Tynwald and our island in terms of the goodwill that we can promote."

A vote to appoint a new President of Tynwald is the first item on the agenda at the July sitting of the Manx parliament from 10:00 BST.

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