What the hell is the Programme for Government?

Ok, so the election has just happened, we have a new Chief Minister and a Council of Ministers but what the hell are their policies? 

This might sound like a stupid question but it’s actually a totally legitimate one. How does your MHKs manifesto, that talked about bins, dog poo and the joy of the brass band translate into health, education and transport policy? 

In other countries like Scotland or Ireland, the government will often be formed of a single party or a coalition of parties, each of which will have been elected on a national manifesto. In theory, that means that going into an election, you know what a government made up of Labour, the SNP or Fianna Fail will do. In theory… 

However, unlike our neighbouring countries, most candidates who are successfully elected have traditionally not been members of a political party and that means that the governments that they form are generally made up of independents as well. They dont have that set of politics going into the election. 

Manx politics is also super local, meaning that quite often the manifestos you vote on don’t go into national issues in loads of detail - they might spend five pages talking about some paving stones but often won’t give a fully costed plan on the future of the Manx state pension. This isn’t necessarily their fault, candidates in the Isle of Man don’t have a big political machine behind them that candidates in Scotland or other places do. They also focus on local issues that matter to voters because that’s how you win votes in hyper-local elections. 

We could complain and suggest alternatives to help fix this for hours but the bottom line is that post-election the Government doesn’t have a clear manifesto - it has the Chief Ministers’ statement, nine ministerial manifestos, plus whatever policies were promised to get the CM elected, plus the rest of the House of Keys. 

What comes next has varied with each Government. In 2011 it was the Agenda for Change, in 2016 it was the Programme for Government, in 2021 it was the Our Island Plan. These are all variations on a theme, effectively a combination manifesto and delivery plan. How these are developed also varieties but generally, MHKs and civil servants get together and hash out a set of objectives and policies for each Department that they want to see delivered. In some instances, they will bring in members of the public and members of the business community to feed into the plan. 

Tywnald and the public are supposed to be able to use the plan, its objectives and deadlines to hold the government to account and the government is meant to report on its progress but let’s be honest, when was the last time you looked at it? 

Voting in the General Election is the best way to make sure that candidates with policies you support have feed into the next Programme for Government.

If you’re planning to vote in the Isle of Man General Election - make sure you’re registered. You can register or find out if you are registered here. 

The deadline for registering to vote is 25 August 2026. If you’re not registered by then, you won’t be able to vote on election day. 

Want to know more about the election?

This is just one in our series of short blogs explaining what the hell is happening on 24 September 2026. You can read the rest of the blogs here.