Manx General Election 24 September 2026. A personal reflection

 The Manx General Election took place on Thursday 24 September 2026, it was our chance to elect a new government for the next 5 years.

I can not recall another time when so many people were interested in the election across the age range, all of us in agreement that things needed to be changed after the last government which was very, very unpopular  even the last budget did nothing to change views.  While many First Ministers have been unpopular, again I have never known a First Minister "hated" as much as the one that led the last government.  

The constituencies are:

• Arbory, Castletown and Malew

• Ayre and Michael

• Douglas Central

• Douglas East

• Douglas North

• Douglas South

• Garff

• Glenfaba and Peel

• Middle

• Onchan

• Ramsey

• Rushen

  
  

And there were 82 Candidates seeking to be one of the 24 MHKs.  Only 15 New members would be elected the remaining 9 would be returning former members.

I live in the constituency of Arbory, Castletown and Malew, so my focus was on the candidates here, although I did meet another candidate from another constituency and I was also interested in the national constituencies as they would elect the MHKs that would complete the new government.  

As soon as the candidates announced their intention to stand I looked at their profiles and any social media (barring X or whatever it is called now). 

The candidate that most impressed me and indeed took time to answer my emailed questions was Kerri Jenkins and I thought she would make a great MHK.

One candidate was really working hard to get elected, however when I met them, while I liked them, they really did not know the answers to my questions and I felt lacked a maturity to get votes from others.

The other candidates, two I thought just cut and pasted their ideas, one bored me and I thought what is he selling this time?  I wished the former school teacher would stop asking questions and be pro-active this time, although I did not dislike him as I got the impression he was doing his best.  The last candidate I thought it was more of a personal crusade which was a pity, because they actually "grew" doing the campaign and I hope they take the experience, learn from and may be stand again in 5 years time,

Media Coverage

The UK based media for the Isle of Man was not that great as expected as neither of them seemed that interested and why should they be as we are only a small part of their audience.  The BBC probably were the best and their IOM news page was good in parts and very good with the results.  I also thought their television reporter was good.

Manx Radio

I really do not know how to politely express what I thought about their so called question time for the candidates.   I gave up watching.  I did not watch their results thing, because I knew by then that another's would be far better.  I also noted their web page did not have the full results in while others, including the BBC did.  

Manx News

I was very, very impressed by their coverage, the interviews they did with voters and former MHKs.  I felt they were just giving the story not trying to be the story.  Their Question time with Richard Slee was just that each candidate had time and when some one tried taking over Richard stopped that from happening.  As a result of this I think that we all got the time to fairly assess each candidate.  As a result of the question I watched their result night programme until I fell asleep.  

Print Media

I do not have a great deal to say about, it is fading unlike 20 years ago when it was the main source of information.

Social Media

I am sure that some found this to be good.  I only have facebook and Bluesky.  The facebook pages that I followed were the people I had already established I would probably vote for.  I only know one of the "traditional" media which is on Bluesky so I was only aware of their performance.  I am not sure how important Social Media was in the election as most people I spoke to made their minds up through other means, that I have mentioned above and personal contact with the candidates.  I am sure it will have a greater role in the next General Election as more young people who have grown up with it use it.  

For all of the above, which mainly gave us a chance to see how the candidates (given the chance) answered questions and performed under stress, I personally felt it was more a likability test ( Remember JFK & Nixon in the USA) and some in my opinion failed on both counts. 

Manifesto

I am not sure what it was like elsewhere, here I really thought, some were copy and paste as they were so similar, one seemed to have done like school homework, something that had be in by the morning.  I have mentioned elsewhere that one seemed like Vogon Poetry (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams), but worse and one that was well above the others and seemed have clear thoughts and insights which the others lacked. So yes these do still work if they are well written and not too long.

Canvassing

I only met 2 people who were canvassing, I missed the others as we were out when they came or they did not do it. Oh and there was another who came and we did not bother with because the last election 5 years ago they came across as a door-to-door sales person rather than an election candidate. Others have told me that meeting the candidates this way helped them make up there mind on who to vote for and in one case changed their mind on the person.

Unlike elsewhere, we do not really have a party political system and our candidates are all (mostly) independent so it is really important for them not only to have good policies etc., but perhaps that extra layer which is being likeable. I think this worked here in our constituency and I know it seems to have worked in others. Elections are a beauty and brains contest in reality and whoever gets in will be the best thing since sliced bread one day and a can of corned beef that has lost its opener the next.

Polling Day

It was thanks to Kerri Jenkins that I understood that we could vote in any polling station mentioned on our poll cards, not only that, she also gave details about access, which being disabled helped me, because the polling station nearest to me was not as easily accessible as the one we usually use in elections. We went there and it was easy to vote and at the time we voted it was busy, travelling around all of the polling stations we saw were busy that day. This was later reflected in the number of people who voted. The only thing I found off-putting was the supporters of the candidates were more interested in talking to each other than welcoming voters!

Results show

I tuned in to Manx News to watch the results come in. Richard Slee and Paul Moulton were very good and I liked the selection of guests that kept changing and kept it interesting. I also liked the filmed interviews that Charlie Morrey and Paul Speller did. As the results came in, we were given extra information on each one. I went to bed at about 01:30, so how long it went on after that I do not know.

Okay

If my maths is correct then a total 58, 748 votes were cast . Arbory Castletown & Malew had the highest number of all the constituencies which I thought might happen, because of the number of people I spoke to before the election seemed much more engaged in things than in previous elections. 4 constituencies had the top 3 candidates getting over 1,000 votes. Michael Crowe with 1,878 in Rushen had the most votes, beating Kerri Jenkins in Arbory Castletown & Malew, who had 1,839 votes, by 39 votes. I am using the results as posted on BBC Isle of Man for these figures as they are the most easily read.

While some people tried to bring party politics into this election, it did not work as the electorate rejected those ones. There were two only that were successful who belonged to a party ( Labour) however I suggest that they got the votes for who they are rather than the party.

Much media coverage has been given to Daniel Davidson who at 18 is the youngest elected MHK. From what I have seen of him he is a nice young man and I think he will give a different view on things to parliament which probably has an average of 40 something! People are able to vote at 16 on the Isle of Man so I hope now he has done so well that others will feel that they can do what he has done.

Conclusions

Once again we rejected party politics and other things that were tried to be imported from the UK.  

While former MHKs might have not been popular nationally, those returned this time, remained somewhat popular in their own constituency. Mr Moorhouse in Arbory Castletown & Malew is one of those for example, this was the least surprising result for me as I always expected it to be him and one other to be elected.

The candidates that were successful were able to connect with voters on both national and local issues which to a large extent merged. While change the most used word, I think it was more a matter of we do not need words we need a government that listens and acts now, not in the future, we need security now and not later. I think that those who understood we want MANX First, that is support for our local farmers and growers, support for our local businesses and above all for the younger generation while not excluding older generations. Manx Solutions to the growing Manx problems, which has worked in the past when this has been the focus.

My overall impression of this election is that the voters were much more engaged than they have been for years. Our concerns were listened too by the candidates and many of them shared them which is why they were standing to be elected.

I felt this time the candidates were of a better quality than in the last election and most worked harder to get their votes than before. Personally I thought Kerri Jenkins was the outstanding candidate of the candidates of all the constituencies, I am glad that she got in as I feel she will be a great MHK and I also think a great First Minister.

Yes it was overall a great election, now the successful candidates have the hard work to do and I can only hope that in 5 years time, if I am still here I will be able to state they all did well and repaid the trust we put in them.

THE WORLD INSIDE MUM'S TUM

THE WORLD INSIDE MUM'S TUM

I wish I could go back to where I came from

back to the world inside mum's tum

There I was free

with out a care

everything was there for me

No judgements, no lies

only hello and not goodbyes

No bills to pay

no worries about the weather on any day

Total security

I wish I could go back to where I came from

the world inside mum's tum

©️merimaat 2026

Internet Web Browsers - a personal view based on my experience of using them

 Both Apple and Microsoft have their own Internet Web Browsers, built in as part of their Operating Systems,  Mac IOS and Windows and I believe that the same is true of Google, but I have no experience of using that operating system so I can not comment on that. 

I know that for many Linux Distributions the first choice that comes with them is FireFox, but it is not built into them and is an application added to the Distribution.  Again, I need to qualify this statement by saying I only really have experience of Linux Mint, which is a very popular Linux Distribution, however many of the others seem to have it included as well.

If you do a search on the internet for a browser, you will soon discover that there are a lot of them.  I do not know how many there are, but it could well be 100s if not higher than that.  You will also see that nearly every site you visit has a favourite browser which makes it very hard to choose an alternative browser.

So why would you choose an other browser?  The simple answer is,  just as a back up to your main browser in case of problems with it,  you might not like the browser you have installed or for any other reason of which there are many.  Really the second browser is a matter of personal choice, because the various claims about the browsers, I really do not know if they are correct or not.  

FOR IOS

Safari, which is built in with IOS is a very good browser, easy to use and as far as I know as secure as it can be.  It is updated regularly and security updates often (along with IOS) often need no action as they are done automatically by Apple.  It is important to keep your system updated which will include Safari updates.  I like the lay out of Safari and feel very comfortable using it. Saving  favourite sites is easy to  do.  The only problem I have had with it has been with Facebook which is resolved by restarting Safari.

Both Google Chrome and Firefox work well IOS, my personal preference is Firefox.  Why Firefox?  It has been going since 2004 and I first used it then on Windows, it is the one browser that I keep going back to no matter which operating system I have used.  Firefox works well with Mac IOS.  The best thing with Firefox is that you can Block AI enhancements, which is something I have done when using it and it works as far as I can tell.  Other browsers which are "forks" of Firefox, you can use them, if you can find the installer, however I would not bother to do so because they tend to work better with Windows or Linux.

FOR WINDOWS

My first choice if using windows perhaps would be Edge, because of it being built in with it.  The times that I have used it since when using a Windows PC have been good and that is why I recommend it.  My other recommendation, if you do not wish to use Google Chrome or Chrome  based browsers would be Palemoon it is a very good browser to use and I am surprised it is not more popular.  There are so many browsers that work okay on Windows and everyone will have a favourite one.  I am not here to tell you which to use only to say from personal experience these are the ones I like.

FOR LINUX

I really do not know with this, because of my limited experience with Linux, only that from those that I have looked and used Firefox is included with them, so I would think that would be for a good reason for the makers to have done so.  

OTHER BROWSERS WORTH CONSIDERING

I can again only think about those that I have used and that has been mainly on Windows.  Vivaldi is a very good browser as it is very different to most others.  I have not used it on IOS so I can not comment on how good it works here.  With the newer browsers Brave is interesting, I found it works well, but there is the nagging about Brave Rewards.  DuckDuckGo is another browser worth considering.  I have liked it when I have used it and will be interested in how it develops which given the way the search engine should be very good.  

Points to remember 

What ever browser you choose you will have to do some setting up and make some change too.  Some, I have found easier to do than others, Chrome and Firefox are very easy to do and have many, many add-ons if you want them.  Both the pre-installed browsers, have a lot of choice and a lot of changes and extensions for you to choose from.  I tend to stick with things as they are, because it suits me to do so.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Every one will have a favourite browser and searching for one, really can be very confusing.  It can also take a long time to do a complete search.  Remember that many sites have paid content and are not totally reliable.  Look at the suggestions, but make up your own mind - Wikipedia will give you more information on the browser and I have found it a good place to check them out.  Do not hurry making your choice and remember the best browser for you is probably the one you are using !

KEV UNMASKED #AUTISMACCEPTANCE BY ME, THE HARDEST PART

 On 7 April 2024 I wrote a blog post entitled, Hello I am Kev and I am Autistic and now I am typing this one called, Kev Unmasked #Autismacceptance, because April has been designated Autism Acceptance/Awareness Month.  Why there should only be one month of the year when Autism Awareness/Acceptance and not 12 months, is not really logical to me, then many things are not.  What happens during the remaining 11 months of the year? Do we not be aware and not accept?  The truth of the matter for many is that it does not matter what month is designated, they will neither be accepting or aware of anything or anyone! 

I had written a very long piece about this,  which I was going to post and yet having read it back, it did not state what I know it should do, so I have deleted it, apart from the first paragraph.

As I have discovered the hardest part of going from the weird one with the temper, to knowing and understanding that there are others like you and there is a reason why you are like you are and there is a name for it.  This is all very confusing and you keep checking the facts out and the more that you do the more you realise it is true and it is you!  

Like most others, I had a fixed idea what Autism was and what it looked like in others, mostly children, that it turns out is just a very small part of what Autism is and while the fundamental parts do not change which allows you to know that you are Autistic, the manifestation of it is as individual as you are.  No matter how many tests you take, the results will always be the same each time. 

The next part is when you start exploring yourself and your childhood, well it was for me, as perhaps I just became Autistic !  I know it is a stupid thing to think, as you are and always have been Autistic from birth!  My exploring my childhood, made me realise why I got what I called "people sick", and so many other things, which I still do or need and perhaps, it was not a sudden explosive tempter, but a meltdown!  Then there were the many tests, the results of which I never got to know and why to a certain extent I was protected, because back then, Autism was not understood and many who were may have been thought of as being mentally ill (I do not know this for a fact). 

Finally, placing all the pieces together, when I asked those closet to me, none were surprised and just said we knew you were, just accepted it was you!  

I am trying to type this, to perhaps help me and perhaps help others.  I really have found it easy to say to other please be autistic aware and be autistic acceptance and tolerant of those with Autism, than I have myself.  Having spent most of life 'masking" that is hiding the person that I really am, being controlled by my environment and not being able to cope, the switch to being honestly me has been and continues to be hard.  

Kev unmasked and accepting that I am Autistic means I no longer have to pretend that I am a Windows PC like the majority of others, that I am an Mac and work with IOS and there are millions of others like me, we do the same things as the PC peeps do, just differently.  The PC and the Mac !  I like this metaphor  as it might make it easier for some to understand.  Being a PC might be fine for you, but it is not for me, just like your being a Mac would not be fine for you.  It has meant that I can control my environment better, to understand why things are intolerable for me and what changes I need to make so that they are.  It means I have learnt to tell others please act in certain ways, like going to the Doctor so that I feel at ease.  It has also meant for me that I have learnt better coping skills and these have led me to a better emotional and mental state.  Finally I am learning it is okay to be me and if others do not  or can not that it is not up to me be like them, just to be me and to be happy to be me.

The Autism Spectrum is wide and Autism shows differently in each person.  It most certainly not one thing.  Accepting that you are and always have been, is hard and yet it is also freeing, because at long last you can honestly be you !

We ask others to be Autism Aware and to be Autism Acceptant, perhaps we need to be that ourselves first and then ask them to be the same and not just for one month of the year, but for every day of every month of every year.

Apple iPhone 17 Pro - a review based on personal usage.

I have in the last week upgraded my iPhone 15pro for the iPhone 17pro having seen that the 15 had gone from the official Apple website.  That is not that you can not still get one as the website states that it is available at authorised sellers.  I was concerned that because of this that I might not get as much trade in value for my 15pro as I would at the moment, if I waited much longer, so it seemed logical to use my savings and go for the 17 Pro now which I did.

In real life the iphone17pro looks far better than it does in the advertisements and online, all of the colours are so much nicer even from a distance.  The cosmic orange, which I eventually chose is really different to any other mobile telephone colour I have seen and it has far more depth to it than you think it has.  

The design again is far better in real life and it really has that wow factor that makes you look at it.  A further point I would make is that it looks solid and almost "shouts" I am here and I am going to be the mobile for you. 

I really loved the feel of it when I held it for the first time.  Slightly heavier than the 15 pro,  it is noticeable not that much of big difference because you have a bigger display area.  The full details are on the Apple website if you are interested in knowing them.

Setting up

I left the setting up to the person who was helping me as they know far more than I do and if there was a mistake then it was theirs' not mine.  You need to have your Apple I.D. and password to start the the process, so take it with you to where you are getting your phone from (I forgot and had to come home and get it and then go back to the shop before I could begin things). Be aware that it can take some time to complete the transfer across,  the SIM card etc. and the update required before you can use your new phone, it about and hour for it all to be done in my case.  

Adding Bank cards to the Wallet:

Before you can add your bank cards to the wallet, which if we are honest most of us use rather than a physical card now. The card will need to be verified before you can use it on your new mobile. The easiest way to do this is through your mobile banking application, or you will struggle to do so.  After you have set up the mobile banking (do not forget the biometric setting up), log in and go to the account with the card, the one you have used on your old mobile and there will be a section showing to added to wallet, just follow the instructions and it is then added with verification to the wallet ready to use.

With the wallet set up you may need to check that other applications you use work or you may have to sign in to them with your password.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The biggest change I have found is the speed of things with the 17 pro compared to the 15 pro, it really is noticeable and impressive, so much so that I kept trying to see if I could slow it down and I could not do so.

INTERNET CONNECTION/MOBILE DATA

Mobile internet connection or data was also a bit step forward and it never dropped the connection all the time I used it while we were out. To be honest it was that good that I forgot to change over to the home internet (broadband) when I got home. Running a speed test using the home broadband it was very fast, double and more than what it had been with the iPhone 15 pro.  

MESSAGING AND TEXTING

I do not use texting or messenger much, but I thought I would try them out.  Receiving and sending both was easy to do and both were sent and received quickly. This could be due to my service provider as well as the improvements made on 17pro.

CAMERA

The camera is really impressive.  Apple have advertised it as part their promotion for the 17 pro and using it both in dull and bright light is excellent and the quality of the photographs, I have to use that word excellent again.  I have not as yet used it to its full capability so I am waiting to see how great the zoom really is.  

SOUND QUALITY

The improvement here between the 15 pro and the 17 pro is like going from a vinyl record to a compact disk, it is that good.  Receiving calls is now something I will not worry about nor sending them as the microphone means that I can use my normal voice level and not have to raise it as I have had to to do with every other telephone I have used.

DO NOT LIKE

I really do not like the number of buttons on the side of the telephone and I am not sure they are necessary.  I do not know what Steve Jobs would make of them, perhaps he would have asked the engineers to come up with a better solution.

DAILY USE

The 17 pro is so easy to use that you can almost think that you have had it for much longer than you have had, it just does things and you do not have to think about how to do them.  I am not sure I can write much more than that.

CONCLUSION

The iPhone 17 pro, is not that more expensive to buy than the 17 so if you can afford to do so, it is worth the extra money.  Even in the few days that I have had it,  I have no hesitation in stating that it is the best mobile I have ever owned.  The build quality, is obvious from the start as is the quality of the screen which I really think is outstanding for clarity.  The battery charge holds well. I did top up the battery to full when I first got my phone I have not had to recharge it since, so the 30 hours Apple claim for it are probably true. I do not play games on it which why I say probably.  

Few of us are really interested in all the technical details of our telephone, all we really want to know is that it is reliable, looks good, is easy to use and has a good camera and on all of these things the 17pro excels.  It is worth checking directly with the Apple website about the phone and the same website is good for finding out answers, rather than searching elsewhere for them.

Linking with your other Apple devices is automatically done so you don't have to do anything more. I am not sure about the connections with other manufacturers, again the place to go would be the Apple website.

I would suggest getting a case to protect your phone, there are many places to get them from and they vary in price and quality. 

I always knew that I would upgrade my iPhone 15pro to another iPhone sooner or later.  I was never going to go for the 16 range, because, well perhaps Apple had a misfire with that one.  Going for the 17pro was an easy choice to make, however I did not expect it to be as great as it is and that is why I would have no hesitation in recommending it to others. 

Bluesky, the nice Social media choice.

 Before I started to use it, I had heard some really nice things about it.  The most common thing was that it was like Twitter when it started, that is easy use and that the people using it were generally nice and polite. 

So what is BlueSky?  It is very similar to X or whatever Mr Musk calls it now,  in being a social media site where people interact with each other and you follow and have followers.  You can post pictures and videos,  what I like about this, you can hide the content if you mark it as being "adult" so people can choose to see them or not.  Be warned explicit content is not allowed and posting can mean a ban from the site.  There are quite a few things which you need to be aware of all of which are explained in the terms and conditions,  

I have posted this link from Wikipedia which gives a comprehensive explanation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluesky  It is worth reading this if you are unsure about using it.  One of the most important things that it has is age verification which is a legal requirement it many places in the world.  I have no problem with this or any other legal requirement that Bluesky has put in place as these seem to be protections rather than restrictions.  We have recently seen what Mr Musk has done in the name of freedom !  

Okay, I do not use it Bluesky to its full capacity and discover the many other timelines with different interest and views so I really can not give an opinion on them.  You can also restrict who views your post and others can restrict you from seeing their posts.  It is worth the time setting things up the way you want them and you can change them as and when you want to do so.  My not having many restrictions means I have had a better experience as I have learnt a lot of different views and from many different countries in the world.  I hope that others have the same experience, because it would be a shame not to do so.

Honestly, yes there is the politicking, yet from what I see there is little of the nastiness that seems to be an increasing part of the DNA of X.  People seem to be really interested in saying this is wrong, not we are totally right and everyone else is wrong.  It is easy to spot those who try to do so and to block them.  If you do not spot them, others will do so and ask the community to see what is happening and block the persons concerned. 

What I really love about Bluesky is that people generally post nice stuff on it and I do look forward to seeing posts from people that I follow and interact with.  It is as if everyone has collectively decided, ye we will have our differences, but in a nice adult way and we post news and other things from where we live, not to create divisions, just to inform. 

I did see a complaint from someone who said Bluesky was like the old twitter from years ago, yes it is like twitter back then, because people WANT it to be.  We want a nice safe place to be social on, to share things we love and to learn from others about what they love and by doing so we all grow and unite with the things we love and are not divided by our differences.  

I called this blog Bluesky, the nice Social media choice, because quite simply Bluesky is that, the nice Social media place.

Goodbye Twitter, you became X and now you're my ex - it was you not me

 I joined Twitter in March 2010 and now I am leaving it, well not Twitter, that has long gone and been replaced by the monstrosity that is called X.  

I loved Twitter when I joined as it was a nice place where people mostly got along.  Yes, there were fall-outs and disagreements as in life, these however soon passed and things calmed down.  It felt a "safe place" and I liked that and have made some real friends as result, it those, the few that remain, that I shall miss unless like me they migrate to another "social" like Bluesky,

Twitter had rules and many people were stopped or banned from being on it, some famously whom I do not need to name as it is well known.  This to an extent stopped extreme views and misinformation being spread, it was not the place for them.  

This all changed when Elon Musk took over Twitter.  The only thing I really knew about him was his political view were, well honesty nasty and more like those found in 1930's Germany.  Soon those views and those who shared them, were amplified and more and more I found myself having to block people and beginning to wonder if I really wanted to remain on there and I was not the only one. 

Rather than leave in the first wave, like many others had done,  I thought I would give Mr Musk a chance to settle down and perhaps realise that the "direction of travel" was not a good one.  It did not settle down and his Nazi salute, for that is what it was or could be interpreted as (protecting myself here) during the election of Mr Trump in the USA made me really have to consider if I could still balance my view of accepting others having different views with the propaganda that was now drowning out other views. 

With the change of name from Twitter, to X, things have declined to a point where it is a cesspit of misinformation, lies, far right propaganda almost brain washing, Joseph_Goebbels would have made the most of this tool if it had been available to him.  

Why now, am I leaving ?  I have had enough of the lies, the hate, the nastiness which more and more has drowned out the good things.  Most importantly, it was depressing being on there. 

So goodbye to twitter, you became X and now you ARE MY EX - IT WAS YOU NOT ME.  I HAVE A NEW PLACE NOW, BLUESKY WHERE NICE PEOPLE ARE AND NICE THINGS ARE POSTED.