Karran 'on a roll' slams proposed Public Defender System

Last week Manx Radio was being criticised on one of the forums for carrying wall to wall coverage of Chief Minister Howard Quayle MHK and as the 'coup de grace' before heading for the deckchair and reaching for the Factor 50 Howard even popped up in an Arts Council video.

This week the media pendulum has swung and after an initial swipe at the Media Development Fund (MDF) that has lost a staggering £27 million former MHK Peter Karran outlines concerns about the proposed Public Defender System (PDS) - link:

https://www.manxradio.com/news/isle-of-man-news/legal-reform-is-state-co...

I share his concern indeed as I outlined recently Celtic League first drew attention to this in October last year and cited a UK Law Society critique of the concept (link):

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1461262803922476&id=80...

Karran has picked impeccable timing for his interventions as with the summer recess the media need political heavyweight comment to even out the news chaff. It seems that Karran is not the dummy some used to paint him though given his longevity in the Keys that was always a fallacy.

I doubt much can be done to rescue funds wasted on the Media Fund but as he avers in the Manx Radio report we should be wary of schemes that are ‘penny wise and pounds foolish’. The sad thing about the MDF was that no one pulled the plug before losses were in double figures of millions.

So if a PDS is introduced will the husbanding of the scheme be any wiser and if it goes 'belly up' will COMIN be prepared to accept it got things wrong before we have another fiscal black hole to fill.

The real problem is not in highlighting the issues as Karran and others have done it is getting government to change tack. I am pessimistic they will do that. Karrans intervention may discomfort them briefly but they’ll soon settle back in their deck chairs and apply the sun tan lotion. It's still a nice summer but when the bill for government extravagences roll in it will be our cold winter!

Image: Lord Carlisle described the UK PDS as a ‘total waste of money’ five years ago.

Bernard Moffatt