One vote against 2009 budget

Tynwald has overwhelmingly supported the Manx government's 2009 budget, presented to the court by Treasury Minister Allan Bell.

At the end of a five and a half hour debate, voting was 23-1 in favour in the House of Keys, and unanimous in the Legislative Council.

The only member of Tynwald to vote against the budget was Onchan MHK, and leader of the Liberal Vannin Party, Peter Karran.

Mr Bell delivered his budget speech under the heading 'Global problems, local solutions' and described his package of proposals as 'a balanced budget for challenging times'.

He said the past few months had been very demanding, and thanked staff at the Treasury for getting everything together in such difficult circumstances: