The Chief Minister crammed in plenty of what he considered to be achievements in his state of the nation address.

In an 18-minute speech, Mr Quayle name-checked individual Manx achievers such as Pretty Woman star Samantha Barks and Commonwealth Games silver medallist Tim Kneale.

And the Chief Minister managed to reference everything from the Steam Packet to Socrates - although not perhaps the Socrates he had in mind.

The decision of the government to buy the ferry company in a £124m deal was endorsed by Tynwald earlier this year.

On Tuesday, Mr Quayle said that decision came after an 'enormous amount of consideration’ and was in the long-term interests of the island.

'We listened to the concerns of the public and with the support of Tynwald we took action,’ he said. 'That has secured sustainability on our seas for many years to come.’

He pointed to work finally getting underway on redeveloping the promenade in Douglas as another sing of the government investing in the island’s infrastructure.

Another important decision was the writing off of £95m of debt from Manx Utilities in a bid to scale back price increases.

Mr Quayle said: 'Socrates once said, "The secrete of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but building the new."

In fact, that is a quote not from the ancient Greek philospher but from a character in a 1980 novel by Dan Millman.

The Chief Minister continued: ’None of these important decisions has been easy and quite rightly there has been debate. But ultimately this honourable court has worked together for the greater good of the Isle of Man.’

He said the government had responded to business concerns and improved the work permits system, meaning that business confidence in the system had 'doubled’ and more than 90% of work permits were approved within 24 hours.

Communication between government and business had improved, he said, but more needed to be done to improve communication with the public.

'We want to build on openness and transparency,’ Mr Quayle added.

'We know that every day more and more people want to access information and services online and through social media.

'The way that people receive information is constantly changing and they may not always want to hear what politicians say.’