When watching the Isle of Man TV interview with Simon Mann you genuinely get the impression that Mr Mann is actually more Manx establishment than the Manx establishment itself. And no doubt like a stick of Gores aged and crumbling rock if you snapped him in half Mr Mann probably has some sort of colourful sugary triskelion that cuts straight through his core. But he's standing in Ramsey after all and progress there has been about eight-hundred years coming - and still counting.
The full Paul Moulton & Isle of Man TV interview with Simon Mann is here:
Unlike his mercenary namesake who languished in an Equatorial Guinea prison cell after trying to start a coup d'etat in the tiny West African State we guess that we are unlikely to see any such attempt at establishment disruption from this Simon Mann who appears rather content to stand on almost a one policy agenda - that being to stop the Ramsey Marina where he raises several bogus fears such as declining beach front property values to push the well worn Ramsey emotional buttons rather than attempt to rely on any entirely sensible environmental or ecological reasons why it probably shouldn't go ahead.
Sounding rather like a pious Ramsey Rees-Mogg Mr Mann also seems to be completely rooted in Victorian values where he opines that any Billionaires living in the Island should take a leaf out of Henry Bloom Nobles book and get their chequebooks out to atone for their sinful avarice. Don't mention the e-gaming sector either as he's clearly not a fan - but then as well as the almost Methodist overtones computers also sound like they may be a little bit too progressive for a man who probably wouldn't look out of place driving a beige Austin Maxi down Parliament Street with a rolled up copy of the Times under one arm.
In relation to health Mr Mann would like to be Health Minister should that be offered to him and thinks that the folk at Manx Care are all jolly good people who haven't been given enough money to do their jobs [which may well be the case]. His choices for Chief Minister are also the predictable establishment dream-team of either Alfred [but not Alf as that would be far too informal] Cannan and Juan Watterson.
The interview feels long and establish-y so we won't attempt to summarise it any further but really you are left with the impression that Mr Mann feels that he is a rather important part of the established Ramsey furniture who expects the voters of Ramsey (and of South Ramsey in particular) to "do the right thing" by voting for him on the 23rd of September. Of course we wish him well and we look forward reading his manifesto in due course once his housekeeper has finished typing it up and passed it onto the local steam press for typesetting.
Pictured: Sticks of Gores traditional Manx rock
