Having initially expressed some scepticism over the Geoffrey Boot doorstep challenge footage (not in relation to the video content itself but some of the audio quality) its clear from a recent Gef the Mongoose story that the full video has now been examined by a journalist and that Mr Boots bizarre and apparently racist doorstep outburst was indeed a true reflection of his rather arrogant and hilarious approach to doorstep canvassing.
Gef the Mongoose reports the full story:
Which we suppose leaves us with two main takeaways regarding the 2021 campaign trail so far. The main takeaway should be obvious for some candidates who are currently seeking re-election - in that it is clear that not a lot of you are actually liked and many people have grown tired and become burned by the last eighteen months as a result of many MHKs conclusively proving that they are simply a docile and almost useless cog within a government which closed down their businesses or stopped them doing their jobs and paying their bills, or that prevented them from having access to effective medical services, or which failed to adequately protect their family, or that actively banished them from all contact with their off-island family and friends etc through what in hindsight have been some pretty dismal unilateral decisions and actions taken by Tynwald since the start of the pandemic. As a result some folk are naturally going to push back if you turn up on their doorstep trotting out the same empty egocentric platitudes about how great you are that you've been able to get away with trotting out for the last God knows how long.
The second is that there are now more people than ever on social media and who have various devices such as camera phones and CCTV installations, or who have access to other technology platforms or mechanisms that provide the means for a level of public scrutiny that you have never experienced before in the IOM. And because a lot of these people are totally fed up with the performance of a lot of you they're not afraid to use the wealth of technology and platforms that they have at their disposal to push back.
Bootgate is perhaps the perfect example of the above - jaunty cap wearing multi millionaire turns up on the doorstep of an average family home where the occupants simply aren't prepared to blow smoke up his behind and who not unreasonably ask him what he thought he'd achieved for the people of Glenfaba & Peel in the last five years. He then seems to get amusingly enraged about the less than positive reception he received and effectively tells them to go back to where they came from with more than an echo of a 1966 Johnny Speight Till Death Us Do Part script to it. They then post the incident on social media enraged and somewhat bemused by the less than positive reception they got from a visitor to their own front door whose salary is actually funded by their taxes - thereby proving that the people actually have the power.
As a result our general observation is that currently its private people and social media that are driving the press in terms of the direction of political commentary and public accountability and not the press providing political content or honest investigative reporting for people to follow or comment upon on social media.
Pictured a sign in the window of one of Geoffrey Boot MHKs numerous rental properties
