Today we see the announcement of Mr Michael Leather, a retired hotel owner, who is standing in the ever parochial village of Onchan. The main proposal of his campaign so far appears to be to revitalise the Islands run down tourist industry by extending a section of Loch Promenade over 200 metres out to sea in order to create nearly fifty new acres of reclaimed land which would provide the Island with space for modern hotels and an underground shopping precinct. He also cites the rejuvenation of Blackpool from 2000 onward as a successful model which the Island should emulate. Such a grand tourism vision will surely pitch him directly against Rob Callister - existing MHK for Onchan. A man who already has responsibilities for boosting our visitor economy and who seems to be struggling for ideas.
Mr Leather's plan in more detail:
We wonder if this plan is grand enough to dupe the good residents of Onchan though? Most of whom will no doubt be predominantly concerned with how much extra dog poo or feral children such a complex will bring to the village. However to reassure Mr Callister who must clearly be worried about this challenge to his departments tourism strategy we have to say that the jury is still out on whether this proposed scheme is all Mr Leathers original idea or not. Because on closer inspection Mr Leather's proposals strongly remind us of the vision of one Mr Frank Cartwright of Blackpool's famous Golden Mile guesthouse the Le Ponderosa who in Phoenix Nights tells Brian Potter not to bother with re-building tired old Clubland and that the future of the north’s hospitality industry is Sunshine Indoors.
In fact having read Mr Leathers proposals if he is looking for a good slogan to stand under we’re suggesting that he’s unlikely to do much better than the snappy Sunshine Indoors as his campaign motto!
