Its looks like our well meaning yet brutally honest assessment of the launch of Michael Josem's campaign for Douglas East has set our email box off with lots of questions landing regarding Mr Josem's various affiliations and party memberships overnight. To those who emailed to ask if he's the official Liberal Vannin Douglas East candidate or not we don't really know either is the short answer. So instead we will publicly ask the question.
His updated website does now claim that he is an official Liberal Vannin candidate but in relation to Liberal Vannin itself there is still no real official statement published on the LV website other than this brief curiously worded statement confirming that their Party Secretary is standing as MHK:
But of course their Party Secretary is also a private citizen called Mr Michael Josem who has numerous other high profile affiliations. As we note above the LIberal Vannin statement reads deliberately short and vague and in contrast it can be seen that Party Chair Paul Weatherall states elsewhere on the Liberal Vannin website that I am proud to be part of the Liberal Vannin list of candidates so clearly there is some sort of official list which Mr Weatherall confirms that he is on. The Liberal Vannin website also carries an abridged version of Mr Weatherall's manifesto but somehow not Mr Josem's. So we ask again is he an official Liberal Vannin candidate or not?
We understand his chums in Liberal Vannin perhaps not really wanting to be associated too directly with the potential car crash that is anything he might possibly say or do in the next three months as that might be an effective damage-limitation strategy for them. But at the moment from some of the messages we've received Mr Josem's exact status doesn't seem to be that clear in the eyes of the voting public - some of whom might presumably vote for Mr Josem purely due to his perceived Liberal Vannin association. So there is a clear duty for Liberal Vannin to make the status of his candidacy 100% clear to avoid potentially misleading voters. Equally if he is an official LIberal Vannin candidate they might also want to clarify what endorsement or link to Liberal Vannin applies to any of the bogus research he publishes on his Manx Taxpayers Alliance website to support his campaign.
Which leads us nicely on to Mr Josem's other memberships and affiliations. Elsewhere on the internet his Founder status at local joke think tank and vanity fake news publisher, the Manx Taxpayers Alliance, is also linked to his campaign. So it seems potentially that as well as us not really knowing which version of Michael Josem the voters of Douglas East will be voting for its still not even that clear who he is the actual full time representative of either. So we ask will his official manifesto have a multiple choice section at the end which asks:
Vote for Michael Josem
As Independent
As Liberal Vannin
As the Manx Taxpayers Alliance
[Please tick as applicable]
The Manx Taxpayers Alliance demands, amongst other things, transparency from Government at all times and so maybe it could start by actually demanding transparency from its own Founder so that the people of Douglas East can at least have a clear steer on exactly who and what they are voting for in September? Furthermore it might also wish to clarify exactly who funds the Manx Taxpayers Alliance in the first place as that too looks rather too shadowy and secretive from recent Companies Registry filings.
As Mr Josem's new campaign slogan announces - Josem for all of us. And presumably in whatever political or party format you would prefer to have him in too! Its your choice - as its all a bit fluid in typical Josem fashion!
