So asked The Stranglers in 1977 and it was concluded that in the end they all watched their personal Rome burn. And that's the very same question we ask now having watched the somewhat bizarre Peter Karran video posted in support of Mr Peter Willers on Facebook this weekend. Sitting in an empty room in what looks like a rather low-rent version of the Mastermind Chair that's been salvaged from a skip - although he could well be covertly strapped in Reservoir Dogs style waiting for Willers' Mr Blond to interject with a razor if he says the wrong thing - we get to listen to a chummy monologue from Liberal Vannin Founder Mr Karran which ends with the rather strange claim that only Mr Willers can stop government cosying up with ruthless property developers who want to concrete over the Island.
The video clip can be found here:
In the context of cosy relationships with property developers for those not particularly aware of the background it is worth re-visiting here the Mount Murray Inquiry and in particular its findings (linked below) and also comments subsequently made in respect of Mr Willers who at the time of the Mount Murray development was the in-house legal counsel for the main developer of the Mount Murray development - Mr Albert Gubay.
A link to various parts of the original Inquiry reports and its findings can be found here:
Mount Murray Part One:
Mount Murray Part Two
Just as importantly though in relation to the follow up to the Mount Murray Inquiry we have already reported that Deemster Corlett is publicly on record as stating that:
Some aspects of Mr Willers' claims [at the Inquiry] were "so improbable that they give the impression of having been invented"
Furthermore Deemster Corlett also concluded that:
Mr Willers' evidence [to the Inquiry] regarding the alleged agreement of 1989/1990 with Mr Gubay, before the land for Mount Murray had been acquired, was "barely credible"
And in addition that it was:
Wholly improbable that intelligent businessmen would proceed as alleged by Mr Willers. And that it was simply not credible that Mr Willers and Mr Gubay entered into a verbal agreement in relation to the tax credits attaching to the hotel in the terms pleaded by Mr Willers and as set forth in his evidence
Again, as we added for further context in our original Willers write-up, this was a very low point in Manx political history but equally it was all a very long time ago now. But does the sort of person who a Manx Deemster claims likely invents testimony to a Public Inquiry into alleged misconduct between a property developer and the IOM Government in order to support the narrative of his employer sound like the sort of person who is really going to attack any comfy relationships that might exist between IOM Government and allegedly ruthless and scheming property developers to you? No not us either ..
And while noting the above lets also remember that what was in the late nineteen-eighties supposed to be a tourism development, which received substantial taxpayer grants as a holiday complex, is now largely a vast exclusive housing estate which regularly sees mock-tudor executive homes changing hands at half-a-million pounds and upwards. Which is the exact kind of developer influence this candidate (and his Party) now claims to be totally against.
Our original write-up on Mr Willers and his alleged Liberal credentials can be found here:
Pictured: Mr Peter Karran enjoys his two-minutes in the Mastermind Chair and is most definitely not being held hostage
