The advent of the holiday season on the Isle of Man, combined with unusually good weather, has spawned the usual crop of unofficial signage Island-wide advertising everything from commercial events to summer fairs.
In some instances the signage is both sizeable and prominent and a number that Celtic League Mannin branch members have spotted are sited on roundabouts and junctions.
The League were prompted to `investigate’ the signs following calls from a member in the South of the Island who contrasted the hullabaloo when political graffiti appeared recently and the (overtime consuming) police action when the `nationalist graffiti’ was ongoing with the comparative inertia and lack of comment from `Mr Microphone'(AKA)Chief Constable Mike Langdon.
Earlier this year hardly a day seemed to go by without some utterance from the ‘Manx’ Chief Constable at the heinous nature of the miscreants who inflicted the eyesore of this `nationalist graffiti’ on the public of the Island. In fact at one point it seemed as if he had opened an Office in Manx Radio!
Now obviously one would think there is a difference between graffiti and unofficial signage.
Whilst both are illegal the latter can be speedily removed?
Well not quite! It turned out that the nationalist graffiti that exercised `Mr Microphone’s’ lungs so much was all just as disposable and a group of supporters of those detained over the graffiti affair demonstrated this by removing all of it in a morning.
It seems it’s the message that was not palatable to Chief Constable Langdon and his political masters and he seems singularly unconcerned now at potentially hazardous signage placed at or near junctions.
J B Moffatt (Mr)
Director of Information
Celtic League
17/06/10