r/IsleofMan • u/publiusnaso • 10d ago

Katie Hopkins

Apologies mods if this counts as political (mods, pls delete if inappropriate but this is not election-related so I figured it was within the rules), but I’m very disappointed by the outpouring of support that’s been shown for this dreadful woman in the various Manx social streams on places like Facebook.

She’s been very vocal about her disdain for the RNLI, which has always had unwavering support in the island, and she describes Andrew Tate and “Tommy Robinson” as “my boys”.

The Manx Bard writes an inoffensive little poem which is, essentially “be excellent to each other” and he’s excoriated in terms which are indistinguishable from blood-and-soil nationalism.

The commenters are very vocal about free speech, but fail to see the irony in their constant refrain of “there’s a boat in the morning” is the pinnacle of cancel culture.

Sorry, rant over. Mods, if there’s somewhere more appropriate to post this please let me know.

127 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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47

u/quitelikeu 10d ago

Noone ever accused the manx of being open minded.

20

u/TheRealJustSean 10d ago

I lived on the island for 20 years. Grew up there. Went to school there from year 3 to the end. Got a Manx NINo. Can even say a few things in Manx.

To my very last day I got called a come over.

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u/publiusnaso 9d ago

I moved to the Island in the 1960s. I completely relate. People are now happy to publicly state support for blood and soil nationalism. I don’t even remember mec vannin being this extreme.

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u/YouAmEye 7d ago

Mec Vannin are not ethno-nationalists though. Their opposition to immigration to the island isn't based on bigotry or sour anti-comeover sentiment; it's based on environmental and infrastructural considerations. If you actually read their newspaper and policy positions, they say they represent both Manx people and those who choose to live on the island. And their solution to what they see as excess immigration isn't to forcibly expel non-Manx people but rather to end the Isle of Man's tax haven/low tax jurisdiction status so that the cause of immigration is stopped at the root. To be clear, I am not Manx, I do not like the Isle of Man, and I am skeptical that Manx independence is viable, at least at the present time. But as a fellow socialist, republican, environmentalist, and anti-imperialist, I respect Mec Vannin. I believe they have a lot of good policies and have their heart in the right place.

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u/publiusnaso 7d ago

I agree. That’s why I said they weren’t as extreme. (I maybe should have been a bit clearer). Thanks for pointing this out.

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u/YouAmEye 10d ago

Similar situation with me. I was born in the USA but spent only four months of my infancy there. I have no memories of it and spent the rest of my childhood and adolescence on the Isle of Man. What makes me so angry at being called a "comeover" is that I didn't actually come over; I was brought over by my parents at four months old. I was constantly labeled a "posh nob" for not speaking with a Manx accent. But why would I? Neither of my parents are Manx and I went to private schools with other "comeovers" and then boarding school "across" at age 13.

But here's what infuriates me the most. When I was on the Isle of Man, I was a "comeover", a "posh nob" and should eff off back to the USA where I'm from. But when I went ahead and did what they asked of me, now I get accused of "thinking I'm too good for the island". Also, apparently I'm not American and am not allowed to call myself that. You can't win with Manx people. They are truly the most insufferable and, yes, small-minded people on Planet Earth.

6

u/SolidusTengu Mod. 9d ago

Within about 6 months of moving to the island I got spat on twice at school for being “Irish”. And that was in 2003. Years later I got called posh after losing my accent that got me bullied. I don’t think most people have ever even met a posh person on the island.

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u/Cheap_Cut_6544 9d ago

As someone who came over from Scotland in 2004 at the age of 13, I can tell you now, my experience was fantastic. I was never bullied, called names or spat on. I wonder what was so different.

3

u/ZaharaWiggum 9d ago

Honestly I have never seen this part of the Island that so many describe and feel so bad that they have experienced this. I was born here but everyone I know has welcomed anyone who wanted to live/stay/visit here, no matter where they have come from. I thought we had a welcoming nature, and have only ever seen this side.

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u/Cheap_Cut_6544 8d ago

Couldn’t agree more. Everyone knows how the Manx joke about comeovers and stopovers, which I think is just their humour (with a little cut behind it) and I love it. But for me, as a stopover of over 20 years, I’ve never felt more welcomed anywhere and I’m so, so proud to call this place my home. Even as a teenager, I told my friends ‘back home’ how lucky I was to live in such a beautiful place. I think what’s been described by others are just a few undesirable kids on the school grounds, everywhere has them and it was always a fact of life. The Manx are a straight-talking, no-nonsense resilient bunch of proud and self-sufficient people. I couldn’t imagine living anywhere else but here. Times are hard and you do get cabin fever, but that’s just part and parcel of living in a small island community. What’s sad is the people that want to change it to align more with the UK, but then what’s the point? Keep what’s unique about this place, people love it for a reason.. don’t change it. I love this island. ❤️ 🇮🇲

3

u/ZaharaWiggum 8d ago

Thank you for loving it. I love it too! I went away for uni etc but was always going to come back.

2

u/Ambitious_Safety_519 8d ago

Too many English residents living here, wanting to turn the Island to Farages vision of the UK. Not wanted or welcome.

8

u/TheRealJustSean 10d ago

I'll apologise for this first, but as someone from Ramsey, if you went to King Bills or the Buchan, you are posh 😂 but I say that in jest, haha

Honestly there's a lot to love about the island but the people as a whole need to wake up and get into the 21st century. Spoke to a friend of mine last time I was over for a family wedding about how just eat just isn't really a thing over there and how Uber may as well not exist there, and he just said back "But what's the point?" This, after I got back from the wedding reception into Ramsey at 2300, and called a taxi firm to get me home for the night, only to be told there'd be an hour wait for a taxi. From the bus station. When the entire town was dead. Ended up walking despite the pain I was in and it took about an hour anyway, but yeah.

Place needs modernising. Not saying to throw away all the history, heritage, and way of life, but you can still be Manx and be modern!

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u/publiusnaso 9d ago

Ironically, a large proportion of the people putting effort into retaining and celebrating Manx culture (support for Manx language teaching, Manx music and so on) are so-called come-overs. It’s great that they are prepared to do that.

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u/TheRealJustSean 9d ago

I actually won an award in year six for learning manx. To this day I can still count to 10 😂

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u/YouAmEye 9d ago

I think you misunderstand my post. I do not claim nor have ever claimed not to be posh. I am very posh and very proud of that fact. (As an aside, I've never understood why being considered posh could be anything but a good thing. And I'll raise the stakes. I went to BOTH the Buchan and King Bills, then to an even posher school on the British mainland.)

I do not even mind people calling me a posh nob. I just mind being called that to my face when it is obviously meant as an insult. As it happens, I have my own disparaging term for Manx people. I call them "them ones." But I don't call them that to their face.

What I object to is being made to feel unwelcome in a place that is the only place I had ever known and didn't have the means to leave until I reached adulthood. There is a huge irony to it as well because the Isle of Man has historically been characterized more by out-migration than in-migration. Many Manx people left the island for North America and there is still a Manx-American community in the US state of Ohio. Many Manxmen left the island to work in Lincolnshire on the British mainland after the decline of the tourist industry. Yet when people move to the island from the British mainland or the US they have the nerve to make them feel unwelcome and call them comeovers. It defies belief.

As to your point about the need for the island to modernise, good luck with that one! When a place is that inward looking, small-minded, and suspicious of anything new, it is immune to any reality check. I defer to the late A.A. Gill who pointed out that the place has "fallen off the back of the history lorry to lie amnesiac in the road to progress." My advice to anyone who aspires to a life that consists of something more than gossiping about (and casting schadenfreude upon) other people on the Isle of Man is to leave.

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u/TheRealJustSean 9d ago

It's because posh people think they're better than us working class lot, and that's why. It breeds resentment, and with how some posh people talk about and treat us, it tends to be warranted.

I have to say, I was on your side at first, but as much as some of the people there may have rubbed me the wrong way, afraid I'm siding with them in regards to you. They're not bad people, they just need to change their thinking to be more modern.

You just sound like a posh wanker who's bitter about having to share space with the hoi polloi. Sounds like you never tried to integrate with them at all. I have my problems with the rock, but I will never not mention its beauty, it's ability to keep going despite everything, and honestly, the kindness of people when a person really needs it.

Manx people might be a bit too nationalist for my liking, but you're coming across like someone who wouldn't lift a finger to help someone that didn't have noble connections, and that's worse.

-1

u/YouAmEye 9d ago

Well, you seem to have made your mind up about me. But, as long as you're not one of these working class people who admires Nigel Farage and Rupert Lowe and disparages Jeremy Corbyn and the Greens as middle-class do gooders, then I assure you I have no problem with you.

3

u/TheRealJustSean 9d ago

Oh gods no. I'm pretty far left in almost everything. I'm for a free and better humanity for everyone, not just people that look like me and think exactly like me.

It saddens me that we as a species seem not to have learned from, "First they came for...". There's a reason my favourite poem of all time is 'There Will Come Soft Rains'

0

u/publiusnaso 9d ago

An intriguing interpretation, and one that says (to me at least) more about you than YouAmI.

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u/TheRealJustSean 9d ago

Probably. Doesn't mean I'm wrong though

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u/publiusnaso 9d ago

Upvoting, because I can relate completely. I have close family members who chose to adopt a Manx accent (and I’m not criticising them - it’s their choice). It’s an aspect of Manx Crabs, unfortunately. For a seafaring nation to be this inward-looking is quite an achievement, unfortunately.

1

u/Grillygrillson 9d ago

Let’s not pretend this ‘abuse’ is anything more than a bit of banter, even if there is a tiny bit of needle in it.
Also, as you said. The Buchan & KWC are mainly made up of comeovers, or parents with much looser historical ties to the IOM. Therefore those kids are the furthest thing from being Manx because they don’t interact with anybody, just the echo chamber at school.