The self-styled King of Moraceae is bidding to gain a seat in Tynwald

Three years after first coming to prominence in the island with a bid to buy the Castle Mona Hotel, HM Sole the King of Moraceae, aka science fiction author Ian-James Clanton, has announced plans to stand for the upper chamber next year.

Making his announcement on MTTV, Mr Clanton, who now refers to himself as just HM Sole, also revealed plans to form a new political party.

He originally planned to stand in the 2018 LegCo elections.

’I asked to be nominated as a member of the Legislative Council in 2018,’ he told MTTV. ’The person that was supposed to be the nominator and promised to nominate withdrew at the last minute.

’So it became a situation where I believe that they felt that the Keys had already decided on a set number of candidates that they wanted to see through.’

MLCs are voted in by the House of Keys. There is no public vote.

Mr Clanton first hit the Manx headlines in 2016 when he announced plans to buy the Castle Mona Hotel in Douglas and turn it into a base for a new ’meritocratic monarchy’ from where he would ’address the world on innovation, space exploration and the future of planet Earth’.

But a deal never materialised and the Castle Mona was bought by the Tevir Group last year.

In 2017, Mr Clanton launched a GoFundMe bid to raise £1bn for the E.G.G - ’Ecological Geophysical Galleon’ - a 180-acre floating city off the Manx coast.

So far, his crowdfunder has raised the grand sum of £4,815.

Mr Clanton told MTTV that he was in the process of contacting all 24 MHKs but called on the public to get involved and put pressure on them to meet him.

In 2018, he said, few MHKs met him. ’I am giving Tynwald the benefit of the doubt in this particular situation to listen to the people as well as their own instincts and opinions.’

He said he had chosen to attempt to enter the Legislative Council in 2020 rather than wait for the next House of Keys general election in 2021 because it was important to have a voice in Tynwald now.

’Having a person who is part of the LGBT community, having a person that is under the age of 30, having an individual that is from another country, i.e. American, to sit inside of a chamber that is supposed to be part of the oldest continuous parliament in the world, there to help inform the policy structure of the island is very important with all the challenges happening globally.’

The make-up of the Manx Government did not reflect the international element of the island’s community, he said.

Mr Clanton also revealed plans to form a political party that would field 24 candidates at the 2021 House of Keys election.

He would not be drawn on the possible name for any such party and, while he suggested the policies would be ’radical’, he was not yet ready to unveil any manifesto.

He did suggest the Isle of Man should become ’energy independent’ in terms of its power sources and that it would also need to reassess its relationship with the UK, particularly in a post-Brexit climate.

’We now need to unify the island around a whole new set of ideas and plans and strategies,’ he declared.

Mr Clanton was unclear over whether, if he was successful in his bid to become an MLC, he would then seek election to the Keys himself, but said he would definitely attempt to become an MHK if he did not make it onto the Legislative Council.

When asked why he wanted to launch a political career in the Isle of Man, he said: ’The Isle of Man has always been a political game-changer in the world.

’With a personality such as mine it will definitely elevate the Isle of Man to a more international standard.’

Mr Clanton chose Friday (August 2) to make the announcement of his new political bid because it was birthday of 19th Century political campaigner and Isle of Man Times editor James Brown.

His website www.moraceae.com carried a ’coming soon’ message as the Isle of Man Examiner went to press.

JAMES BROWN

Liverpool-born James Brown (1815-1881) was a political pioneer in terms of his criticism of the then House of Keys in the 19th Century. He moved to the island in 1846 and, in 1861, he founded the Isle of Man Times, which campaigned for a democratically elected House of Keys.

After refusing to apologise for calling MHKs ’despotic rulers’, in 1864, he was found in contempt and sentenced to six months’ imprisonment in Castle Rushen, although that did not stop him writing more articles criticising the at-the-time unrepresentative Keys.

The Court of the Queen’s Bench later ruled that Brown had been imprisoned unlawfully.

Within two years, the House of Keys became an elected body.

In 2016, Brown was added to the Manx Patriots’ Roll of Honour.