Politics
Maltby: I’m Manx to the Max!
In the latest episode of Tynwald: The Soap Opera Nobody Asked For, Douglas South MHK Sarah Maltby has taken to Facebook to defend her Manxness.
And like the old Shoprite motto, she’s Manx to the Max!
It’s after a cheeky opinion piece poked fun at her accent, suggesting she took a few moments to ‘get into character’ and ‘perfect her Manx dialect.’
The piece, penned by Manx.News’s Charlie Morrey, described Maltby’s vocal warm-up like something out of a Young Farmers’ concert, claiming she started with the Queen’s English before the ‘Manx engine’ kicked in.
To be fair, if you’ve ever tried to get a P50 started, you’ll know that’s not necessarily an insult.
Maltby, however, was having none of it.
She fired back online, writing: ‘I am actually one of the minority in Tynwald that is actually Manx, and I am proud of it, but I sense I’m being taunted for it here.’
You tell ‘em, Sarah. Gef’s heard less proud declarations at the Prospect bar queue.
She added that she felt ‘taunted’ for her accent and joked that she wouldn’t last five minutes at Buckingham Palace, which, to be fair, not many of us would.
‘It might crank up a notch when I’m nervous,’ she said, ‘but that’s just the Manx in me… and there’s no escape from that!’
Gef admires the commitment. Half the island tones down their accent the second they’re on the Steam Packet, so fair play to her for keeping it authentic.
The original article described her mention of ‘Peel and the Wast’ (which, to clarify, is the West, not a new Marvel villain), but we’re not here to pick apart pronunciation.
But it got us thinking, what other words do us Manxies say slightly different? I guess it’s hard to notice.
While the internet debated professionalism and pronunciation, Gef couldn’t help but agree with Charlie on one point, Tynwald sittings can make watching paint dry seem like a thrill ride.
Still, if Maltby’s accent debate (and Charlie’s opinion piece) has proved anything, it’s that there’s still life (and laughs) left in Manx politics yet.
