TIME to REMEMBER: Mark Solly
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Manx Heritage Foundation: TIME TO REMEMBER: Mark Solly MANX HERITAGE FOUNDATION ORAL HISTORY PROJECT ORAL HISTORY TRANSCRIPT ‘TIME TO REMEMBER’ Interviewee: Mr Mark Solly Date of birth: Place of birth: Interviewer: Roger Rawcliffe and Sue Lewis Recorded by: Roger Rawcliffe Date recorded: 16th November 2006 Topic(s): History of the Finance Sector Cultural resistance to changes in laws The abolition of surtax Legal career Appointment as Deputy Assessor of Income Tax Sir Ronald Garvey Ronaldsway Aircraft and Martin Baker The Palace & Derby Castle Company and Casino Company Registration Tax Local legal and financial personalities Captive Insurance Companies SIB [Savings & Investment Bank] collapse MEA [Manx Electricity Authority] and Mike Proffitt Isle of Man Post Graduate Medical Centre Bank account-opening restrictions Mark Solly - Mr S Roger Rawcliffe - RR Sue Lewis - SL 1 Manx Heritage Foundation: TIME TO REMEMBER: Mark Solly RR ... he started a piece of research ... however, he [unclear] ... Mr S Well I’d ... be interesting to hear or see how it comes out because, last night I was at a Maitland’s ‘Jolly’ and Charles Cain said a few words, and ... either it was a matter poetic license or ... umm ... a complete re-writing of the script. Umm ... you know, he ... he attributed most of the legislation ... umm ... to the Keys of the 1986 election. And he drew attention to the number of university degrees, professional qualifications there were in that House of Keys by comparison with err ... with today. But of course, many of the things like exempt companies, exempt insurance companies and what have you, that was all before. So, anyway, as I say ... RR Well, Charles in notoriously poetic in his approach, you know ... (laughter) Mr S Well, let’s ... let’s ... let’s not be too particular. (laughter) But it is interesting, I mean, you see things in the paper, and I mean, it’s ... well, again, my memory may be faulty as well, but umm ... err ... the business of re-writing history is quite interesting. RR I’d like to attempt to re-write history. Mr S But, well, carry on and I will try and be brief ... RR Err ... what ... what ... what I’m ... I’ll just try and give you the flavour of what I’m trying to do ‘cos it’s ... it’s ... it’s ... well you’ve done a lot of excellent stuff on all this. But that’s not what I’m ... really what I’m doing. What I’m trying ... what I was asked to do was write a history of the finance sector. Well that’s ... and, on reflection, as I turned that over in my mind, and ... the way I’ve come out, is to try to give a history of what’s happened in the last 45 years, since 1960, really, set in its context before 1960 ... how the Isle of Man can, because of its peculiar jurisdiction, you can have debtors and etcetera, etcetera, coming here, smugglers and ... doesn’t deal with the history of smuggling, I mean, it’s not intended to do that, it’s merely pointing out that it’s the peculiar nature of the country ... of the Island’s range, with the anomalies to enable us to do these things, and ... and therefore to talk about the things we’ve done. But it’s also to talk about the effect of all these things on the Isle of Man, so that ... and on the Manx, so that the Manx people, who all burn down houses in the 1970s as SFSO in the 1980s, and complain about building and all these things, err ... how 2 Manx Heritage Foundation: TIME TO REMEMBER: Mark Solly all these jobs, all this work that we now do, reflects on that issue, and how that issue actually has got precedence in – when all the boarding housekeepers came, there were people who moaned, all these boarding house peoples had come and nobody spent any money on Ramsey. And, when you go back a bit further, they didn’t like the half-pay officers – policy about [unclear]. And then people of course come, and they build things, and they build in a new style or whatever it may be. So it’s ... it’s ... not intended to be a simple history of the finance sector – not by me, and I think ... and Charles did say, he didn’t wanted narrower. So Sue’s actually been doing this ... also been doing these bits of work, as it happened, on other ... other things that had been being said at different times; subversive literature, if you like, and ... and ... and these things which are all part of the picture. It doesn’t mean to say that they’re right. (laughter) Mr S No. RR But it is part of what I am talking about – what I’m trying to do. Mr S Well, without going back beyond – much beyond 1960, other than to point at Methodism, or and that err ... that as a cultural route, I think one of the things I would like to say, ‘cos I think it’s ... it’s interesting as to what this sprang out of and it is even now, where are we, fifty years later, umm ... RR Virtually, aren’t we ... Mr S ... umm ...’61 – 45, anyway, I mean, how different it was; but again, not only how different it was, but even then there was a fair bit of humbuggery there. I mean, when I say that, the umm ... I mean, the licensing laws were very restrictive. Umm ... I mean, I was particularly familiar with this, because through the 60s I was involved with running the Easter Rugby Festival, and these were sort of ... there were seven ... there was err ... Good Friday was in Douglas, err ... Saturday was at King William’s College ... RR I’ve done that. Mr S ... and then err ... the Monday was back in Douglas. And umm ... I mean, it was the devil’s own job, you really had to stand to attention and tug forelocks and do all sorts of things to get a ... umm ... a special liqueur license on Good Friday 3 Manx Heritage Foundation: TIME TO REMEMBER: Mark Solly and Easter ... no ... was Easter Monday ...? Well, it was certainly ... RR Easter Monday would have been alright, but Easter Sunday you would have had to have had a license. Mr S Easter Sunday, of course, and so, you know, it’s ... but at the same time, we had First Deemster Kneale, falling between the gangway and err ... (laughter) and the vessel that had been set to pick him up. RR He went ... he came off the royal yacht or something ... Mr S Anyway, I ... RR ... he stepped, off the side and the ... the bank went down there, and he did that in one step, into the water (laughter) ... Mr S ... but we don’t need to dwell on it ... RR No. Mr S ... but this is repressive ... err ... no, not repressive, a cultural resistance to ... umm ... err ... well, alcohol and gambling, of course. And of course, it was back in again, they’re looking for umm ... commercial opportunities and what have you. And there’s a big battle, or much lobbying and ... travelling and what have you, and so there is a casino. But there are ... there would have been forces that would have strangled it at birth ... RR And ... Mr S ... they could. But then, by contrast, that got up and running, and err ... ran into a bit of rascally business shortly thereafter ... RR Were you on the great Casino Raid? (laughter) Mr S No, I was just the right side of 21 at the time so, while I was called back to the office, umm ... I was then stood down ... umm ... but within half a dozen years, the thing that they’d ... err ... the government had invested a lot in, called the Manx Hospitals’ Lottery, err ... that failed ... 4 Manx Heritage Foundation: TIME TO REMEMBER: Mark Solly RR Yes, I remember it. Mr S ... err ... sorry, it didn’t fail, it was ... I think one or more MHKs sort of kept batting at it, I mean, it was going to run at a loss ... RR So it never really started, did it? Mr S Yes, it ran for three years and err ... the first year made an expected deficit, the second year I think was better, and the third year, of course, the knives had been out and it disappeared beneath the waves. Umm ... and Fred Faragher is now commemorated at the gateway to Castletown Football Club – another retired policeman with not a great deal else to do. Umm ... so, anyway, that ... that I think ... it doesn’t do to lose sight of that ... RR Yea. Mr S ... and of course we’re then, courtesy of UK Government, we’ve got exchange control, and courtesy of Isle of Man Government we’ve got the Usury Acts. Err ... so it’s all pretty buttoned down as far as ... and, of course, there’s the Birch and the hanging and that sort of thing, as well. RR If you look in the umm ... Tynwald debates, for example, looking at the amount of heat it generates, egalitarian society, in some ways, in instinct. It’s not like Ireland, which is, even though they are Celtic people, their temperament is so different from ours where anything goes. But err ... the Manx [unclear], which is found in small communities all over the world, umm ... is always being talked about, but when we get the introduction of the abolition of surtax, of course, they all say, ‘We don’t want all these rich fellows – we don’t mind the poor, rich people coming, but we don’t want the rich, rich people to come.’ Mr S I have to say that I share that sentiment at the moment.