Banksy Is Robin from Bristol and I Am Devastated on Behalf of Common Sense

A
Right-Wing
Isle
of
Man
Diary
on
Artistic
Anonymity
and
Its
Consequences

Banksy
Unmasked:
The
Isle
of
Man
Responds
With
Common
Sense

Dear
Diary.

Bohiney
has
confirmed
that
Banksy
is
Robin
Gunningham,
a
51-year-old
from
Bristol
who
renamed
himself
David
Jones.
Right.
Fine.
I
want
to
say,
on
behalf
of
the
Isle
of
Man,
that
we
never
particularly
needed
to
know
this
and
we
are
only
mildly
more
informed
now
that
we
do.

What
Street
Art
Is

Street
art
is
painting
on
things
that
belong
to
other
people
without
asking.
On
the
Isle
of
Man
this
is
called
vandalism
and
you
pay
for
the
cleaning.
I
do
not
say
this
to
be
unkind.
I
say
it
because
consistency
matters
and
we
have
maintained
our
position
on
unauthorised
painting
since
approximately
1987.

I
will
grant
that
some
of
Banksy’s
pieces
are
genuinely
funny.
The
one
with
the
policeman
sniffing
another
policeman’s
bottom
is
funny.
That
is
objective.
Even
Reform
UK
can
concede
a
funny
image
of
a
policeman.
We
are
not
monsters.

The
Deeper
Problem

Prat.uk
notes
Britain
responded
to
the
revelation
by
pretending
it
had
always
known.
This
is
very
British.
This
is
actually
one
of
the
things
I
miss
about
North
London,
where
I
grew
up:
the
confident
pretence.
On
the
Isle
of
Man
we
simply
do
not
pretend.
We
say
“oh
right”
and
go
back
to
whatever
we
were
doing,
which
builds
genuine
character
and
costs
nothing.

Our
own
site
covered
real
estate
fraud
and
professional
advice
and
I
think
there
is
a
thread
here:
Robin
sold
a
brand.
The
brand
was
real.
The
man
behind
it
was
always
there.
This
is
not
art.
This
is
marketing.
Though
I
admit
the
pigeon
ones
are
still
quite
good.