Isle of Man

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The flag of the Isle of Man.

The Isle of Man (also known simply as Mann or the IOM; Manx: Ellan Vannin) is a scenic but fairly insular island[1] in the Irish Sea, right in the centre of the British Isles, with a population of around 80,000.[2] It is best known for its motorcycle race, the TT. It was also the birthplace of the Bee Gees, although they moved to Manchester as small children and then to Australia.

The Manx language is closely related to the Irish and Scottish Gaelic languages but, unlike them, uses a somewhat quaint old English spelling system.

Contents

[edit] Sovereignty, national and personal

Contrary to popular assumption, it is not part of the United Kingdom, although it is a crown dependency, responsible to Her Maj and to the British government in matters of defence and good governance. It had belonged to Vikings up until the middle 13th Century. It has had its own parliament for over a thousand years, notorious for maintaining some delightfully homophobic laws against sodomy. Some might well have found the punishment rather enjoyable if they had attended a British public school[3].

Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1994, more than twenty-five years later than the UK. Legislation against homophobic discrimination in the workplace was enacted as late as 2005.

For a number of years, the IOM was renowned for birching recalcitrant drunken youths.

[edit] Tax haven, of sorts

The Isle of Man Banking Act recognizes impressive depositor confidentiality, in principle. In practice the Financial Supervision Act of 1988 permits disclosure when required to assist criminal proceedings. This has led to a number of people, mostly older, and from England, coming over and buying up the bigger houses. Various types of criminals have taken an interest in the island, due to its peculiar tax status, and "no questions asked" banking system. It's also a popular choice if you're looking for a country to set up your offshore trust in.

[edit] Prison island

During the Second World War, London used the island as the location for internment camps for members of the British Union of Facists (BUF) (followers of Oswald Mosley), although the senior leaders of the group were held in lock-ups elsewhere. Defence Regulation 18B, announced on May 22, 1940 authorized the Home Secretary to imprison without trial anybody he believed likely to "endanger the safety of the realm".[4].

Bizarrely, the Isle of Man also housed internment camps for recent German emigrés, mostly Jews who had fled Nazi persecution.

[edit] Cats

Mann is also home to a breed of genetically tailless cats called Manx.

[edit] Mythology

The Isle of Man has a rich tradition of belief in fairies, and some True Believers claim that the island is the last place where living fairies may be found, or that only humans who speak Manx will ever be able to encounter them. Of course, since very few people can still be said to be native speakers of Manx - literally several hundred - very few people see fairies. This is why science cannot prove fairies.

The answer to the riddle, "What has three legs and flies?", is "Manx trousers".

[edit] External links

[edit] Footnotes

  1. Residents of the Isle of Man are noted for their intense enjoyment of lexical ambiguity.
  2. http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_pop_totl&idim=country:IMY&dl=en&hl=en&q=population+of+isle+of+man
  3. http://www.corpun.com/imjur1.htm
  4. British Union of Fascists
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