Government and Politics
The Isle of Man is part of the British Isles but not the United Kingdom. It is a Crown Dependency with its own parliament,
Tynwald. Established by the Vikings, Tynwald is the oldest continuous parliament in Europe, having celebrated its own millennium in 1979. It’s divided into two distinct parts: the
Legislative Council and the
House of Keys. The 24 publicly-elected Members of the House of Keys (‘MHKs’) are the Island’s equivalent of MPs, but due to the Isle of Man’s unique political system, there are no party politics. The Queen is the ‘
Lord of Mann’, the Island’s constitutional head of state, represented by a resident
Lieutenant Governor. The Island is not a full member of the European Union; instead, it has associate status. This enables Island traders to trade with the rest of the community but the Island is not eligible for EU grants or liable for financial contributions.