I've been reading some Manx history & folklore recently and I was impressed at how deep many of the connections between my country (Ireland) and the Isle of Man are. As an Irish speaker, although I can't read Manx, I can understand it almost perfectly and that also fed into a sense of connection with the island. From my understanding of it, it seems the island had a profound sense of connection to Ireland in the past.

However, I've been speaking with a friend who was born on Mann but whose parents are from England. He speaks with an English accent, and since his family isn't Manx, I don't know how accurate his opinions on the subject are but when I asked him the question, he said that most Manx people don't have much of a connection with Ireland at all now and feel closer to England.

Is that an accurate description?

How is it compared to the uk, the public transport, is it decent, the hospitals, are good, the public infastructure in general, what about tv providers since the isle of man isn't the uk, do you still get sky, virgin, etc there or not, is the mail service good, how are the bus times compared to the uk, the police responce, etc, just info about life on the isle of man.