UK: Sark

When is feudalism not feudalism? When is not-feudalism feudalism? There have been strange goings on in Sark.

For over a century the island has been under the feudal rule of the Beaumont family. By all accounts the Sarkees were happy with this rather strange arrangement but the Barclay brothers, who live on the nearby island of Brecqhou and have been heavy investors in Sark, were not. They forced the island to have its first democratic election, which has just taken place. The Barclays set out in a newsletter who their favoured candidates were and whom they disliked: one had ‘a socialist streak’ and another was referred to as ‘a feudal talibanist’.

Unfortunately, and this is the problem with democracy, isn’t it, David and Frederick?, only two of the Barclays’ approved people were elected, out of nine.

Now, in a fit of peevishness, the Barclays have stopped their investment in the island and 140 people will lose their jobs. These poor folk must be thinking they were better off with feudalism.

My suggestion to the Barclays is that they spend less time in the Channel islands, where they are less than popular, and more time trying to rescue the Daily Telegraph, which they also own. Now known as the Labourgraph, its editorial line is skewed and it is haemorrhaging readership and journalists at an alarming rate.