From Rory Hill.
THOUGH clearly visible from Sorel Point in Thursday’s fine weather, Sark seemed a world away from us and our less dramatic elections as the events of the day unfolded.
Taking part in the democratic process in great numbers on Wednesday, the Sarkese voted mostly against the Barclay brothers’ preferred candidates. The Barclays’ response? To announce a devastating package of job cuts and investment withdrawal to punish Sark’s inhabitants for not voting as they were told.
Witnessing the Barclays admonishing like protective parents before the election and then behaving like spoilt children denied their own way after the event made me question whether Sark had, indeed, abolished feudalism, or whether it had unwittingly exchanged a benign home-grown set of landed rulers for a meddling imported twosome.
At least in the nature of the Barclays’ post-election actions it can finally be seen that their intentions for Sark do not correlate with what the majority of the islanders themselves want; nor does their behaviour embody the spirit of the democratic process for whch they themselves have been agitating.
I would rephrase Advocate Dawes’s comments that ‘The people of Sark … have only themselves to blame’ to assert rather that they have only themselves to congratulate. They resisted the pressure of two billionaire propagandists and made a clear statement that they alone want to be responsible for the destiny of their own island.
Tragically, the price for such temerity is the loss of jobs and livelihoods. Let the two knights responsible now ride (or swim) back to Brecqhou and limit their insidious influence to the confines of their castle.
Garryowen House,
Rue du Hocq,
St Clement.
