Word: islanders
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...primary force for change has been reclusive billionaire twins, Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay, who live in a castle on a private island within Sark's territorial waters. The brothers, who own London's Ritz hotel and the Daily Telegraph newspaper, have used the European Court of Human Rights to help overturn a local inheritance law requiring property to be left only to the oldest male heir and also the "treizième tax," which dedicated one-thirteenth of the sale price of property to the Seigneur...
...open conflict with the Seigneur, 80-year-old Michael Beaumont, whom Dawes calls a "dictator ruling through deference." Beaumont supports full democracy and has called for his powers to be diminished, but the Chief Pleas has resisted. The Seigneur remains a popular figure, whose family has governed the island since...
...Barclays, meanwhile, have recently bought up as much as a fifth of the island, including three of its six hotels, raising fears in the tourism-reliant community that the pair are becoming overlords themselves...
...Sark's inhabitants held directorships of companies. In a scheme dubbed the "Sark Lark", many residents sold their names or addresses to companies eager to take advantage of Sark's zero taxes and regulation-free environment. Sark is now regulated by a financial-services authority based on the nearby island of Guernsey...
Clearly, she is not alone in her lack of enthusiasm. After its historic vote, the Chief Pleas did nothing to celebrate. It simply moved on to the next item on its agenda: Should electric bicycles be allowed on the island...