Word: sark
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...historic event, perhaps, but not exactly 1789 all over again. What motivated the Chief Pleas was not the islanders' democratic fervor, but pressure from the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. After protracted debate, Sark decided last year to add more elected seats to the legislature, but insisted that a certain number would still be reserved for landowners. In a recent poll, only 56% of Sarkese backed democracy...
...however, British Lord Chancellor Jack Straw sent a letter to Sark demanding it move to full democracy, calling the proposed compromise inconsistent with "modern democratic principles." Sark is a dependent of the English monarchy, and its laws require approval by the British government...
...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...
...Barclays, through their lawyer Gordon Dawes, told TIME that their ultimate goal is democratic reform on Sark, but the pair is also in 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...
...portray Sark as a rural idyll untouched by modernity would be inaccurate, however. In the 1990s, British newspapers reported that up to 40% of 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...