THE sudden capitulation of Isle of Sark Shipping over its attempt to take legal action against Brecqhou for using its own vessel to ship building supplies was an inevitable consequence of what we highlighted last week: the company had a poor case, a questionable route to court and insufficient funds to carry it off.

Yet this is not a simple trade dispute. Maintaining a daily shipping service is vital to Sark’s economic survival and it is understandable that the shipping company would seek to safeguard all sources of much-needed revenue.

Yet the legal threat was ill judged and, because Sark Shipping is owned by the island, inevitably reflects on the way Sark is handling the difficulties currently facing it.

The community there is divided between those who support the owners of Brecqhou and those who don’t. Whatever the rights or wrongs of that conflict, there is one inescapable fact: the 21st century has finally caught up with Sark and is not going away.

Those fighting for ‘the good old days’ are becoming increasingly marginalised – most lately by the UK Government. The QC defending the electoral reforms admitted – as Brecqhou contends – that they do not go far enough and changes to the offices of Seigneur and Seneschal would be ‘considered desirable’.

While happy to leave that to Sark, he further marginalised the island by describing it as a dependency of Guernsey, which increasingly has the ability (if not yet the desire) to legislate for its smaller neighbour.

Perhaps worse for Chief Pleas, Guernsey’s own international aspirations are being hampered by the UK’s perception of Sark in some financial areas so it can expect pressure to change from the one area it would seek as an ally in resisting change.

The Seigneur’s reaction this week to calls to come clean about his intentions for the Seigneurie and its famous gardens also played straight into the hands of his critics.

Neither he nor any of the landowning tenants were beholden to Chief Pleas, he declared. In other words, we privileged ones are above if not the law, certainly the people, the same people paying him and his heirs and successors £28,000 a year. It will not have gone down well.

We urged jaw-jaw, not war-war and now the best Sark can hope for is to negotiate change that is the least unpalatable to the old guard.