Newsletter attacked over Mrs Beaumont medevac ‘politics’
Thursday 19th January 2012, 1:00PM GMT.
The Sark Newsletter has again said that a patient should have been transferred by helicopter rather than by marine ambulance Flying Christine III. (Picture by Steve Sarre, 1216857)
ANGRY conseillers have called upon the Barclay family to condemn the Sark Newsletter, claiming its publishing of sensitive medical details relating to an emergency transfer was politically motivated.
But its editor claimed its article about Diana Beaumont – wife of the seigneur – being transferred from the island earlier after apparently suffering a stroke was a matter of public interest.
In a combined statement to Chief Pleas yesterday, Emergency Services Committee chairman Helen Plummer and Medical Committee chairman Diane Baker criticised the publication.
They were outraged it suggested harm was caused to Mrs Beaumont because she was transported to Guernsey by marine ambulance Flying Christine III and not a helicopter.
Newsletter editor Kevin Delaney also runs Sark Estate Management, the investment company owned by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay. He dismissed the accusations.
Sir David and Sir Frederick were not immediately available for comment yesterday.
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I would love to see an apology and the newsletter stopped all together. It is usually just a load of one sided propaganda.
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“Propoganda” against an archaic regime that is thoroughly rotten.
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So says the Sark newsletter…
You work for them any chance Phil?
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Dani
I hope you are considering standing for election. You would be an excellent candidate.
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Thank you
That is so lovely of you to say. My heart would definitely be in it but I already have a good job where the grass is green and I have the potential to get paid a lot more. My employer would not like the idea of me having both jobs either. Maybe one day when I’m older/wiser/more financially secure or I become the boss myself. (Should that ever happen.)
You are clearly quite passionate about this island – have you considered standing?
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Dani
Its a shame because I’m sure I’m not alone in saying you create a very good impression.
The education debate captured my attention but having experienced objection to my views on this forum I can tell you my skin would not be thick enough to stand – I would be booed and hissed like a pantomime villain!
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Dani
I think you will find “me olde mucker” Spartacus works in the Guernsey Finance industry….
Not states education as Stephen John would have you believe
So not able to stand in Sark then are you Spartie?
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The sark news letter is one big wind up and a lot of rubbish made up by management, i wish they would pack there bags and go back to where they come from.
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And take all their money with them? And close all their businesses? Thereby leaving Sark in one hell of a financial state, condemning the population to a life of struggle for employment etc.
What a great idea.
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Phil,
I think it is worth taking a slightly longer term look at the situation.
Sark has been a thriving community for hundreds of years.
Some who were raised on the island have left, and others have come.
Sark has never had a dole for people to rely on, so either people have come and found work, come to do a specific job, or come to retire with enough money in the bank to do so.
Until recently, there has never been one MAJOR employer on the island. As an example, the hotels have been owned independently (and recruited appropriately).
Since the arrival of SEM all of these businesses are controlled, owned or run by one company. If the businesses they own were sold to independent business owners like before then nothing would change.
In the old days if you didn’t like or agree with your boss you left and got a different job. If a large proportion of the businesses are owned by one group and you fall out, don’t like or don’t agree, where do you go.
In a small place diversity is good. We all need to co-exist. Not bully our competitors. In fact, not bully at all !
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You know what Phil? If they did there are MANY others who then feel it was safe to come out of the woodwork and get thoroughly involved with creating a PROPERLY sustainable economy on Sark. Not one based on “jobs for the serfs” beholden to the new money within seasonal industries.
The initial petulant election response, and the pathetic abuse of vulnerable patients over their desire to obtain helicopter landing rights by stealth, are merely exposing tips of the propaganda iceberg.
The world has changed MASSIVELY in the past 4 years But because of these past four years – and the abject failure of exactly the sort of so-called “democracy” that Delaney bleats about with the obsessive intensity or the deranged – Sark has now a HUGE amount extra to bring to the global party – especially in terms of online businesss.
If the shadow was to leave – and the assets sold off – the slack would be taken up in months. And with the benefit of hindsight, the Establishment would be rather better equipped to deal with the next wave of development in th interest of the who island. So no wonder the SNL is prepared to adopt ANY tactics to try and cause the Establishment to throw in the towel and give up: the stakes are greater than ever.
It’s entirely possible that in a “New deal” islanders could be funded to buy and run the various SEM establishments; borrowing is cheap at the moment.
But as long as Sark lives under the cloud, the impasse will continue.
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Larky
What a load of absolute nonsense.
Q. Why have the Barclays been able to buy up so much of Sark?
A. Because the previous owners were only too happy to accept their money.
Q. What was the job market like for ORDINARY Sark people (not the shameful Sark Lark brigade) before SEM was around?
A. Terrible, many young people had no choice but to leave the island in search of work elsewhere.
Q. What do you think Sark has to offer in terms of online business that can’t be offered elsewhere?
A. Very very little, if not nothing.
What on earth are you talking about re a “New Deal” and if you think that money is cheap and freely available at the moment then you really do live in cloud cuckoo land.
RS
Sark thriving? In the 20 or 30 years before SEM came on the scene? Only for the Sark Lark brigade, signing off arms deals that they had no knowledge of, acting in ways that these days would see them all criminalised. For the rest it was more a case of survival, and for some they couldn’t even stay on their own island due to a total lack of opportunities.
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Hi there Phil.
I for one wonder if anyone would really notice. The businesses would get sold to independents.
Some people on Sark may wish diversify their businesses.
The gaps, would, over time, get filled.
Oh yes, didn’t this happen, for a short time back in 2008?. When someone through his dummy out of the pram when the People of Sark told him what they thought of him in the first election.
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maybe some one can play them at there own game and dig up some stories about delaney and co.
give it a try.
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Milly – who needs to “dig up stories”…?
“By their actions shall ye know them”.
They have already committed so many atrocities against good taste, civility and simple good manners – that there is absolutely is no need to join Delaney & Co in the same gutter.
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The problem with any private monopoly in a small jurisdiction is that it denies the residents any real choice. If a wealthy entrepreneur decides to buy up a large part of any locale then it is bound to have an effect on that small community. In Sark it is compounded by the fact that they cannot just go up the road a few miles to enhance their choice, as what they have on their doorstep is the only option available unless of course they just go without. The whole sorry recent history of Sark appears to be one wealthy family using the badly written Sark Newsletter as a club to batter people into submission most of it directed at the elected administration of Sark.
It is difficult to see at times what the owners of Brecqhou want, having moved to the Island and built their castle, they then mounted their white chargers to save Sark from a feudal system and turn the island into a democracy. Forgetting of course that the House of Lords has pretty much the same system and I cannot help wondering why their time wasn’t better spent sorting out that wholly undemocratic system on their doorstep.
There was an election on Sark, the people spoke and a government was formed. The result wasn’t what some people wanted and toys were thrown from the pram and businesses closed for a while. All very sad and it is not just my view, this is what the New Your Times said
“The law of unintended consequences indeed! The hubris of the Barclay brothers when faced with a comprehensive rejection of their attempt at replacing one feudal hierarchy with another is breathtaking. It would indeed be a fitting end to have their property expropriated by the Chief Pleas so that Sark can return to the tranquillity it has long enjoyed”.
— Anthony Dunn 22nd December 08
“It’s clear Barclay brothers had no plan B, when they tried to ‘invest’ in democracy for the Sark residents. But now it turned out that now Sark is getting a Government of the people and not the “funders” of the people”.
— Arun Mehta 12th December 08
It is possible that one day peace will return to this beautiful island but I fear it will not be anytime soon with the Sark Newsletter determined to ensure that it doesn’t, this latest attack on the issue of medivac is typical of the problem and if Mr Delaney continues this excruciatingly boring diatribe against this tiny island, he will continue to be criticised in this way.
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Phil:
Q. Why have the Barclays been able to buy up so much of Sark?
A. Because the previous owners were only too happy to accept their money.
Better answer: Because SEM paid over the market price and distorted the market, usefully illustrating Dave Jones’ point on distortion in small markets.
However, since you choose to overlook my primary point that the bully boy SNL is forcing all but the very bravest to keep their heads down for fear of the sort of litigation that wins by weight of cash rather than force of argument and truth, the rest of what you have to say, is specious.
With more own goals like the chopper pilot’s awkward admission that commercial motives are behind the apparently generous offer of the helicopter, even CP might eventually pluck up the courage to do what Anthony Dunn suggests, and ask all those who dislike what has to been done to Sark by the SEM assault, to chip in and fund the compulsory purchase the SEM assets in the interests of good government soi that the Island can return to a sane and diverse economy.
A simple 99% tax on the global assets of all Sark and Brecqhou residents above £100m should help.
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What utter nonsense you write Larky. At first I thought you were little more than a worthless troll. Then I read a few of your older posts. I conclude that you are completely nuts.
I believe you are so petty you would be jealous of even a neighbour with a newer car than you happen to have.
I feel for you. What a disposition. It can’t be easy.
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You are envious of those with money is what screams out from your posts.
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Tim
Yes. I completely agree. He’s certainly short of a few things in his head that’s for sure.
He is exactly the sort of individual the Island doesn’t need. The insane idiot had the gall to offer his services of negotiator and peace maker.
Just to see if I can draw out anything of value I ask what is so attractive about Sark for “online businesses?”
Is it the ease of access?
It is the infrastructure offering instant turn-key business start-ups?
Only SEM has achieved that to date.
Is it the antiquated electricity supply that would only be the envy of a tribe living in the depths of any underdeveloped jungle terrain?
Is it the cost of the electricity that would seal the deal?
Is it the non-existent fibre-optical link with the rest of the planet?
Do you know of wealthy entrepreneurs that are about to install such a link to give Sark the awesomeness that only you seem to be aware of?
Do you know anything we mere mortals don’t?
Is Amazon looking for somewhere central to the Channel Islands with a view to building interconnecting bridges to each of them?
Sark would be their hub if you like.
You are that out of touch with reality you truly believe you’re being clever by suggesting the introduction of laws to gain control by what is little more than theft for
whatever could be seen as a bit of an earner.
Sark and its select few have done just that, to the best of their ability, before they anybody to keep what’s going on in check.
Who would enforce these laws you suggest then?
I think you will find that approach has been tried and tested. It has also failed miserably.
Why do you think the Seigneur has downsized?
If you knew anything at all you would know it’s not for the cosiness.
Who would pay for the legal challenges the instant anything unpalatable was suggested?
Would you expect the Guernsey taxpayers to stump up the cash?
The UK?
You, sir, are a fool.
You’re not worthy of any further debate as far as sorting Sark’s affairs out is concerned.
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