Report abuse

Report abuse

Sigh. The endless innuendo and pursuit of personal vendettas that seeps from behind the protection of the cash-mountain is keeping businesses and employment away from Sark.

It’s also going according to plan poisoning some of the more feeble minds in the community. But not enough to make a democratic difference.

The economic plight of Sark seems to be inexorably entangled with the impression of life on Sark that the Island Pariah (NOT Parish!) and the SNL conveys to the outside world.

Report abuse

Two words, Razzer. SMOKE, FIRE.

Report abuse

Report abuse

Report abuse

Yes it would, at least in England. (I know this because I am a school governor). Schools are empowered by law to offer community functions its called being an “extended school” This would include being able to run a licensed bar subject to the conditions that would be imposed by the licensing authorities.

Schools also frequently get special licences for particular occasions, and school PTA’s frequently sell alcohol on social occasions.

My son’s school in London serves wine to parents at various receptions..

And so forth.

Report abuse

If you are victim of the 2% of bent coppers, then you will take little comfort from stats.

I am not alluding to corruption on Sark, where as you rightly say, the chance of anyone “getting away” with anything always was slim; but with all the paraphernalia of modern technology and Sam the Spy lurking in the bushes, it is now nigh-on impossible!

It’s the Motherland that bothers me. Whitehall (apparently now patrolled by 2% liars with guns) is being presumptuous on the matter of telling Sark how it should operate and merely wants Sark to go away and stop being a nuisance. If the government wanted to get stuck in and resolve the key issue facing Sark, it should not have put a career waffler like Lord McNally in charge.

Here he is – talking inter-alia of the PCC of all things!

http://youtu.be/vEHhrKMUQh0

And here is on the matter of “unlocking disputes”

http://youtu.be/qyXtUuDd8mQ

You could not make it up, could you?

We must not so lightly dismiss the SNL. I know for sure that its intemperate ranting has driven people and would-be investors from coming to the island.

Sticks and stones maybe, but a weekly vat of boiling bile and venom amounts to more than a few sticks and stones. What assurance is there for an incoming businessperson that their lives will not be investigated if their business does not happen to suit the new feudalism of the SEM? Some of the personal comments made about Paul Arditti in past issues (SNL #18 in particular) appear carefully designed to do more than merely “inform”.

We must make no excuses for not taking the matter straight to the Barclays and forcing them to face their responsibilities at last.

Report abuse

Now my guess is that those figures have increased over the years, so in a force the size of the metropolitan police, there will always be corruption and dishonesty, but 98% will be honest, so we must not let things get out of proportion just because media make big play on the dishonest or corrupt ones.

Sark’s Chief Pleas has been voted in democratically, everybody knows those on the committee, the chance of corruption, looking at the above figures, is very small and would not be tolerated for very long.

The SNL is a rag and should just be dismissed out of hand. It’s fighting a losing battle so just ignore it. Difficult I know when you are the subject of its venom, but it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.

Report abuse

Report abuse

However, I can assure you that investors and businesses have been scared away from Sark by the endlessly bilious tripe spouted from the Sark News Letter.

No credible person could trust a word of what Delaney and his masters say. John Sweeney’s exposure of the real encounter in the SEM office set against Delaney’s hysterical reporting was surely the final nail in the coffin of his already marginal credibility.

Sark needs to resolve the conflict – but you must understand that the SEM plans always were and remain fundamentally unsustainable. There never was or can be a sustainable tourist economy on the necessary scale – unless the Bs have been praying very hard and making such huge donations to the Catholic church that Sark wakes up one day to find itself magically transported some 400 miles south east.

Report abuse

While we are speaking of corruption, let’s ask Andrew Mitchell if he shares Kevin’s blind faith in the “official police”.

Overall, I am bemused why a corrupt minority UK administration and its politicised “enforcers” should be so presumptuous as to tell Sark how to conduct its affairs?

Report abuse

Instead they have sought to challenge long held and established traditions and done so by using the power of cash to invest in the island. I am sure that was welcome but it now amounts to “we’ve invested so you should change”. The SNL amounts to not much more than a weekly poison pen letter and to think it is not supported by the brothers is naive.

It is also naive to think that Chief Pleas is any more corrupt than any other Government. You only need to look at the abuse of expenses, cash for questions etc etc here in the democratic UK to see that.

Report abuse

Report abuse

What condescending nonsense. The SEM plan always was unsustainable without changing the entire character of Sark – that 2008 disaster manifesto enshrined the inescapable and inconvenient truth of the thinking behind the plot. And even then it was a long shot given the random climate.

Delaney hides behind an impenetrable shield of others’ cash. The attempt to bankrupt the Hall trustees was a shameful but carefully calculated opening shot, and it worked.

The SNL even seems to be able breach BBC and GP copyright with sneering impunity as it continues to peddles bile, bullying, innuendo, insolence and intimidation.

This maybe the season of good will, but obviously hired agents provocateurs make it quite hard to remain Christian about it all.

Report abuse