Stephen McGinty - I'm all for change, but let's hear it for those quirky laws

Published on Friday 11 April 2008 20:06

SIR Richard Branson is estimated to be worth £4.4 billion, but should the goatee-bearded one be bundled into a hessian sack and spirited away by kidnappers his ransom would, interestingly, be a good deal less. Reading about Sark, the idyllic Channel Island with both feet firmly in the 16th century and barely a stooped head inspecting the present day, I learned that the British government has a standard figure for a knight's ransom.

The reason we know the British government's ransom rates for knights is because each year, the Seigneur of Sark, the top man, must pay 1/20th of the going rate to the crown as rent, a figure calculated at 1.79. The agreement was struck back in 1565, when Elizabeth I asked Helier de Carteret, the Seigneur of a large chunk of Jersey, to clear out the pirates who had set up home on Sark as it was convenient for preying on passing ships.

It is 35.80. Granted in the 16th century this would indeed have been a princely, well, knightly sum, but sadly today it barely constitutes a week's unemployment benefit and so, if left to Gordon Brown's government, Sir Richard would remain chained to dungeon walls.

Carteret arrived with 39 other families, who each took a holding, with the Seigneur enjoying perks that have been passed down to the present day. The current Seigneur, Michael Beaumont, who has held the position for the past 30 years, is the only one with the right to keep pigeons, as well as unspayed female dogs. He also gets to bag the front pew in church and enjoys a 1/13th slice of all property sales on the island, whose population of 600 live in a rural idyll where cars are banned and democracy had not reached. Sark, strictly speaking, isn't part of the UK – the residents pay no taxes and receive no services. Neither is it a sovereign state; instead, it is unique as a "noble fief".

Until this week the island was the last outpost in Europe of feudalism, a place where the law and government were made by the 40 hereditary landowners assisted by just 12 elected deputies, who could, of course, be easily outvoted. On Wednesday the Privy Council gave royal assent to Reform (Sark) Law 2008, a fundamental reform of the island's constitution that will see the introduction of "one man, one vote".

Although supported by a majority of the islanders in a referendum, the drive for change is being spearheaded by Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, former owners of The Scotsman Publications, whose mock Gothic castle on the nearby island of Brecqhou falls under Sark's ancient law, a matter not at all to their liking. Some traditionalists are concerned that the Barclays and their people, who have been buying up land and hotels, wish to convert the island into a resort for the rich, while the brothers' supporters point out that they are creating jobs.

On one hand, I think it's rather sad that ancient ways that have proved successful for centuries must give way because the island's government breaks many of the articles on the European Convention of Human Rights. It will, more than likely, continue to break them, as the Seigneur will retain a power of veto over legislation and the right to appoint the island's only judge, the Seneschal, for life, a decision the Barclay brothers are challenging. And yet, as British troops fight in the dust and dirt of Afghanistan and, Iraq, to bring democracy to former tyrannies abroad, it does seem rather important to ensure that it is in place at home.