Sarky

Jeremy Paxman could not contain his contempt as Michael Crick read out the news of Jack Straw's intervention to require the greater democratisation of Sark, where about four fifths of seats in the legislature are currently attached to the ownership of land and are therefore effectively hereditary, with only the remaining fifth or so determined by election. No wonder Paxman was so scornful of such Ruritanian arrangements. After all, they are so completely unlike the House of Commons. Aren't they?