Twins say island's democratic reforms are incomplete and MPs' report fails to understand true cause of Sark's difficulties

The Barclay brothers, owners of the Telegraph Media Group, have launched a fierce attack on the fledgling government of the tiny Channel island of Sark, claiming it is undemocratic and harming the local economy.

Sir David and Sir Frederick made clear their views about the Sark government as a House of Commons committee concluded that tensions between the wealthy twins and elected representatives on the island threatened to blight its future.

The twins, who have a home on the nearby island of Brecqhou, claimed there was "no true democracy" on Sark, which held its first democratic elections five years ago following 400 years of feudalism.

Speaking through their lawyer, Gordon Dawes, they said the Commons justice committee had "failed to identify and understand the true cause of Sark's difficulties, which is that democratic reforms have been left incomplete". They added: "Sark still has a largely feudal government which undermines such democracy as there is on Sark."

The Barclays' comments will do little to ease tensions on the island, highlighted in the report published on Thursday. The committee says conseillers – the equivalent of MPs on the island – feel they are being targeted by threats of legal action and subjected to "intimidating attacks" in a newsletter edited by the Barclay twins' manager on Sark, where the twins own land and businesses.

The committee also acknowledges that the brothers believe the island's parliament, the chief pleas, has brought in legislation that discriminates against them and are pushing for more constitutional change.

The committee's report concludes: "This is a very difficult atmosphere in which to work towards a sustainable economic future for the community on Sark. We deeply regret the apparently intractable discord on Sark."

The chief pleas welcomed the committee's findings. It said: "The report acknowledges the progress made to further strengthen the governance of the island since a fully democratic government was established in 2008."

It did not name the Barclays but said it backed the committee's conclusion that "disputes between different interest groups should not be allowed to get in the way of democratic and economic process".

The Barclays were much less diplomatic, saying Sark had become a "single-party state" grouped around the former feudal seigneur (in effect the lord of the island), Michael Beaumont, who sat on a "large wooden throne" at chief pleas meetings.

"Meaningful reform and creating a sustainable future is not possible in such circumstances," they argued. The brothers claimed that the chief pleas had "adopted legislation and policies which only ensure an unsustainable future for Sark, in other words, no future".

They gave the example of an item on the agenda of next week's chief pleas meeting proposing a tax on alcohol produced on the islands. They suggested this tax was being mooted simply to target the recently planted Barclay family vineyards on Sark.

The brothers made it clear that they were not involved in any legal proceedings with anyone or any bodies on Sark – any disputes were between the chief pleas and their manager on Sark, Kevin Delaney.

But the statement concluded: "Sir David and Sir Frederick's only regret is that they ever invested in Sark in the first place. Their hope that an injection of £30m capital into the island would secure its long-term future has all but entirely been undone by Sark's government. Any other community would have welcomed such investment with open arms and gone out of their way to create the conditions for that investment to succeed, but not Sark, which is now experiencing a self-imposed economic and social collapse."

Rusting explosive device on Isle of Lewis beach discovered day after suspected mortar bomb is disposed of on Norfolk beach

A beach has been cordoned off after the discovery of a rusting explosive device.

The historic item was washed up on Gress Beach on the Isle of Lewis on Sunday morning.

The coastguard were alerted to the discovery and police and disposal teams were sent to deal with it.

A cordon has been erected and police asked the public to stay away from the area while the small device is disposed of.

A police spokesman said: "A small item, which appears to be unexploded ordnance, has been recovered on the beach. Police will maintain the cordon until the item has been safely disposed of and request members of the public to stay away from the area."

It follows the discovery of a suspected mortar bomb on a beach in Norfolk on Saturday. Bomb disposal experts carried out a controlled explosion on the seafront at the village of Hemsby after it was discovered by a member of the public.

New evidence suggests it would have been impossible to stampede mammoths to their deaths at site in Jersey

Heaps of mammoth and woolly rhino bones found piled up at the foot of a cliff were thought to be the grim results of Neanderthals driving the beasts over the edge.

The piles of bones are a major feature at La Cotte de St Brelade on Jersey, one of the most spectacular Neanderthal sites in Europe. But the claim that they mark the remains of mass slaughter has been all but ruled out by a fresh investigation.

Researchers have found that the plateau that ends at the cliff edge was so rocky and uneven that mammoths and other weighty beasts would never have ventured up there. Even if the creatures had clambered so high, the Neanderthals would have had to chase them down a steep dip and back up the other side long before the animals reached the cliff edge and plunged to their doom.

"I can't imagine a way in which Neanderthals would have been able to force mammoths down this slope and then up again before they even got to the edge of the headland," said Beccy Scott, an archaeologist at the British Museum. "And they're unlikely to have got up there in the first place."

Hundreds of thousands of stone tools and bone fragments have been uncovered at the Jersey site where Neanderthals lived on and off for around 200,000 years. The site was apparently abandoned from time to time when the climate cooled, forcing the Neanderthals back to warmer territory.

Scott and her colleagues drew on a survey of the seabed that stretches away from the cliff to reconstruct the landscape when the Neanderthals lived there. The land, now submerged under higher sea levels, was cut with granite ravines, gullies and dead-end valleys – a terrain perfect for stalking and ambushing prey.

"The site would have been an ideal vantage point for Neanderthal hunters. They could have looked out over the open plain and watched mammoths, woolly rhinos and horses moving around. They could see what was going on, and move out and ambush their prey," said Scott. Details of the study are published in the journal Antiquity.

The researchers have an alternative explanation for the bone heaps. Neanderthals living there may have brought the bones there after hunts, or from scavenged carcasses, and used them for food, heating and even building shelters. Older sediments at the site are rich with burnt bone and charcoal, suggesting the bones were used as fuel. The heaps of bones were preserved when Neanderthals last abandoned the site, and a fine dust of silt blew over and preserved the remains.

Archaeologists have investigated the site at La Cotte de St Brelade since the mid-19th century. More artefacts have been unearthed here than at all the other Neanderthal sites in the British Isles put together.

The exposed coastal site, one of the last resting places of the Neanderthals, was battered by fierce storms in February, raising fears that ancient remains at the site had been destroyed.

At the age of 38, Bradford-born Sarah Petre-Mears is running one of the biggest business empires on earth. Or so it would appear.

Many Britons who make a living from "the signing", as they call it, originate from the tiny Channel island of Sark, a notorious British tax haven. Following scandals more than a decade ago over the "Sark Lark", the group scattered, setting up residence in far-flung jurisdictions such as Cyprus, Dubai, Vanuatu, Mauritius, or Nevis in the Caribbean. Many still keep in touch on Facebook.

They make up teams of sham company directors, according to documents the Guardian has seen, taking money to disguise the real ownership of thousands of international companies. This is not illegal, and they generally say they are helping owners preserve legitimate privacy.

The UK government is exploring whether it can force the British Virgin Islands and other offshore havens for which it is ultimately responsible to share far more information on owners of offshore trusts and companies.

Jersey's chief minister, Ian Gorst, confirmed that Channel Island officials were meeting with the Treasury on Tuesday to discuss an extensive information-sharing agreement modelled on a new law being promoted across the world by the US, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Facta) and that though it was only Channel Islands officials in the meetings, the new rules were also being discussed with the BVI and others.

Nice one, chancellor. In offering budget support for celebrations to mark 800 years since the signing of the Magna Carta, the former Oxford history student could not resist a passing prod at Ed Miliband, who only read philosophy, politics and economics.

"King John's humbling, centuries ago seems unimaginably distant. A weak leader (pause) who had risen to the top (pause) after betraying his brother (pause) compelled by a gang of unruly barons to sign on the dotted line," said George Osborne, before concluding that today's generation should learn the lessons of 1215. After a joke-drought budget, coalition MPs laughed gratefully. But is the quip true?

An offshore financier who is the brother-in-law of financial services minister Andrea Leadsom has donated £816,000 to the Conservative party since she first successfully ran for parliament at the last election.

Peter de Putron, a banker who lives in Guernsey and is married to Leadsom's sister Hayley, also made a further £1m of donations to a party-backed campaign and a rightwing thinktank. Leadsom herself said that she was unaware of the donations made by a member of her own family, but a Labour MP asked whether the payments in effect amounted to a "cash for political office" arrangement.

The Guardian has revealed the identities of celebrities and aristocrats including Mel Gibson and Eddie Jordan who have had offshore dealings, as controversy grows over the Jersey links of the newly-appointed financial services minister Andrea Leadsom.

Following Wednesday's disclosure that the Conservatives have received £816,000 in offshore donations from Leadsom's Channel Islands-based brother-in-law, the Labour MP Paul Farrelly, who campaigns on tax issues, has called for the cabinet secretary to step in.

Peter Kennaugh won gold for Great Britain at the London Olympics in the cycling team pursuit, but for the 25-year-old, Saturday's silver at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow still felt "pretty special".

Kennaugh rides for Team Sky and, as the current British road race champion, might have felt almost as aggrieved as Sir Bradley Wiggins at being excluded from this year's Tour de France squad. Sky's loss, however, is the Isle of Man's gain the 25-year-old hails from Douglas, and his 40km points race Commonwealth medal took the total won by the island since its 1958 Games debut to 11.

The Channel Islands politicians insist compulsory bike helmet use for under 14s will improve public health. But the evidence does not seem to be on their side

For UK cyclists the issue of compulsory helmet use has been until now, to use the phrase, a quarrel in a faraway land, with the main proponents being Australia, New Zealand and parts of Canada and the US. But now it has arrived on our shores.

Earlier this month all children aged under 14 on the Channel Island of Jersey who ride a bike without a helmet risk a £50 fine for their parents. The law has been progressing for a long time, first mooted in 2010 covering all cyclists.

The aim of the legislation is that if you can get children into the habit of wearing a helmet younger, that should say with them.

I wouldnt say were confident. Were going to have to look at the numbers and see.

Those figures [about helmet compulsion hampering cyclist numbers] dont stack up, and Im even more confident when were talking about children. I can only talk from Jersey experience, but I believe children participating in cycling will increase after the law, based on the number of phone calls Ive had from parents saying, I want little Johnny to wear a helmet. He wont wear it because his friends wont wear one. Therefore I wont let him have a bike.

Frankly, I dont think you can put that at the door of cycle helmets. Thats happening anyway. I think Jersey has a higher rate of activity participation. Its not going to put people off. Its only for children. The evidence I see is that more children will cycle, based on what parents are saying.

I dont really care about the macho twits who duck in and out of city traffic wearing headphones but no helmet, without a thought for the mothers and girlfriends who will pick up their pieces.

I dont really care about the lazy twits who duck in and out of fast food restaurants eating burgers but taking no exercise, without a thought for the wives and children who will pick up their pieces of their diabetes or stroke or heart attack.

If you just save one life, or save one life from being blighted, its worth it.

There is an argument for improving infrastructure for cyclists generally, but its not cheap and it doesnt happen quickly, particularly on old roads where theres not a lot of room to provide segregation. That doesnt mean we shouldnt give up pushing.

A four-year-old girl has been rescued after drifting half a mile out to sea on her bodyboard.

Jemima Chambers was playing in the shallows during a family holiday on Jersey when she floated off. The girl's mother, Rebecca Chambers, said she was a "speck" way out to sea when she realised what had happened. Chambers jumped on to the back of a jetski and chased after the little girl. She was amazed to find when she got to the board that Jemima was lying contented and relaxed on the board with no idea of the panic she had been causing. She was brought back to shore unharmed.

Police in Thailand say they are focusing on migrant workers in the hunt for the person responsible for the murder of a British man and woman on the island of Koh Tao.

The bodies of David Miller, 24, from Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, were discovered semi-naked on a beach at the popular divers' destination on Monday. A bloodstained hoe, believed to be the murder weapon, was found nearby.

The Thai paradise island where two Britons were murdered felt safe and sleepy when I was there a few months ago

It is a part of the world routinely described as paradise. And of the popular Gulf of Thailand islands, this is supposed to be the quiet, laid-back one; a paradise not quite so sullied by tourists.

But the calm of Koh Tao island has been shattered by the murder of two British backpackers: David Miller, 24, from Jersey, and Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Great Yarmouth. Conflicting reports have suggested police are hunting for a British man in connection with the murders, but are also focussing on migrant workers.

A British intelligence officer turned author says he might take out a prosecution against the islands collectively under an ancient law of harbouring of the Kings enemy

A furious row has broken out in the Channel Islands after a former British intelligence officer said on a local television programme that among other things, he plans to name black marketeers who made a fortune during the German occupation.

Mr Peter Tombs, now a representative for a wood firm and living in Norwich, had to be protected from angry islanders after the programme Speak Out on Monday nights Channel Television.

More than 50 residents of a tiny island paradise have contacted police claiming they have suffered harassment from local journalists. The newspaper concerned is edited by a man with links to the wealthy media owners the Barclay brothers.

Police on Guernsey, in the Channel Islands, have investigated allegations made by people who live on neighbouring Sark and the case file is currently under review, the Guardian has learned.

Westbrook partners investor attacked for £4m home as firm plans offshore ownership for flats to avoid corporation tax

The Mayfair investor overseeing plans that could lead to the eviction of dozens of low-income families on an east London estate has bought a £3.9m country mansion, prompting anger among residents facing homelessness.

Mark Donnor, 41, the managing principal of the London office of Westbrook partners, the $11bn (£7bn) US investment firm behind the buy-out of the New Era estate in Hoxton, last year bought the 12-bedroom mansion in the Home Counties, Land Registry documents reveal. The grade II-listed mansion has a lawn tennis court, swimming pool, sauna, gymnasium and butler’s quarters.

It becomes the third UK regional daily to charge for access to its website

A third UK regional daily newspaper has adopted a metered paywall. In future, the Jersey Evening Post will allow users to read 10 online articles for free each month and then demand a charge for further views.

Its readers will be able to take advantage of an introductory subscription offer of 99p per month with the price rising to £4.99 per month thereafter, reports HoldTheFrontPage.

Ed Miliband (‘I will not back down’ – Miliband, 7 February) does not have to be so tentative about tax havens in UK crown dependencies and British overseas territories (BOTs). In BOTs such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, executive authority is vested in the monarch and exercised on her behalf by the governor, who is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the British government. Defence and foreign affairs are carried out by the UK, which also has responsibility to ensure good government. UK governments have never hesitated to step in when necessary, and if any BOTs defy international order or the reasonable requirements of European governments, such intervention would clearly be justified.

The Channel Islands are crown dependencies, and the UK parliament has power to legislate for them. Again, British governments have stepped in where required for matters such as child protection – and tax avoidance by UK citizens must justify intervention if the local administration refuses transparency in its affairs.
Michael Ellman
London