It has been a bad week for democracy.

The reclusive Barclay brothers, owners of the Daily Telegraph, announced they were closing their businesses on the Channel island of Sark after their candidates in the island's first election for a democratic government were rejected by islanders. Yet those candidates were supposedly in favour of more radical reform of Sark's feudal system. The Barclays' grotesque behaviour shows that they are the true feudal barons. The BBC's reporter declared on air that he was being thrown out of his hotel, which was being closed overnight.

At the same time, Ireland's government confirmed its intention to rerun the referendum on the Lisbon treaty, which the Irish people rejected earlier this year. As many commentators have said, there would have been no such rerun had the referendum resulted in a 'yes' vote.

In both cases, the people spoke, but the establishment refused to accept the result.