St. Helena Hotels and Resorts

Under the proprietorship of the East India Company, St Helena was administered by a governor and a council, who were appointed by the Company's directors in London.  Prior to 1673, a majority of members of the council were to be chosen by the settlers, but this provision was later revoked and councillors were appointed by the Company.  Although generally autocratic, the East India Company's administration was informed by the instruction that 'English men are led not forced'.  On account of the personalities involved, this has not always been the result on the ground and governors were frequently accused of acting arbitrarily.
 
After St Helena came under the control of H.M. Government, the island's affairs continued to be run by a governor with the advice of an executive council.  Nevertheless, the Crown government's attitude to the island was fundamentally different from that taken by the East India Company, as was pointed out by John Melliss in 1875: “The view taken of St. Helena by the Home Government has, I think, altogether been a mistake.  It has been looked upon as a colony, and, under the management of the Colonial Office, made self-supporting.  It has, however, no claim to the former, and endeavours to make it the latter must end in failure.  The place is really a fortification, and, as the key to the whole of the South Atlantic, is one of England's greatest fortresses, and as such ought to be under the control of either the Admiralty or the War Department.

Despite being an exclusively English speaking colony, most of whose inhabitants were the descendants of white settlers and soldiers, political reform on St Helena was slow.  From the 1850s onwards, local newspapers campaigned vociferously for representative government, initially without success.  The first non-official members were only introduced onto the council in 1878, and a separate advisory council was not formed until 1939.  This new council allowed for a small element of popular representation, a measure which was enlarged by further reforms in 1956.  Although an influential sector of the population had for many decades called for representative government, the colonial office maintained that “the task of a St. Helenian Government in the political field could be said to be the converse of that in almost every other British Colonial territory.  It was not the task of holding back or guiding a people straining at the leash, and possibly overreaching itself; but rather one of bringing on and encouraging a people ... to play an overt and constructive part in the business of government.”

This was not a view shared by the leader of the island's General Workers Union, which was particularly active during the four years following its foundation in 1958.  In part as a result of the union's agitations, a major constitutional advance was made in 1963, when the island's first general elections to a newly constituted advisory council took place.  In 1966 this council was reconstituted as a legislative council.  The island's most recent constitution of 1988 further enhanced the responsibilites of the legislative council, although locally these constitutional arrangements are still considered to be insufficiently representative. Today both the legislative and the executive council have a majority of non-official members.
 

The island's executive authority rests with the governor in council, the latter being composed of ex-officio members as well as the elected heads of legislative council committees.  There is no ministerial system on St Helena.  The governor retains a number of reserved powers, primarily with respect to defence, external affairs, internal security, justice, finance and shipping.  Authority over the island is ultimately vested in Her Majesty.  While St Helena's politics have often been marked by personalities, political parties are absent from its scene.  There have certainly never been any moves towards independence from the United Kingdom and if anything, there has been a desire for a closer integration with 'the mother country'.