Dundee Lecture
I will be giving a public lecture in Dundee on Tuesday 24 January 2012. All welcome. Download LARGE poster here 5.93Mb)
Continue readingAuthor: Andy Wightman
We are despised because we are poor
My good friend Maxwell MacLeod wrote to me earlier this year lamenting the lack of local control over the natural resources of the Highlands and Islands. ——————————————————————————————————— GUEST POST by Maxwell MacLeod I was born in 1952 and during my
Continue readingGive the folk of Perth a referendum
The Whin Park controversy (see previous post) is merely the latest of a number of controversies brewing across Scotland in relation to common good land. In Perth, the Council is proposing to demolish the Perth City Hall. Amidst all the
Continue readingGive the folk of Inverness a referendum
Highland Council are proposing to build a new road – the West Link [broken link Oct 2024]- to provide a southern bypass for Inverness and allow traffic travelling from the A82 to the A9 and vice-versa to avoid the town
Continue reading100 years of waiting for the land
One hundred years ago, the Small Landholders (Scotland) Act 1911 was passed by the Liberal Government of Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith. It was a bold and radical reform designed to allow families to obtain landholdings
Continue readingWho pays the costs of fighting the fire?
A dramatic fire has been raging all afternoon at the Gusset building at 120-130 Morrison Street, Glasgow. The property has lain derelict since it was bought for £4,200,000 by Straben Developments Limited of Belfast, Northern Ireland in September 2007. (title
Continue readingWill independence end elite capture of politics?
Link to a post I wrote for Bellacaledonia on whether independence will make any difference to the land question in Scotland. Available as a pdf here
Continue readingCapping the CAP 1
In the rapidly expanding digital world, it is encouraging to welcome an outbreak of online participation among our elected representatives. Not only do many MPs and MSPs have blogs, twitter accounts and facebook pages but some of them are even
Continue readingCampaign for REAL Local Government 1
This blog was first published at Bella Caledonia [link broken Oct 2024] on 29 September 2011 UPDATE 25 November 2012 Read the Jimmy Reid Foundation’s excellent report Silent Crisis: Failure and Revival in Local Democracy in Scotland for a detailed
Continue readingTax Incremental Financing misses a trick
The Scottish Government today announced a further three projects that will be developed using the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) model. This is a mechanism whereby future non-domestic rates (business rates) that arise as a consequence of the TIF financed development
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