…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
The Scottish Liberal Democrats hold their Autumn conference on Saturday 14 September as part of the UK federal conference. An interesting motion on land reform has been tabled by Hugh Andrew – Motion SC2 on page 10 of the Conference
Continue readingPhoto: Roxburghe Estate Photo reference Library Scotland’s landed class made the front page of the Scotsman yesterday under a headline “Lairds in warning over new buy-out powers”. The story is based around submissions of evidence to the Scottish Government’s Land Reform
Continue readingImage: Jane Lawson, London (Doctors’ Commons) : Judd & Co., 1881 We are pleased to publish this Guest Blog from Professor James Hunter, Emeritus Professor of History at the University of the Highlands and Islands. From 1998 to 2004 he was
Continue readingPhoto: Roxburghe Estate Photo reference Library Yesterday in Parliament there was a debate on land reform (Official Report here and watch here) initiated by the Labour Party. Congratulations to them for doing so. Eighty years ago, in 1923, when Labour
Continue readingYesterday in the UK Parliament, the Prime Minister confirmed that he would co-operate with the Scottish Affairs Select Committee to establish “who owns and controls the great landed estates in Scotland, in order that they can minimise both tax avoidance and
Continue readingProfessor Jim Hunter, Highland historian and former chair of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, was a member of the Scottish Government’s Land Reform Review Group until early April 2013 when he left the group for personal reasons. On Monday 3
Continue readingMichael Evan Victor Baillie, 3rd baron Burton of Burton-on Trent and of Rengemore has died. The owner of over 50,000 acres of land in Inverness-shire and beyond, his exploits and antics could fill a book. One famous episode concerned the
Continue reading[UPDATE 30 May 2013 This blog is an edited version of the one published yesterday (pdf copy here) in which I incorrectly argued that there was only one review promised in the SNP manifesto. There were in fact two
Continue readingThis guest blog is reproduced with the kind permission of the Daily Record. This land is our land.. so let people have their say Torcuil Crichton 27 May 2013 ON a rare, dry Friday on the Atlantic coast of Lewis
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Following yesterday’s Guest Blog by John Bryden, former land reform adviser to the Scottish Office, we are delighted to publish the thoughts of Brian Wilson on the topic. Brian was one of the founders of the West Highland Free Press,
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