Don’t Panic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR6wok7g7do Some light relief from the tension which sums up the current state of play in the Scottish independence referendum.
Continue readingCategory: Politics
Why I am voting yes.
On 18 September voters in Scotland will choose whether Scotland remains part of the United Kingdom or becomes an independent country. I am approaching this choice from the perspective of how best to democratise political and economic power and for
Continue readingTime to Rebuild Scottish Democracy
One of the most welcome recent developments in Scottish democratic reform has been the Commission on Strengthening Local Democracy. which was established in autumn 2013. Chaired by the visionary Councillor David O’Neill, it has bravely gone where no administration at
Continue readingRethink required on ten year land registration goal.
Among the recommendations of the LRRG are that more effort should be made to complete the Land Register and that patterns of rural landownership should be mapped and better understood. In response to publication of the report, the Scottish Government
Continue readingLand Reform (Scotland) Bill 2015
Following the publication of the Land Reform Review Group‘s final report in May, the Scottish Government has committed itself to the introduction of a Land Reform Bill in the current Parliament. The report (hard copies of which are now available
Continue readingMinister addresses Community Land Scotland Conference
On 7 June 2014, the Minister for Environment and Climate Change, Paul Wheelhouse MSP, addressed the Annual Conference of Community Land Scotland at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on the Isle of Skye. In the most significant speech on land reform since Donald Dewar’s
Continue readingScotland has not had a land reform programme for ten years
Guest Blog by Brian Wilson (pdf version) Brian Wilson’s column is reproduced here with kind permission of the West Highland Free Press. In the great span of history, the most significant of the recommendations put forward by the Scottish Land Reform Review
Continue readingThe United Kingdom’s largest farm
Image: The unassuming entrance to the HQ of the UK’s largest farm The largest farm in the UK is popularly understood to be that owned by the Co-operative Group which extends to 17,808 acres across the country and is currently
Continue readingCapping the CAP 4
My previous blog on Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) farming subsidies attracted a bit of interest in The Herald today and a number of people have been in touch to ask what can be done to ensure a fair distribution of
Continue readingSheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the farmer
Image: Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum wins the 2012 St James’ Palace Stakes, Royal Ascot It’s hard to imagine the Government devising a new system of Jobseeker’s Allowance or Housing Benefit where the claimant is told they that their
Continue reading