…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
Just last week, I was discussing the question of Donald Trump’s golf course with a senior Scottish politician. He was curious as to whether I thought it was actually going to be completed. I said that I doubted it and
Continue readingOn 5 March 2011, I was honoured to be invited to speak at the Aye Write book festival in Glasgow on a platform with Ray Perman, author of The Man Who Gave Away His Island. Our event had to be
Continue readingEdinburgh Law Review has just published a review by Professor George Gretton of my book, The Poor Had No Lawyers.
Continue readingOne of the parcels of common land that I have discovered in the course of unearthing the land we have lost is the Carluke commonty (yellow parcel in map above). I talk more about this on pg. 203 of The
Continue readingI watched Roseanna Cunningham giving evidence to Rural Affairs Committee on 2 March in response to research that the Committee had commissioned into the operation of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. She was clearly up for radical change to
Continue readingThe future of the Crown Estate was a topic of discussion in the Scotland Bill Committee of the Scottish Parliament on 3 February 2010. Giving evidence were Michael Moore, Secretary of State for Scotland, Roger Bright, Chief Executive of the
Continue readingToday I submitted my written evidence to the Scotland Bill Committee of the Scottish Parliament. I am calling for the Crown Estate Commissioners to be removed from any role in the administration of Scotland’s Crown rights. This is a historic
Continue readingI have today submitted written evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee on the Long Leases (Scotland) Bill. It focusses on the impact the Bill will have on common good land. Those following this matter may also be interested in
Continue readingBBC Radio Scotland’s Out of Doors programme ran a piece on “What is Scotland’s Land” for a couple of weeks ago. Apparently the whole panel were rather uncritical of the current subsidy regime. They were David Cameron (North Harris Trust),
Continue readingYesterday, the Scottish Government published its draft Long Leases Bill which is designed to convert any lease of over 175 years (with at least 100 years left to run) to full ownership. This follows a consultation earlier this year (responses
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