Committee publishes Interim Report on Land Reform
The Scottish Affairs Committee of the House of Commons has published an Interim Report on land reform in Scotland. Full details here.
Continue readingDevolution of the Crown Estate
Exactly two years ago today, the Scottish Affairs Committee of the House of Commons published its report on the future of the Crown Estate in Scotland. Its conclusions were unequivocal. The responsibilities of the Crown Estate Commissioners in Scotland (CEC)
Continue readingIan McHarg 1920-2001
Ian McHarg died this day in 2001 (NY Times obituary). He was a Scottish landscape architect who made his name in the University of Pennsylvania where he founded the world famous Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning in1955. He
Continue readingTimothy George Congdon’s Scottish Estates
On 23 February 2014, the Sunday Herald revealed that Timothy Congdon, UKIP’s economic spokesperson, had benefitted from wind energy developments on his land in Argyll and Caithness. Today (4 March) it was revealed that he has stood down from the
Continue readingRenewing Local Democracy in Scotland
Today, the Scottish Green Party published a report authored by myself on renewing local democracy. There is no need to say a great deal in this blog other than to highlight the fact that there are two inquiries currently underway
Continue readingTenanted land and minority interests
On 22 January, the Scottish Government published an interesting map showing the density of tenanted agricultural land per parish (1162kb pdf here). What struck me about the map was the apparent coincidence of those parishes with >75% of the land
Continue readingThe definition of “fairer”
Monday 20 January 2014 SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT Enterprise and Environment Tavish Scott (Shetland Islands) (Scottish Liberal Democrats): To ask the Scottish Government what the definition of “fairer” is in the Minister for Environment and Climate Change’s comment to BBC Scotland that
Continue readingLedgowan policestate
The latest news from Ledgowan Estate is that the owner has distributed an access policy to residents of Achnasheen. According to this report (online here and pdf here)in the West Highland Free Press from 27 December 2013, “The access policy states
Continue readingDeclaration of Interests and Income & Tax 2012
Following last year’s declaration I am, like a couple of my self-employed writer/activists colleagues (George Monbiot and Alastair McIntosh), making an annual declaration of interests and income. Commentators, campaigners and advocacy groups should be open about their interests and income (this story from today
Continue readingRestoring the Commons
Image: Black Law Commonty The task at hand appears overwhelming. To restore the common ownership of the land & natural resources has been a goal of reformers down the ages but it has often met with limited success. Faced with
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