…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
Pictured above – a Danish kindergarten paid for in part by Danish property taxes on Scottish land. The Scottish Government is consulting on the future of the the non-domestic rates (business rates) regime. The consultation closes this Friday 22 February
Continue readingAbove – Richard Lochhead at NFUS AGM. Image: Paul Watt Photography The future shape of the Common Agricultural Policy for 2014-2020 has become clearer following the EU budget summit on 7 – 8 February and the European Parliament’s adoption of
Continue readingCampaigners are today celebrating the “saving” of England’s public forests. But what about the real issue of who owns England’s publlic forests? And what if all that has happened is that the UK government is preparing to hand the entirety
Continue readingRather surprisingly, there is very little scholarship on land relations in Scotland. There are a few academic papers on some topics (such as the legals scholarship of Malcolm Combe) but much less than I certainly think there should be. So
Continue readingPictured above – Daily Mail 24 January 2003 Ten years ago today (23 January 2003), the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 was passed by the Scottish Parliament. The Act provides a right of responsible access to land (Part I), a
Continue readingI have today submitted my evidence (8.2Mb pdf) to the Land Reform Review Group. The Group will not be publishing the responses they receive until April 2014 and I have therefore created a page where submissions can be published. Email me
Continue readingFollowing 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. I think it is right that commentators and others in the public eye should be open
Continue readingThe City of Edinburgh Council is consulting the citizens of Edinburgh about whether it should promote a Private Bill in the Scottish Parliament to build a new Portobello High School on Portobello Park. As previous posts have discussed, the Court of
Continue readingIt was announced today that the Scottish Government is to spend £3m on building a pier to export timber from Mull’s forests and “boost the island’s timber business”. Whilst this may boost the timber harvesting business, it does nothing for the
Continue readingBy way of introduction to this blog, I should stress that I have no interest one way or the other in whether Portobello Park is common good. I am, however, interested in the law relating to common good and this
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