…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
When I was at University in 1980s studying forestry, Forestry Commission land was being sold off and the private sector was booming with generous tax breaks on offer to investors to plant trees. Particular controversy erupted over the rapid expansion
Continue readingAbove: Scottish Ministers Estates (purple) in north-west Scotland During Portfolio Questions on Rural Affairs and the Environment in the Scottish Parliament on 13 March 2013, Lewis Macdonald asked the Government about the latest situation on Raasay (see previous posts 23
Continue readingDavid Lloyd George and Winston Churchill. A Land Value Tax for England. Fair, Efficient, Sustainable (4.1Mb pdf) Over the past few months I have been undertaking research for Caroline Lucas MP into how a system of site value rating or land
Continue readingMusselburgh Town Council The 2013 COSLA & Improvement Service conference might yet go down in history as a historic event. Opening the conference yesterday, COSLA President Councillor David O’Neill, laid out a future vision for local government which is a radical
Continue readingI wonder how much money Hamish MacDonell was paid to write this blatant piece of PR spin on behalf of the landed elite in the Mail on Sunday on 24 February 2013? It displays such depths of ignorance and ill-informed
Continue readingFollowing last week’s trip north by Paul Wheelhouse, this week it is the turn of Humza Yousaf, the Minister for External Affairs and International Development in the Scottish Government. He will be attending a seminar in Helmsdale as part of
Continue readingBack from long but fascinating & positive trip to Raasay. What a stunning place & journey was amazing! Loch Laggan & ferry =real highlights! — Paul Wheelhouse🏴🇺🇦🇪🇺 (@PaulWheelhouse) March 2, 2013 Paul Wheelhouse seems to have enjoyed his jaunt to
Continue readinghttp://vimeo.com/60658495 We are Scotland’s 2500 landowners. We own the land (well 75% of Scotland). Our response to the Land Reform Review Group is that we don’t want land reform and we don’t need it. This is our land and we
Continue readingUPDATE 28 MARCH 2013 Paul Wheelhouse has confirmed in a written answer to Claire Baker MSP (S4W-13541) that the Estates Charter remains in force and that it is “standard practice for the principles behind the Estates Charter to be taken into
Continue readingThe decision by Scottish Ministers (Minster for Environment and Climate Change, Paul Wheelhouse) to award the lease for hunting rights on Raasay to an absentee tenant rather than to negotiate an extension to the very successful operation run by Raasay
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