…the blog and website of Andy Wightman
For many years, I have read the West Highland Free Press, a newspaper which campaigns fearlessly for the interests of the West Highlands and its people. The paper’s priorities are perhaps best encapsulated in the Gaelic slogan on its masthead:
Continue readingThursday 14 July – and in the House of Commons all of the stages of the Sovereign Grant Bill [broken link Oct 2024] are rushed through in one sitting and it now heads off to the Lords. In the debate
Continue readingYesterday morning with very little advance notice, the Chancellor, George Osborne, tabled the Sovereign Grant Bill in the UK Parliament (all papers on Treasury website – [broken link Oct 2024]). The bill provides for a new method of financing the
Continue readingThe European Court of Auditors has just published a damning report on the Single Payment Scheme which was introduced as part of the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (ECA Press Release here [broken link Oct 2024] & BBC
Continue readingThe Scottish Government will publish a paper this week setting out their case for devolving the administration and revenues of the property rights and interests that comprise the Crown Estate in Scotland. Yesterday the Scottish Affairs Committee was in Shetland
Continue readingIt is a truism that much of the controversy over Donald Trump’s Golf Course has arisen because of the things he has done and the things he has said. Reports from the press conference at Aberdeen Airport yesterday talked of
Continue readingAt 1:42 in this video [broken link – Sep 2024], we are treated to the economic arguments for the Donald Trump golf course at Menie Estate. Bob Collier of Aberdeen and Grampian Chamber of Commerce makes a startling claim. “Why
Continue readingWith less time than I would have liked (but I need to try and earn a living), I submitted written evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee Inquiry into the Crown Estate in Scotland.
Continue readingJust 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 readingI receive regular emails and letters from people on land matters. Quite often, folk will write with tales of how they or their community are having problems with landowners. I thought I should begin to share some of these to
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