the need for radical land reform

Today was the deadline for submissions to the Land Reform Review Group...our good friend Andy Wightman (who inspired the name of this blog) began his submission thus:

I want to live in a country where a young couple needing a parcel of land for
a home can approach their local council (local - as in municipality, kommune) and be able
to secure (through the exercise of appropriate local political power) this most basic of
needs at minimal cost. I want to live in a country where, as one travels across it, one finds a well populated land full of energy and optimism.

I want to live in a land where class distinctions are no longer legitimised by the recognition of aristocratic titles and where the principle of equality underpins access to land rights. I want to live in a country where the ownership of land is contingent on paying a proper rent to the community and where speculation and unearned increments are ended. I want to live in a country where land cannot legally be held in private trusts immune from inheritance tax or in offshore tax havens beyond the reach of the tax authorities.

I want to live in a country that finally puts and end to the centuries of landed power and
returns the land to the people of Scotland - both men and women.


Read the full text of Andy's submission here