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Scotland - Land and Power: The Agenda for Land Reform
by Andy Wightman
(Book Review)
| " Show the people that our Old Noblity is not noble, that its lands are stolen lands – stolen either by force or fraud; show people that the title-deeds are rapine, murder, massacre, cheating, or Court harlotry; dissolve the halo of divinity that surrounds hereditary title; let the people clearly understand that our present House of Lords is composed largely of descendants of successful pirates and rogues; do these things and you shatter the Romance that keeps the nation numb and spellbound while privilege pricks its pocket". | ||
Tom Johnston, Secretary of State for Scotland |
What is Land Reform?
Why is it needed?
Will the new Scottish Parliament really make a difference?
Scotland – Land and Power is a highly readable and uncompromising argument for land reform. It argues passionately for nothing less than a radical, comprehensive programme of reform and rejects palliative solutions which treat the symptoms and not the causes of inequalities and injustices in the current situation. Andy Wightman explodes the myth that land issues are relevant only to the far flung fringes of rural Scotland and questions mainstream political commitment to land reform.
Commissioned by the Democratic Left Scotland, this controversial and provocative book clarifies the complexities of land ownership in Scotland and, helped by entertaining cartoon illustrations, makes a compelling case for dismantling existing landed power structures and promoting a pluralistic land owning democracy.
The journalist and broadcaster Lesley Riddoch provides a foreword to the book and cautions that the present process is being unduly rushed. Like Wightman she is wary that the Scottish Executive’s recommended solutions may not be fully appropriate nor have the expected outcomes that legislators anticipate.
Chapters include:
 | Introduction |
| First a Bit of History |
| Scotland – A Feudal land at the Onset of a New Millennium |
| So What is Land Reform? |
| The Politics of Land Reform |
| A Critique of Existing Proposals |
| A Land Reform Programme |
| Ah But |
| Conclusions |
| Further Reading |
This is a very accessible, comprehensive and well argued book. It is quite simply essential reading and perfectly timed – for Scotland’s legislators to get up to speed on what radical land reform is all about.
Andy Wightman, 126 pages, 1999
Published by Luath Press Ltd, Edinburgh
ISBN 0 946487 70 7
Price £5.00