I first got interested in who owns Scotland after meeting a less than friendly landowner and a couple of similarly miserable gamekeepers while out hill walking. Every Scot knows that the country is owned by a small group of individuals who have exercised nothing short of despotism over "their" land and the people on it. In this book Wightman lays out in forensic detail how this all came about, starting with King David and subsequently more fully developed by the national hero, Robert the Bruce, whose credentials as saviour he comprehensively debunks. Kings (or chief warlord) decided they held all the land and handed it out to supporters to keep them onside, and removed it if they fell out. Several of the great landowners of today, such as Buccleuch, came about their huge holdings in just this way, as Buccleuch's website makes clear.
Wightman points out that the distribution of land by this means was fundamentally undemocratic, but worse was to follow as the aristocracy, who to all intents and purposes, was the "government", created laws that enabled them to steal land from the Church and, later, from the common people and subsequently to legalise this theft. You might think that such theft would by now be outlawed, but no, it is still possible to steal land belonging to someone else or "no-one", or is Common Good. The Law and lawyers have been culpable in enabling this grotesque charade in which the vast majority of Scotland was transferred into the ownership of a small clique, who benefitted from arcane and archaic laws, such as primogeniture .
As the author argues few countries in the world allow the obscenity that is Scotland's outdated system of land tenure in which the ordinary people who live and work on the land have no say in ownership, sale or management. Part of the problem is to do with our political system, which is fundamentally undemocratic, in that privilege, money and class still matter more than ability. Land tenure can be seen as a microcosm of this political world in which the principles of fairness and equity have been displaced by the principles of greed and self-advancement.
Even the reforms that have taken place, such as to Crofting in the late 19th century, which covered only 6 counties, and more recently when the Scottish Executive took power have been half-hearted and timid and so hedged around with complexity and obfuscation that little has really changed. This is all supported with extensive quotation of facts and figures. Even the not-for-profit organisations come in for criticism, as they are simply another form of large landowner denying local people a real voice and power.
Finally, Wightman offers a programme for change, of which, the Land Value Tax while being the one reform which could be the most effective is also the one which is least likely to be implemented by politicians.
This is a book which should be read by everyone with an interest in Scotland’s democracy and by every politician at national and local level. If Wightman didn’t exist someone would have to create him.
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