"Mugabe-style land grab" north of the border

[AlexR]

In the Torygraph today:

Scots protest at 'Mugabe-style land grab'
By Auslan Cramb, Scotland Correspondent

They wore tweed jackets and deerstalker hats, which helped combat the rain, and their protest was orderly and restrained, despite the sense of injustice that brought them Edinburgh.

Some of the protesters, ghillies and bailiffs from the salmon rivers north of Inverness, had never taken part in a public demonstration. Others had risen at an ungodly hour in the remote straths of Sutherland and Caithness to reach the capital by lunchtime.

The 40 river workers were in the city yesterday to oppose land reform proposals - which have been likened to a "Mugabe-style grab" - that are about to be introduced by a Scottish Parliament many of them voted for.

When the legislation is passed it will allow crofting communities to seize fishing rights and estate land from private owners in the crofting counties of the far north and the Western Isles.

Communities will be able to take over the property of landowning families, regardless of the number of years of ownership or of how many millions of pounds have been invested. They will be helped by lottery grants and public funding, with an independent valuer setting the price.

MSPs who support the move say it will empower local communities, but the proposal has already resulted in owners cancelling millions of pounds of planned investment because of the uncertainty it has caused.

One protester said yesterday: "You are not going to add an extension to your house if someone can come along and say, 'I fancy that. I'm going to have it.'"

Eddie McCarthy, river superintendent on the Thurso, said the proposal - which is backed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the government quango, - was driven by prejudice against lairds. "There are people going round the crofting communities saying, 'This is your chance to get payback for the Highland Clearances,' " he added.

Andrew Graham-Stewart, an angling writer based in the Highlands, said few salmon rivers made a profit but owners continued to invest large sums in upkeep.

Jaysus - what next? A guillotine in Parliament Square? The Bill will be passed of course - the Labour & Lib Dem MSPs have a massive majority.

To read the Bill in full:www.scottish.parliament.uk/parl_bus/bills/b44s1.pdf

[JontyR]

This is horrific and needs more airtime.

Still not been approved but with the now yellow led community I don't see this being opposed.