Community land ownership and Scotland’s “difficult” places

In January 2014 Charles Moore shared his insights on Scottish land reform via a mercifully short Spectator blog. Its hackneyed title – How is Alex Salmond like Robert Mugabe? – suggested that Mr Moore was less than enamoured with the prospect of communities owning the land on which they live. Quite the opposite in fact because according to him:

“Without philanthropists, megalomaniacs and serious sportsmen pouring cash in to maintain these difficult places, their communities, and so the environment, would suffer. You can see this happening already in the islands where crofters’ rights have been exercised”.

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Land Reform after the Independence Referendum

Back in April 2013 Johann Lamont used her Scottish Labour conference speech to commit the party to extending the ‘community right to buy’ land to include circumstances where the landowner is not a willing seller “if it is in the public interest”.

At the time I speculated on this blog as to whether that upping of the land reform ante would bring the ‘Land Question’ into the crosshairs of an independence referendum debate still in the early stages of its marathon duration.

It didn’t.