28-04-2025
There is no sense of urgency from politicians for radical land reform
I'd wager that since the inception of The National, land reform has been one of its most popular topics.
I had hoped that Ms Burgess would show a commitment to it beyond the woolly platitudes we are tired of hearing from the ranks of politicians and various players in land whose living is made from it.
What they do either on purpose or by direction is avoid the central question: when is the Scottish Parliament going to get serious about taxing land? Why did Ms Burgess give that a body swerve too?
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She cites the current Land Reform Bill as having the potential 'to break up big estates and empower communities to buy and transform the land around them'.
I have spoken with representatives of two large landowners. They have indicated to me that if their land was taxed annually and became a significant financial burden, they would dispose of much of the land as their business model can operate without it.
So why would any serious politician with the interests of communities at heart encourage them to buy land with good public money without first establishing just how much of the land owners would retain if it was taxed?
Poverty is the greatest blight on our people, yet we commend our government for introducing the Scottish Child Payment when it has the power to eliminate child poverty. Our political classes in national and local government and their advisors pussyfoot around with initiatives here and there to increase and spread public funds at the margins, instead of dealing with the fundamentals through the legislative powers they have enjoyed for years.
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Our politicians and media institutionalise the fixed budget when it is not Westminster which fixes the budget; it's the Scottish Government which chooses to do so. Incredibly, the opposition parties are complicit in this, as one never hears them bring forward any proposal which would expand the budget to such an extent that all our lives can be transformed.
Over recent years I have been present when politicians and their officials engage with stakeholders on matters of great national and human importance. The common denominator of all such experience is that there is no sense of any urgency.
Tinkering at the edges is our national political sport. The ball is at their feet, but it's what's under their feet which is the solution.
Graeme McCormick
Arden
IN a few years Visit Scotland will be adding a new tourist experience for the people of Scotland and their visitors. This will be a wonderful addition to our iconic NC500, The West Highland Way and the Southern Upland Walk.
It's the Pylon Paths. Routes stretching from our islands in the west and north. Running through our stunning Highland landscapes, then cutting through our best arable farming land on the east coast and continuing through the tranquil Tweed Valley and finishing up on the rolling Border Hills.
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Hundreds of miles of majestic steel structures. Some the biggest anywhere, the envy of our European neighbours and a tribute to the multinationals who decided Scotland was the best place for this attraction.
VisitScotland will host an opening launch and pay tribute to our First Minister and his government for their unstinting and selfless support to enable this magnificent undertaking to come to fruition. Also attending the launch will be Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. He will echo the words of VisitScotland in praising the Scottish Government for delivering this unique development and with its completion a milestone for his task of delivering net zero emissions by 2050. Job done.
David Smart
via email
HUGE interest will have to be paid to the banks for money borrowed to finance the cost of net zero, as the UK operates a deficit economy.
The weakness of the present UK system is that the banks create the government's money supply from thin air, in exchange for government guarantees, rather as they might demand guarantees for a personal loan or business overdraft.
At present, government pays interest to the banks of around £120 billion a year on such money, as its debt to the banks is around £3 trillion.
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The answer of course is for government itself to create and issue the money supply, but interest-free. This would save those billions for better use, and could also keep expenditure in proportion to the assets of the nation, such as roads, schools, public housing, the NHS, and so on, and of course those assets would be more cheaply created without an interest burden.
Equally, the banking system itself would be unlikely to fund the massive cost of net zero without guarantees that would bankrupt the nation if ever exercised. In effect, Britain would become the property of the banks.
It is clear that in an independent Scotland, government itself must issue and control the volume of the money supply, as well as directing its proper use, and thus be free of the banks that are presently in a position to tell the UK Government what it can and can't do.
Malcolm Parkin
Kinross
