Andy Wightman
@andywightman
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Land campaigner, former MSP, forester, author The Poor Had No Lawyers.
Lochaber
Joined September 2010
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The April 2024 update to Who Owns Scotland is now published. It adds 100 new landholdings covering an additional 110,671 acres & brings the total coverage to 3100 landholdings covering 13,596,922 acres - 71.4% of rural Scotland. 1/2
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It is with regret and a heavy heart that I today resigned from the Scottish Green Party.
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I am delighted that Lord Clarke has ruled that I did not defame Wildcat Haven Enterprises CIC, that they did not prove a loss of £750,000, that the pursuers allegations fail on grounds either of establishing the alleged meaning OR are covered by fair comment. 1/4
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We spent a year in the courts to secure the ability to revoke Article 50. Let’s use that power. 200,000 signatories & rising.
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I am investing £8000 in new shiny
#whoownsscotland
website which will launch in September. It will begin by identifying the ownership of over 10 million acres of land and will be updated & expanded monthly. Subscribe here to be kept informed of launch.
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I have never supported an indyref in 2023 and I don’t support one at all until there is sustained support for it (referendums should be about affirming popular opinion not taking a divided electorate marginally over the 50% threshold) 1/2
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Following my win in the £750,000 defamation action brought against me by Wildcat Haven Enterprises CIC, the pursuer, despite telling the media they would appeal, have in fact not done so and the appeal window is now closed. 1/4
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THREAD I am pleased to publish Who Owns Scotland 2024, the first comprehensive empirical analysis of landownership in Scotland since 2012. Thank you to the Guardian for covering the story 1/10
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Alternatively, politicians admitting what they don't know is a good thing. Just a thought.
This is the committee session that the SNP are hailing as the greatest piece of oratory since the Gettysburg Address.
They said evidence was "dismantled" by the heir apparent to Lincoln, JFK, Churchill. Scotland's Cicero.
Will you look at the nick of this 👇
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Thank you to all who voted for me and to my supporters. Your enthusiasm was hugely motivating. Heartfelt thanks to you all. Running a ground campaign when the airwaves were dominated by big parties was always going to be a challenge 1/4
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New Year challenge - to find more paid work. Having had only 4 days paid work since May 2021, I'd be grateful for any opportunities folk might know about.
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The vote on the Forensic medical Services Bill was not on trans rights. Further, I am not, nor have I ever been a transphobe. I don't like the imputation at the end here and am taking advice.
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Duke of Buccleuch didn’t look very impressed when Nicola Sturgeon mentioned the land reform act as one of the defining successes of the Scottish Parliament
#ScotParl20
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I am pleased to launch the new Who Owns Scotland website. Its purpose is to provide easy access to basic information about who owns Scotland at a reasonable price. 1/4
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Parliament could do this now if it had the will. Doesn’t need to wait for independence.
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Don’t pay but join if if you like. The streets of the new town are common land bought by the common good fund in 1766. And the public have historic (& statutory) access right over the foreshore at South Queensferry.
Underbelly is charging £16 for tickets to Edinburgh's Torchlit Procession and £12.50 for the Loony Dook.
Both used to be free.
Why should we pay Underbelly to take part in our own traditions?
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Welcome decision by CJEU. Thank you to everyone who supported us - especially legal team led by Aidan O'Neil QC & instructed by
@elainemotion97
and, vitally,
@JolyonMaugham
and the
@GoodLawProject
. Full Ruling published soon.
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On Monday I was in eastern Cairngorms filming with ARD German TV. This should be natural forest but is being actively deforested by grouse moor management. Killing natural forests should be a criminal offence.
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Been keeping away from social media this weekend but I’m lost for words at the leak to Times and shocked that the paper used it to be honest. They trusted us with their testimony. I am truly sorry that they’ve been betrayed yet again.
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Visit to Aberuchill to check out the Oligarch. Preparing for my role as a Commissioner of the Forfeited Estates.
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A blanket ban is really silly. Sure - no direct emission heat in urban new build but in rural areas, wood fuel can be a local, sustainable and net zero fuel that supports local jobs.
Woodburning stoves have now been banned by the Scottish Government. A small thread:
1/7
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Thanks for all the feedback (well most of it). Most grateful. Will reply asap to those who were kind enough to provide helpful responses. Have plenty ideas myself & some outline plans. Was merely seeking some tips & pointers.
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I am thus genuinely shocked to be told by the First Minister of Scotland that I am (by implication) not part of “Scotland’s democracy movement”. I have been arguing for better (especially local) democracy all my adult life. 2/2
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I will be putting my name forward as a candidate in the election to the Scottish Parliament for the Highlands and Islands region.
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A straightforward start is to agree that residential homes are a different use than holiday homes. Make holiday homes subject to planning consent for change of use. We tried but failed in Planning Bill 2019. I know SNP MSPs who support this.
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Eleven miles. One mile per year. Calum Macleod built 2 miles of “Calum’s Road” on Raasay in the same period (10yrs) with a shovel, pick and wheelbarrow.
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My amendment 53 passes. Muirburning season will come to an immediate halt once Queen signs Coronavirus (Scotland) Bill. Otherwise could continue to 30 april under s.23 of Hill Farming Act 1946. Fire risk in Scotland VERY HIGH in coming week.
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RIP Coire 2008-2021. A great wee dog & lovely companion for us all. (Sphinx & Pinnacle in background Aug 2021)
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“Putin is justified in his invasion of Ukraine” an Aberdeen university lecturer tells their students. Lecturer is a Chinese national, member of the Chinese Communist Party & seemingly paid by the Chinese Government
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Here are some of the land & property owned offshore & acquired before Dec 2014 in Scotland where the beneficial owners will not be required to register in the new Register of Beneficial Owners in the Economic Crime (Transparency & Enforcement) Bill 1/17
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Big hugs to all you 3202 lovely and generous people - £116,417 at the close. Huge worry off my shoulders. Now all I need to do is work hard over next 3 months to prepare the case. Will reflect further in days to come with blog update.
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Serious question. ScotGov has known for years that an internal market exemption was needed. Why then did it proceed (with substantial cost for businesses) without this exemption in place? Should Gov not have secured exemption first before third parties incurred these costs?
The Scottish Government minister has issued a furious attack on the UK Government
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Quite a stunning image but this is the floodplain of the Spey and has been for centuries. This is is what is “meant” to happen when the river is high. Our challenge is to restore more floodplains and catchments so they can perform their natural functions as flood risks increase.
The
#A9
at
#Kingussie
this morning! Severe flooding throughout Badenoch & Strathspey as the River Spey has burst its banks.
Only travel if absolutely necessary & be prepared for traffic disruption and diversions due to the extreme weather conditions between
#Inverness
&
#Perth
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THREAD One year ago, Scottish politics was gripped by shocking leaks from the ScotGov Handling of Harassment Complaints Committee prior to publication of its report. 1/9
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Been told that
@scotgov
/
@CreativeScots
has just cut all Youth Music Initiative funding with immediate effect. c.1000 musicians have lost work. One had work all of November & was told yesterday it's been cancelled. No mention of this in Swinney cuts doc.
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But what the DFM is promising to do is to release the "key legal advice" It is not for the Scottish Government to determine what is key legal advice. Keep that Motion of No Confidence on the table.
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THREAD - LAND, TAX, & OLIGARCHS
I remember being ridiculed by a senior SNP MSP for suggesting that the Small Business Bonus Scheme (SBBS) which provides 100% relief from local rates benefitted some very rich people. Well here’s an example. 1/7
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Landslip on West Highland Line is further evidence of why woodland restoration should be mandatory on such slopes and why agriculture and forestry should be incorporated into the planning system.
#planningbill
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1/2 There is no legal requirement to have interlinked fire alarms from Tuesday. It’s an amendment to the tolerable standard of housing - that’s all.
From Tuesday, every home in Scotland will be legally required to have interlinked smoke alarms
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One of the consequences of my defamation case is that I now know much more about the detailed affairs of Highland Titles from court productions, internal sources & other parties. I look forward to blogging about them soon (after first being legalled of course!)
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Thus an estate owned by one of the richest men in the world may be paying no local taxes at all (I don’t know if the company claims SBBS). meanwhile the local caravan park pays over £20,000 in non-domestic rates. This is why we need reform of land taxes. 7/7 ENDS
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This is personal.
I am
@ScotLINK
species champion for Golden Eagle. In June 2018, I accompanied conservation workers to satellite-tag a young Golden Eagle chick as part of a programme of research to better understand the ecology & behaviour of this magnificent bird. 1/8
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The June 2023 update to Who Owns Scotland is now published. It adds 100 new landholdings covering an additional 86.903 acres and brings the total coverage to 12,900,876 acres - 68.2% of rural Scotland. 1/2
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I have lodged a complaint with Durham Constabulary in relation to a possible offence under Regulation 6 of the English Coronavirus Regulations.
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This Bill does not avert no-deal. It merely instructs PM to ask for Art50 extension. Likely that at least one of EU27 will veto if no clear purpose.
#RevokeArticle50
is ONLY way to avert no-deal & why shocking that Lab didn't vote for
@joannaccherry
amendment y'day.
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Aileen Campbell announces in Parliament that Devolved emergency legislation WILL include 6 month ban on any eviction from private rented sector. Very welcome to 15% of population in this sector
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The country faces a crisis. Folk can't afford homes on Skye. But this scumbag outfit is advertising 23 short-term lets for self isolation.
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The fact that Amazon Distribution pays more to Fife Council in non-domestic rates (£2,073,588) than it does to UK Treasury in corporation tax (£1.7m) is a reminder of how important land & property taxes are & how they can't be avoided.
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I would like to say something about the line of questioning of Ruth Davidson but I won't. It is the job of the SGHHC Committee to examine, assess, and report on the remit given to it by MSPs including Ruth Davidson in Jan 2019
#fmqs
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Thank you to
@NicolaSturgeon
for a productive meeting with
@patrickharvie
and myself to discuss how we can better protect private tenants during the covid crisis and beyond.
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Thank you to everyone for all the emails, tweets & messages with kind words & support. I will try & respond to as many as I can in due course. I will continue as best I can to take forward the issues I raised in the campaign and to which so many people responded so positively.
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The members of the Scottish Land Commission are appointed by Scottish Ministers after parliamentary approval. So SNP Ministers plan to appoint their former colleague and SNP president (until 2day) to chair an Govt body giving advice to Scottish Ministers. Hmmm.
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Wow. All the Munros in 32 days. Almost 9 Munros a day, 883 miles of running & 896 miles of cycling. Congratulations!
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THREAD Ownership of land and property by entities registered in secrecy jurisdictions has been a problem for decades. My view is that such entities should be barred from owning property in Scotland. But they continue to be allowed. 1/12
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I despair of the immature politics in Holyrood ("not friends of Scotland"). Powers to levy tourist tax dont mean they need 2b used. If Scottish Borders don't want it, they'd be free not to levy it Can we grow up & discuss the architecture of our democracy?
The SNP and the Greens are no friends of Scotland. SNP plan to give local authorities powers to levy a tourist tax to get the budget through. 78% of visitors to Scotland are from rUK. A tourist tax will damage tourism.
#folly
#touristtax
#scotland
#SNP
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The Scottish Government has effectively banned the construction of all off-grid new homes in Scotland under the new heat in new-build regulations. So if you are a long way from electric grid, you can no longer build a house.
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I still have the same question. Why was DRS allowed to get to such an advanced stage without a legally watertight exemption from the Internal Market Act in place before it got to that stage? Did Ministers make assumptions they should not have?
Yesterday,
@dlumsden
asked Minister
@lornaslater
whether she took any responsibility for the £9m of taxpayers' money lost as a result of the delay to the Deposit Return Scheme for Scotland. 👇
Watch the session in full 👉
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"The Irish should really know their place". This is out and out racism. Ireland is a sovereign state, a member of the EU and a country with which we have international treaty obligations under the GFA.
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Ten years ago today, The Poor Had No Lawyers was published. Thanks to all who have bought and/or read. Here's what I wrote the night before and the Herald review
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Destroying evidence relating to potential crimes being investigated by police is a criminal offence is it not?
Exclusive: No.10 staff told to ‘clean up’ phones amid lockdown party allegations, sources told The Independent
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Scottish Tories have a Highland Laird as land reform spokesperson & an ex-partner in KPMG as their taxation spokesperson
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The SNP has been in government for 16 years. In 2014, they received recommendations from Land Reform Review Group but not implemented most of them. Inheritance law reform was dropped. Non-domestic rates reform dropped. Compulsory sale orders dropped …..
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BLOG - I have published an outline of what a comprehensive Land Reform Bill should look like. No more tinkering. No more conflating community ownership with land reform. No more dodging tenure and tax. Now is the time to democratise land governancne.
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My Members' Bill incorporating the European Charter of Local Self-Government was passed unanimously by Scottish Parliament and certified as within legislative competence by Presiding Officer & myself. Look forward to seeing UKGov's legal arguments.
UK govt is referring two Holyrood laws to
@UKSupremeCourt
to decide if MSPs have gone beyond the powers of the devolved parliament
The bills would incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the European Charter of local self govt into Scots law
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Delighted at last to have finished our Munros. My partner & I had a great day up Beinn Udlamain joined by many friends for the hill & a party after. Thanks to
@theiaincameron
for the photographs.
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if Scotland were a normal European country, every Scottish city, town and village would own at least 5000ha of forest.
How the city of Lübeck manages and grows the 5000 hectares of forest it owns for the benefit of their citizens. An alternative, better way of commercial forestry, using horses rather than machinery. Every city should own—or establish—its own forest.
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THREAD - Second homes or holiday homes are an unregulated feature of the land market. In some areas they push up prices and reduce the availability of permanent homes to local people 1/9
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Pretty mainstream suggestion.
@RoddyQC
should tweet what the hell he likes.
Pretty mainstream suggestion. I really think the Dean of the Faculty of Advocates should stop tweeting about party politics and the constitution.
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I am not an opponent of trans rights. Similar defamatory smears have been made by activists & leadership of the
@scottishgreens
. Such allegations can have serious impact on employment prospects. I have taken action already & will do so again if needed.
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Edinburgh Castle has never been part of the UK Govt estate. Since medieval period it’s been owned by the Crown in Scotland. It was conveyed by the Crown to Sec of Stare for Scotland in Feb 1999 then via Scotland Act to Scottish Ministers
The UK govt 'gave away' Edinburgh Castle to the Scottish govt. He actually thinks that was a mistake.
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1/3 The May 2023 update to Who Owns Scotland is now published. It adds 100 new landholdings covering an additional 116,846 acres and brings the total coverage to 12,813,973 acres - 67.7% of rural Scotland (green = Naitonal Forest Estate. Red = private and other public)
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Labour's position is the most populist, crude, misleading, unprincipled and dishonest kind of politics that disowns their previous good work, sees them in an alliance with the Tories & the Daily Mail & denying Councils the kind of powers that are commonplace across Europe 5/5
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The judgement in the £750,000 defamation action taken against me in March 2017 by Wildcat Haven Enterprises CIC will be published on Wednesday 11 March at Scottish Courts website (I won’t get it until a couple of hours beforehand)
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Utterly, utterly depressing, shameful, humiliating & short-sighted.
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Important reports published today - feels like a tipping point. Hope it is. The hegemony of the landed class must end.
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Brutal replies to this tweet. I too meet with organisations (some with whom I disagree) but I would never spend an evening drinking wine with them far less to mark the end of the shooting “season”
Fantastic evening with
@BASCScotland
marking the end of the shooting season at the wonderful Scottish deli in Dunkeld. With
@JohnSwinney
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The Scottish Parliament has a wide range of tax powers. Government merely needs to ask. For example why is Sheik Bin Rashid Al Maktoum eligible for small business bonus scheme relief on his huge estate owned in Jersey?
Key levers to help ease the cost of living crisis are still controlled by the UK Government, said the First Minister.
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A devastated, blasted, deforested, burnt & over-grazed terrain. Come and visit the ecological devastation wrought over the centuries.
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Heading home after a personally very frustrating week. My comments on Politics Scotland on Wednesday sums it up. We are failing the people we serve if we don't do this budget process better.
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The next in the Building a New Scotland series of papers on independence will be "Paper 11 - Cafe & other hospitality venue names in an independent Scotland."
BREAKING: Edinburgh Castle will ‘review’ the name of its Redcoat Cafe after an online backlash
The ‘Jacobite function room’ name will now also be reconsidered, Historic Environment Scotland said
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Reminder to QCs providing legal advice to government. Please remember to always give advice in November. Roddy Dunlop was my QC. 6 months went by and I heard nothing from him - becuase there was nothing I needed from him.
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THREAD In Wildcat Haven Enterprises CIC vs Andy Wightman, I have now been awarded expenses of £170,979.31. My legal costs to date are over £170k and will be close to £200k when this is all over. 1/5
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This week’s landholding of the week is the Isle of Bute. The Stuart family was granted the island in a charter from Robert III. The Times reported today that the late Johnny Dumfries, the 7th Marquess of Bute, who died in 2021 had left over £400 million in his will 1/6
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20yrs of devolution has led to increased centralisation in Scotland. It has to stop. I don’t understand why Greens in particular support the centralisation of care under National Care Service. Taking away children’s services would be mad.
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Two reforms of Queens Consent. 1. ScotGov should refuse to exempt personal interests (& dare HM to refuse consent) and 2. Parliament should demand greater transparency.
The Scottish parliament must take a stand against the farcical Queen’s consent rule -
@andywightman
for
@guardianopinion
#Balmoral
#CrownConsent
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I have been seduced by no-one. I am unwilling to be party to a plan to risk the Parliament being found in contempt over a law designed to protect complainers in sexual assault cases. I rest easy tonight with how I voted.
Lots of people donated money to
@andywightman
to help him stand up against natural injustice. How bitterly disappointing that he’s been seduced by the very unjust establishment he once stood against.
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PS A motion for expenses is yet to be lodged but will be done so as soon as covid19 restrictions allow. I hope to recover as much of my £153,000 costs as possible & return to crowdfunder donors to whom as ever, grateful thanks.
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Most astonishing revelation today was the disbelief on so many MSP's faces when I stated the simple fact that Housing Associations are by definition landlords. The only body who can claim to represent tenant interests are tenants' unions
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Fascinating account of the (rare) discovery of evidence of the widespread criminality perpetrated against some of our most iconic wildlife. As Species Champion for Golden Eagle, I hope this find leads to prosecutions.
The satellite tag from a missing golden eagle has been found wrapped in lead sheeting, antenna cut off, thrown in a river. These appalling crimes against our protected raptors must be stopped. We need robust regulation from the Scottish Government:
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Scotland’s highest altitude election placard now safely removed (Bealach na Bà)
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Thank you to my legal team and once again to all 5000 supporters without whose generosity, I would by now be bankrupt and have been removed as an MSP due purely to my inability to afford legal representation. 3/3
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I have written to the First Minister to express my anger & dismay that after 20 years of the Scottish Parliament, iconic wildlife continues to be persecuted - often it appears as part of an organised criminal endeavour. It is time for action not more reviews and inquiries 8/8
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No true. Decisions were made by Councils elected by men only. Dominated by propertied & mercantile class many of whom benefitted from slavery. It was they who had different perspective. Women & wider public had no say at all. Statues teach us about power.
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The August 2023 update to Who Owns Scotland is now published. It adds 50 new landholdings covering an additional 46,657 acres and brings the total coverage to 12,947,533 acres - 68.4% of rural Scotland. 1/2
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