Meeting of the Parliament 16 March 2016
I am sorry, but I need to make progress. I have a few other points that I need to get in.
The transformative effects of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill should not be underestimated. Once the bill is passed, it will mean the registration of all land in Scotland within the next 10 years or so, and—importantly—it will require transparency in who owns the land, which is integral to the whole land reform process.
The new land commission will have six commissioners, including the tenant farming commissioner. Importantly, there is a duty for the commission to take every reasonable step to ensure that a Gaelic speaker—or Gaelic speakers, as the bill now specifies—will be included; it will understand the Highlands and Islands and the land issue a lot better for that.
The commissioners will continue the job permanently of looking to fulfil our land’s potential. That is long overdue, and will bring Scotland into line with other modern nations in Europe, where more equitable patterns of land ownership have already been delivered in recent centuries.
Fundamentally, land is God given: a finite gift that must be used for the benefit of all, for the common good and in the public interest. Psalm 24:1 says:
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it”.
Our land is a gift from God, and that gift should be treated with respect. We should all treat one another with respect, and consider the propriety of the language that we use when we are talking about Scotland’s land and its use.
One recent example comes from a concerned constituent of mine, who exercises the right to roam on Balavil estate. My constituent highlighted to me the heavy-handed use of language on the signage that has recently appeared on a gate to the estate in relation to dogs being kept on leads at all times.
I have a photograph of the notice on the gate. Anyone who knows the outdoor access code will know that they have to keep dogs “under proper control”, but it is quite another thing to stipulate that dogs must be kept on the lead at all times, followed by the threat of a ban from the estate for non-compliance. Signs threatening to ban folk from estates if dogs are not kept on a lead at all times are not helpful in developing relationships between those who own estates and those who frequent them.
That illustrates perfectly just why we need legislation and why voluntary compliance by vested interests does not work—greed and selfishness always get in the way. The owners of Balavil estate have given us all the evidence that we need to prove that that is the case. I am pleased that land issues will now be kept under constant review and that the two strong foundational pillars of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016, as it will be, which are the land commission and the full and transparent registration of land ownership, will enable us to ensure that land reform is forevermore to the fore in Scotland’s political debate.
This is my last parliamentary debate as an MSP and I could not have asked for a better subject to finish on. It has been a great privilege to represent the people of Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch in the Scottish Parliament for the past nine years or so. I wish well all those who are returned after 5 May and I give my commiserations to those who will not be returned. My proudest moment was in 2007, when I challenged the returning officer in Inverness, had the result overturned and became the very last MSP to be elected, giving the SNP its majority of one—little old me! I hope that I have made a difference and I hope that I can continue to do so in the next chapter of my life, which starts next week.
18:27