L’Ecossiere, Guilly, 36150 France Dear Editor,


iScot, and the emerging Scottish media are serving a vital function in bypassing the


information hiatus promulgated by


traditional media so that finally the Scottish public can participate in topical debates and issues. One such debate must cover land reform, an important policy of our Scottish Government, yet one which has received little attention to date.


Opponents of land reform claim that the public are disinterested, yet there has been little discussion of the implications for ordinary people, the proposals currently under consideration and how these might impact on the people and on the land, and on proposed safeguards to ensure that the Scottish people are indeed the beneficiaries of land reform. Due to lack of information and debate, most people are detached from these various implications, in a similar way to the detachment we saw in previous years towards any political topics – until the referendum and the emerging alternative media succeeded in bringing information to the people.


My personal view is that land reform should be radical. It should include property ownership reform, with caps on the prices of both, and simultaneous


safeguards against further


monopoly ownerships, while promoting the break-up of current monopoly holdings. This could be achieved through taxation, financial penalties and enforcement of laws regarding property letting, land leases, access and wildlife crime. Development of the crofting system could help to redistribute land.


This radical approach is essential to remove the current exclusion of many ordinary Scottish


people from investing in, and


benefiting from the land. It might reverse the forces driving many of us into exile abroad, such as obscenely expensive private rental rates for properties which are so bound up


Subject: iScot magazine Comments:


I recently set up a subscription for iScot and received my first magazine this morning. I was delighted with the quality and was even more delighted to also receive a copy of the first edition, which, although I had read it online, I regretted not having purchased at the time. I have sent a donation to cover the cost of the extra copy. Keep up the great work.


Many thanks Jim Wylie Address supplied


58 June 2015


with restrictions… no DSS, no smoking, no pets, no children, no noise…that only the most pristine and pure (and boring) among us have any hope of obtaining even a short- term tenancy.


Landowners claim they do much to


support local communities, yet they also impose unaffordable rents for basic, poorly maintained hovels, ensuring they profit from the public purse via housing benefits. In my own experience, when the Scottish government funded improvements in insulation to cut heating costs for ordinary people, the landowners simply increased their profits from house lets by imposing a hugely increased ‘sewage’


charge.


Furthermore, landowners restrict access and leisure activities on huge swathes of land by invoking the mantra ‘you will scare the pheasants/grouse’. Little wonder one often encounters strong dislike of these landowners in the rural communities they claim to serve.


There are many issues surrounding land, property and land holdings in Scotland, issues which have been as absent from informative public discussion as many landowners have been from their land. We need the new media to initiate and enliven this debate, to explore current and potential proposals, to involve landowners


and public in imaginative,


mutually beneficial discussion on how to maximise benefits for the many rather than the few, while preserving the unique and special features of our land. Hopefully iScot will take up the challenge.


Sincerely, Fiona Nicholson


Broom of Moy, Forres, Moray Sirs,


I enjoyed Will McLeod’s Letter from


America in iScot (March ’15 issue), in which he discussed the surge in Green support post-referendum. He went on to predict that many SNP candidates might displace


Hello Jim,


Thank you for your e-mail and I’m delighted that you like the magazine. We strive to keep the production values high and the material look and feel as high quality as we can afford to make it.


Also, thank you for your donation Jim, it’s greatly appreciated.


sincere best wishes iScot Team


Labour from previously safe constituencies as a consequence of tactical voting by Green supporters supporting SNP candidates, and also since the Greens did not stand in all constituencies. He suggested that SNP voters might return the favour in the 2016 SE.


I fear that Will is overly optimistic in this wish, particularly in the light of the GE results. The majority of our 56 SNP MPs won with large majorities within which the Green tactical vote was insignificant. Furthermore, the


decision by the Greens to stand a


candidate in Mundell’s seat, splitting the vote and allowing his re-election, was ill-thought out. That single result, had Mundell been ousted at last, would have greatly enhanced the power of our SNP MPs in Westminster to counteract the increasingly savage Tory attacks on our personal freedoms and for many vulnerable people, their ability merely to survive.


I feel quite supportive of many Green policies and had been considering giving them my list vote in future, in spite of Harvie having displayed some aggressive and non-cooperative tendencies in the past. I understand that it would be wrong to try to dictate who should stand where and what tactical strategy they should employ. Furthermore, it is important to sidestep divisive ‘blame’


arguments in


order to pull together as a nation towards independence. However, I suspect that many SNP voters who might have fulfilled Will’s dream of a rise in Green influence in Scotland will consider the Tory win in D,C &T constituency, particularly as Mundell continues to patronise the Scottish people in his role as Governor General, implementing Westminster colonial rule. Few will see this as a favour to be returned in 2016.


Sincerely, Margaret Shaw info@iscot.scot


Subject: iScot Feedback Comments:


I just wanted to say you have done a fantastic job. Quality articles and interesting mix of topics. And the Wee Ginger Dug too! Couldn’t have asked for much more so I will definitely be subscribing! Well done, keep it coming!


Name: Lynne McGregor Address supplied


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