Land Matters

I’m delighted to report that Alex Salmond has asked me to assist him in writing his speech to Scottish Landowners at their AGM on 29 May 2012. (1) Only some lines, mind, not the whole damn thing. This is the first time to my knowledge that a First Minister of Scotland has addressed their lairdships. With four years left of Government before the next election and a healthy Parliamentary majority, Salmond and the SNP can do as they please.

So what will please? I began my research with a speech Alex Salmond made in the House of Commons on 6 November 1996. It would be inappropriate to simply give this same speech again. There are, after all, some obvious clues that it is dated (the opening lines for example, where he congratulates President Clinton on his re-election). But the general thrust of it seems OK. Maybe I should excise the dated stuff and add some ideas on what Salmond and his party can now do 15 years on now that we have a Scottish Parliament and he is First Minister.

Where to start? I’ve decided to crowdsource this. So feel free to provide your suggestions on twitter @andywightman or facebook. You can also leave comments at foot of this post. I will add lines here as they come in and will build up to the great day on 29th (which is also my birthday). Here goes.

1. “Last week I was in Norway. It is clear that Scotland has a lot to learn from the Norwegians about land distribution and I have asked my officials to prepare a report on the matter.”

(1) I should make clear that First Minister Salmond has of course not really asked me to do this. This is a spoof. Journalists beware.

Duke Richard, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KBE

BBC Scotland’s Business and Economy Editor, Douglas Fraser, conducted a fascinating interview with John Glen, Chief Executive of the Buccleuch Group yesterday (online report here & audio file here). There is much to chew over but two aspects in particular stood out.

1. Business Tax

“These estates are businesses” Mr Glen remarks at one point. Now I have a high regard for Douglas Fraser as a journalist but I wonder if the BBC will ever follow up such an assertion by asking “so why do they not pay business rates like all other businesses?”

Of course on Buccleuch Estate there are workspaces, sawmills and a variety of other business premises and they are liable for business rates (to be paid by the occupier who is often not the owner). But the estate as a business – the 270,000 acres – pays nothing. Why in Scotland in 2012 do landowners still get away with not having to pay their fair share of property taxes?

2. Who Owns Buccleuch Estates?

On the Buccleuch Group website is the following statement.

“Buccleuch Group companies embrace the corporate business interests of the Buccleuch Family. The parent company is the Buccleuch Estates Limited, which is chaired by Duke Richard, the 10th Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry, KBE.”

Buccleuch Estates Ltd. is in fact a parent company for a range of businesses in Germany, Luxembourg, Russia, Germany and the UK. But “embracing the corporate business interests of the Buccleuch Family” rather suggests that the company is owned by the Duke of Buccleuch and family.

The fact is, however, that the shares of Buccleuch Estates Ltd. are wholly owned by Anderson Strathern Nominees Ltd., a company with a total paid-up share value of £4, whose shareholders are four Edinburgh lawyers, whose total assets amount to £4 and which has not traded since its incorporation in May 1992.

So how, exactly are the “corporate business interests of the family” represented in the Buccleuch Group? That’s another question which the BBC might one day ask.

I think I know the answer. I learnt it years ago from one of Buccleuch’s advisors who is now safely retired. One day, when I have probed further, I may be in a position to reveal it.

A number of people in the SNP have been trying to persuade me that the Scottish Government is serious about getting land reform back on track. I am prepared to accept this once I see the evidence. Meanwhile events suggest that I may have to wait some time. Take the following, for example.

The Land Registration Bill is currently making its way through Parliament. It’s the first time a democratically elected Parliament in Scotland has ever had the opportunity to debate important questions around how rights in land are recorded and secured. I provided written and oral evidence in an attempt to broaden out what was a narrow and rather legalistic piece of legislation in order to incorporate some important reforms. See previous posts on topic.

The Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee has been scrutinising the Bill and published its Stage 1 Report on 6 March 2012. This was followed by a debate in Parliament on 14 March. Last week, the Scottish Government responded to the Committee’s report and one item in particular caught my eye.

It concerns the Committee’s suggestion that the opportunity might be taken in the Bill to repeal the Division of the Commonties Act of 1695. (1) This Act was passed by the nobility as a means of dividing and appropriating Scotland’s parish commons for themselves. The introduction of feudal tenure led to the legal view that what were originally genuine commons were now the undivided common property of the landowners in the parish and the 1695 Act allowed them to be divided. The Act was simple and straightforward and was extensively used such that today only very few commonties remain undivided.

The argument for repeal is unanswerable. Feudal tenure is dead and these commons should revert to their pre-feudal status. The 1695 Act was passed by a undemocratic Scots Parliament to increase the power and wealth of the nobility.

So what has the Scottish Government said?

“The Scottish Government does not think there is merit in doing so. The … Act allows an area of commonty to be divided among the owners either (1) where holding the land as Commonty no longer suits the parties or (2) to allow enclosure and cultivation of the land. In modern common ownership, a similar end may be achieved by an action of division or sale. It is not desirable to remove this right from the owners of Commonty.” (2)

Now, there is a question over whether this Bill is a legitimate place to be repealing the 1695 Act but the Government are not making that case. They are making the case in defence of continuing to allow landowners to divide common land. In other words they are defending the legitimacy of a 17th century statute designed to grab common land from the people. I find that quite astonishing.

The Scottish Government should be repealing such manifestly illegitimate legislation, speaking out against land grabbing and returning what little is left of common land to the people. Instead, it is entrapped by a conservative legal establishment into legitimising corrupt laws the have no place in a modern democratic Scotland.

(1) See Chapter 7 in The Poor Had No Lawyers for further details of what I term the 4th land grab.

(2) para 24a in Scottish Government response.

There is a programme on Radio 4 called The Unbelievable Truth in which panellists compete to see how many nuggets of truth they are able to hide among their lies and as an example of the Alice in Wonderland world in which Donald Trump inhabits, consider this

“I am considered a world-class expert in tourism. When you ask, “Where is the expert and where is the evidence?” I say: I am the evidence.” (col 1344)

Following the appearance of Donald Trump and Trump organisation Executive Vice-President, George Sorial, at the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee of the Scottish Parliament on 25 April 2012, I can confirm that he repeated 3 of the 10 lies documented here and added one more. The Official Report of the Committee meeting is available here and the (Col xxxx) references are to column numbers from the report.

Lie 7

“I have invested tens of millions of pounds in my site on the North Sea coast.” (col 1342)

“Tens of millions” means at least £20 million. From the published accounts of Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd. to 31 December 2010, only £6,455,690 has been invested in addition to the £6,917,850 capital to acquire the land.

Lie 8

“By the time that I bought the land, I did not think that the wind farm would happen.” (col 1344)

“I felt confident by the time that I bought the land that the wind farm would not happen.” (col 1344)

“By the time that I bought, I felt secure and I felt secure for a period of time.” (col 1345-36)

As revealed in the 21 February 2006 “deal killer” email, Scottish Development International (SDI) were telling the Scottish Executive that their “client” was “about to conclude a deal within the next few days” and was seeking “an authoritative view as quickly as possible from the Scottish Executive on the wind farm proposal”. Donald Trump had acquired the bulk of Menie Estate for £4.498 million a month previously on 27 January 2006.

SDI can only have obtained these reported views from the Trump Organisation and I have today asked SDI to confirm the source of their information. But as things stand, Donald Trump misled the Committee by saying that by the time he had bought the land, he was confident that the EOWDC project “would not happen” if a month later he was desperately seeking assurances.

Under questioning by Patrick Harvie MSP, George Sorial reacted angrily to this allegation.

George Sorial: “Mr Harvie asked about the e-mail from SDI. Why does he not ask SDI that question? It wrote the e-mail. The e-mail was not to us; it was from SDI to the Scottish Government. It is not reasonable for Mr Harvie to ask us to speculate on what SDI meant by what it said. That is absolutely ridiculous.” (col 1346)

Patrick Harvie: “On 21 February 2006, following discussions with yourselves, SDI wrote an e-mail that indicated that it was clearly under the impression that the deal would be completed in a few days.”(col 1346)

George Sorial: “That is hearsay. Were we copied in on that e-mail? It was an e-mail from SDI to the Scottish Government. Why would you even bring it up? It has no bearing on this hearing. That is ridiculous.” (col 1347)

Of course the email was SDI to the Scottish Government but the views reported were attributed to the Trump Organisation and it is patently ridiculous to suggest that they invented these views. Mr Sorial will be pleased to know that SDI have now been asked about the email.

Lie 9

In response to a line of questioning about a Visit Scotland poll on wind farms and tourism, Mr Trump replied,

“No one knows more about polls than I do; in fact, if you want to hear about polls, I had 93 per cent approval for my project when people were fighting me on it.” (1353)

Despite much repetition of this figure, Trump has never produced any evidence to substantiate the claim despite repeated requests to do so. This allegation will be withdrawn if he can prove it is true.

A new lie

There was one additional lie in Trump’s evidence. This was the claim that Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi

“was been seen running in the park last week” (col1355)

No comment.

The following MSPs agree that Donald Trump Senior, Donald Trump Junior and George Sorial should cease to be members of the GlobalScot network.

Patrick Harvie
Kezia Dugdale
Jean Urquhart

…….

5 MSPs are happy for Trump et al to remain global ambassadors for Scotland.

Public Petition open for support here.

Background on GlobalScot campaign here.

Blogs on Donald Trump here.

Picture of Michael Cohen

I resent spending time writing about Trump. But he continues to bully, harrass and lie as well as violating people’s human rights, breaching planning consents and generally running riot over the lives and democratic processes of Scotland. So what did we learn today?

We learnt that, contrary to all the bluster, Trump’s claims about promises, reassurances and deals were hot air. All he had were alleged comments from Jack McConnell and Alex Salmond as to the likelihood of an offshore wind energy test centre in Aberdeen Bay. We learnt that in October 2007, Trump had dinner with Salmond at a Scottish Development International event in New York at which Trump was led to believe that the EOWDC project was unlikely to obtain consent. Trump completely and utterly failed to understand that such opinions count for nothing. He only has himself to blame for what has happened since.

We learnt that he continues to lie – only this time it was to a Parliamentary Committee rather than to the press. For the record, he restated lies 2,7,8 and 9 of these ten lies of Donald Trump.

We also learnt that he will definitely not go ahead with his hotel and golf resort if the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) is granted consent.

We also learnt (though this be by deduction) that his objection to EOWDC is in fact simply an excuse to abandon his project.

Why?

Because George Sorial, his Executive Vice President and Counsel is on record as saying that,

“For this project to ever really be great, we need to have a hotel and I would challenge anyone to find a developer that would put a hotel on that site with some of the properties that are currently there in the states they are.” (1)

Trump’s delusion was to think that he could simply buy out the residents by offering them enough money. But they are made of sterner stuff.

We also learnt that Trump is now employing his New York “pit bull”, Michael Cohen who yesterday issued one of the resident’s with a “pass” to get in and out of her own home. He might care to know that under Scots law and under Human Rights legislation people in Scotland do not need Mr Trump’s permission to enter their own home. Indeed to attempt to hold anyone to ransom in this way is a criminal offence. In an interview with ABC, Cohen boasted,

“It means that if somebody does something Mr Trump doesn’t like, I do everythign in my power to resolve it to Mr trump’s benefit. If you do something wrong, I’m going to come at you, grab you by the neck and I’m not going to let you go until I’m finished.”

Charming.

Oh, and we also learnt that trump’s new friends in Communities Against Turbines Scotland are climate-change deniers.

And finally, Mr Trump Snr, Mr Trump Jnr and George Sorial are still GlobalScots.

Mr Trump, could you pleeeeeeease do us all a favour and get tae…

NOTES

(1) Donald Trump’s Golf War by Midas Productions. First broadcast on BBC 2 Scotland 15 november 2010 at 46:46