The beginning of the end of fieldsports in Scotland?

Yes it's truly dreadful living here, we're all dooomed.

Hang on a mo..what about the low population density, the ratio of deer to people, the beautiful countryside where you can drop the Lake district into One of our national parks, the rugged natural unspoilt coastline and islands, the number of mountains to climb and hills to walk, the One loch that contains more water than all the lakes in England put together, the fishing (much of it free),not to mention the free prescriptions,university education and bus passes.

Och, it's no' sae bad really, we're no' quite dooomed yet.

:)

no such thing as a free lunch. The indigestion is yet to come :)
 
I think it strange that obviously well educated people have no idea what they are saying sometimes,

Whether Scotland votes yes or no with the world in it's economical state of lending would mean that it will all depend on the credit rating of the country, at the moment Scotland is expected to have a A+ credit rating if made independent but thats yet to be seen. As far as feudalism and land reform that issue has haunted the highlands since the crofters act over 100 years ago. Yes large estates still dominate most of the Highlands landscape employing hundreds of personnel to work on them and in many cases controlling lots of individual communities but thats what makes the Highlands unique to any other region in the UK and always had since clearance times. As far as replacing Estates with Forestry well if you do not work or live up here you won't necessary know what is happening in regards to Forestry well it is simple thousands of acres of once government forestry is now being privatised and managed through lease management with very few Forestry keepers now left in their management, and I was told of a local forestry keeper the other day that after he is finished there will be no replacement for him in his area and that is the same with the other areas of the Highlands, I do understand that this will be different in the other parts of the UK.

So although we will spout article after article the fact is land reform will be a long fought debate for years to come whether it is a Yes or a NO vote also the No matter if Independence is gonna happen I definately do not see Salmond as the head of state.
 
These crazy proposals are very worrying. I am concerned how they undermine a very basic rule of law, if you own something then you own it. It's all a bit Robin Hood and the numpty's who run the LRG for the SNP are puppets of the local authority system. It's a bit like government saying "i am going to make anyone with a big garden sell it to the poor folk next door who couldn't afford the big house!". Where does it stop....... Divide up just estates and large land holdings? Divide up big farms first then see how much support this gets!!!
 
These crazy proposals are very worrying. I am concerned how they undermine a very basic rule of law, if you own something then you own it. It's all a bit Robin Hood and the numpty's who run the LRG for the SNP are puppets of the local authority system. It's a bit like government saying "i am going to make anyone with a big garden sell it to the poor folk next door who couldn't afford the big house!". Where does it stop....... Divide up just estates and large land holdings? Divide up big farms first then see how much support this gets!!!

Remove MPs from their plush housing and stick them in the estates that they are supposed to be representing :stir:
 
I don't think that the SNP will last long enough to put all their crazy ideas in place after independence. I hope that some other less left wing party will be there to take over...
 
I don't think that the SNP will last long enough to put all their crazy ideas in place after independence. I hope that some other less left wing party will be there to take over...
I dunno about the SNP not lasting long but I do not see Salmond lasting, his ego and childish behaviour is just tiresome
 
people are still voting for the pillock though ,i totally understand scots wanting independence but dont remember anyone wanting communism or even worse.he wants to control airweapons.firearms ,land ownership defence without nukes <anyone seen what putins upto>.and tax the rich to pay for this fiasco.enjoy your freedom and remember as the french rich did for HOLLENDE the mad taxing socialist ,people with money move it abroad.500,000 french now live in london rather than pay higher income tax.i think the rich scots facing higher taxes will just move south for the political winter till you suffering leftbehinds vote the eejits out again.
 
I must admit the land reform stuff bothers me.
Having grown up on sporting estates and had the good fortune to work in various post from leaving school and now be helping to manage a couple of small estates .
I know exactly what the associated costs are in just treading water and not having everything fall apart. Just keeping fences, dykes , drains in repair, burns ,rivers clear of debris. Wind blown trees cleared , Houses maintained and repaired quicker than they fall apart costs a phenominal amount annually, just to stand still nevermind actually invest and try to get ahead of the game .The two small estates have an annual turnover of approx £650,000 what with agricultural subs of £120k , livestock sales , sporting and tourism.This still requires an annual injection of £250k which comes from the owners outside taxed and earned private income , this just to balance the books. Keep everyone in a job , the local shop, school , surgery , tradesmen ect ect. There is no possibility that the public purse could supply what private monies are currently doing to underpin the rural economy. cant even maintain bin collection or proper ambulance cover now.
If you go down this very communist route say we divide the land mass 19,460,000acre by population5,254,000 on day one ,we get 3.7acres each! (i hope my 3.7acres is grade 1 arable and not some scree slope or section of bog or loch.) On day two half the people realise that their 3.7acres are actually pretty useless for anything much and so propose flogging it to there nieghbours who just about have enough for a couple of hardy blackface sheep to run on if you buy in hay for the winter. selling the lambs doesnt cover the cost of the vet meds ,feed ect so half give up and sell to their nieghbours and 100 yrs down the line we end up back where we are now .
 
Must admit this whole land thing is bloody scary coupled with the proposed changes with airguns and various other things it really does worry me about independence.
Even coming out of Europe and farmers losing all the CAP/SFP is never really mentioned anywhere, as well as the other forstry road grant money too.

How do the more northern areas find that change in agricultural tennacy agreements and the right to buy?
Was meant to help the tennant farmers,just made it far worse for them, and they pretty much had first offers at a reduced price being a sitting tennant anyway before the law changed.

Down here in the SW it is a joke most of the big estates have ripped up every tennacy agreement they possibly could and got the farmers on all sorts of strange leases quite often only 12month, how the hell is a farmer got any security or plan for the future when u only hve a 12month tennacy agreement and not unusual to have to have ALL there stock off the farm for atleast 1 day a year
But i can see the estates point of view as well, imagine ur a landlord and any of the tennants in ur flats could knock on your door demanding to buy ur flat.

And as u rightly say above very few large estates and highland estates esp will make a profit year on year, even these big fancy grouse moors very few will make a long term profit year on year running costs are massive

Funny but in the ukrane when it came out of the Soviet system all the workes were given 'X' acres to work but x acres does not allow u to buy tractors or implements, i had a 12hour train journey right from poland down to Kiev and never seen such a poor backward country or agricultural practices, like being in a time warp. Seen them working fields by hand or horse and carts yet had massive sheds/silo's sitting empty from when was all mechanised russian state farms, probably the most fertile productive land in whole of europe being farmed by hand/horses
 
its living proof of be careful what you wish for ,you might get it .but there will be extras you dont want or like .king alex is openly allowing this mugabe style landshare nonsense ,as you say what use is 3 acres of bog or scree,especially to a gorbals resident or someone living in a flat 50 miles away.youl have no stipend from westminster ,you,l be paying for all those MS,P,s and their wives<sorry researcher,s>.those free places at uni,prescriptions etc.is NHS england going to carry on sending central purchase north ,no youl have to buy it .the list is very very long as is our history .email the doughnut and ask him whose going to be paying the bills when your independant as no english goverment would dare help when you go your own way.nice thought no planning,he even thought he could keep the pound:doh:.close the sub bases send em home theres loads of room in plymouth and portsmouth.but the 7000 people the bases employ would be 7000 unemployed people king alex sir.though you,d be nuclear free :stir:
 
Strange how this thread seems to be getting more folk South of the border energised than it does folk North.
Your concern is touching but misplaced I think.
I think the vote in September will be No,then we can look forward to more devolution.
It's rather nice to be able to determine our own affairs.
:)
 
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just worried for my family p f .dad moved when he was 12 to yorkshire ,but my grandad had 5 brothers n sisters so a huge family still living in lochgelly ,fife affected by this .i hope your right and common sense prevails when you all vote,but if it doesnt my main worry is king alex,s answer to all issues raised is to slag the tories off rather than come up with sensible answers.atb :lol:
 
Some on here seem to think that you can separate the independence debate from the obvious threats to our sports and our way of life as proposed by the SNP. That, I'm afraid, is a head in sand attitude. The current idiotic proposals from the ministers in the Scottish Government are their proposals for the future....ie; after independence. Of course we will get an SNP government after a Yes vote, thereafter it can only be an SNP or a left wing socialist government. Either of which will wreck the countryside and those who work in it. Of course the government knows how much the fieldsport industry is worth; they've been told often enough. They don't care.
Look at the damage they are prepared to sanction to wild migratory fish and their environment in order to support a foreign owned fish farming industry. Despite being told how much the sport fishing industry is worth.
The only way to prevent these wild anti estate, anti fieldsport, anti rural investment antics is to prevent the lunatics from running the asylum!!
Look at their shameful behaviour over tail docking. Several years ago I was in a room full of bods listening to eck promising to revisit the issue if he had the evidence. He's had 2 lots of evidence now, all of it overwhelming and still they prevaricate. Meanwhile another generation of dogs suffer; another generation of home bred scottish spaniels is lost. They just cant be trusted.
 
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