New and Updated Edition
Who owns Scotland? How did they get it? What happened to all the common land in Scotland? Has the Scottish Parliament made any difference? Can we get our common good land back? In this book, Andy Wightman updates the statistics of landownership in Scotland and explores how and why landowners got their hands on the millions of acres of land that were once held in common.
He tells the untold story of how Scotland's legal establishment and politicians managed to appropriate land through legal fixes. Have attempts to redistribute this power more equitably made any difference, and what are the full implications of the recent debt-fuelled housing bubble, the Smith Commission and the new Scottish Government's proposals on land reform? For all those with an interest in urban and rural land in Scotland, this updated edition of The Poor Had No Lawyers provides a fascinating analysis of one the most important political questions in Scotland.
Publisher: Birlinn General
ISBN: 9781780273105
Number of pages: 560
Weight: 430 g
Dimensions: 234 x 156 x 1 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
'It would be described as definitive, if its very purpose was not an ongoing attempt to introduce definition to disorder. If this remarkable book is definitive of anything, it is of its dogged, inquisitive, articulate and extremely serious author' - West Highland Free Press
'frank, fearless and at times ferocious - a remarkable book' - Herald
'Superlative' - The Scotsman
'An essential guide to who owns Scotland and why land reform has flowered there in recent years' - The Guardian (the best books about land and power 2020)
'A more important book about Scottish land ownership has yet to be written' - David Ross, Press and Journal
'One of the defining literary and scholarly works of modern Scotland ... it demands to be read if you want to reach an understanding of why Scotland cannot be considered a fair society while prevailing patterns of land ownership persist in our most beautiful places' - Kevin McKenna
