PROPERTY is theft: the fatuous maxim of Proudhon, the French palaeo-socialist, in 1840 remains the enduring superstition of members of the Scottish parliament. Unless, of course, the property concerned was obtained by judicious deployment of parliamentary housing grants from the Scottish taxpayer - MSPs are quite relaxed about that.
Anybody who was deceived by the patina of maturity that Alex Salmond has striven to impose upon the wee pretendy parliament should have observed the proceedings at Holyrood last Wednesday. Before the house was a motion tabled by the troglodyte tenden
cy, deploring a sheriff's decision to exempt a tiny area of land around Kinfauns Castle, the home of millionaire entrepreneuse Ann Gloag, from intrusion by strangers under the terms of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003.
The initiator of the motion was Sarah Boyack, former Minister for Transport Paralysis until sacked by Jack McConnell. The motion was dramatically entitled Save the Land Reform Act and Restore the Will of Parliament, which had a pleasing ring to it, reminiscent of a slogan on a Chartist banner. It had as much relevance to Scotland's current needs. MSPs' indignation arose from a decision in Perth Sheriff Court on June 12 when Sheriff Michael Fletcher ruled against the Ramblers' Association, which sought access to land immediately adjacent to the Gloag residence at Kinfauns.
The area which Gloag was trying to preserve as private, on security grounds, amounted to a mere 12 acres. The Ramblers' Association, however, was determined to extract its pound of flesh; instead, it ended up facing legal costs allegedly of £144,000. Why was the Ramblers' Association so determined to deny Gloag even minimal privacy? Why were her 12 acres so indispensable to its activities? The total area of Scotland is 19,464,960 acres - does that not afford ample scope to roam?
The distinguishing characteristics of a member of the Ramblers' Association Scotland are a bobble hat, a chip on the shoulder and an Essex accent. The president of this 'non-political' organisation is that well-known non-politician Dennis Canavan. Last June, he commented on the decision: "This judgment is flouting the will of the Scottish parliament. The sheriff seems to be saying that the bigger your house, the more land you need to keep it private." Exactly: 12 acres around Kinfauns is like a third of an acre round a bungalow.
The disingenuous claim that ramblers wanted to view interesting trees in the grounds of Kinfauns, such as swamped cypress, giant redwood and coast redwood, prompts the question: is everyone who owns an object of interest legally obliged to grant access to it to all comers? What about Gloag's jewellery - should women ramblers not have a right to tramp into her bedroom and inspect it?
The traditional solution, in cases of interest by naturalists, was to write a polite letter to the owner, who would usually grant supervised access. That, of course, is not what this case is about. The ownership itself is grudged. So is the wealth of the owner. Boyack is a public failure, Gloag is a success story: that is 'unfair'. Wealth is reprehensible in Scotland; if it is inherited it denotes privilege, if it is self-made it represents 'profit' - a phenomenon deplored by the Scottish Left.
MSPs believe the legal costs of the bobble-hat brigade pursuing its obsession should be met by the taxpayer, plus any further expense of contesting this and all similar actions, up to the House of Lords if necessary. Boyack was joined in this clamour by the usual suspects: Roseanna 'Republican Rose' Cunningham, Pauline McNeill, Rob Gibson et al - the leaders of Scotland's rural Jacquerie.
Boyack, as transport minister, was unkindly labelled 'Little Miss Cock-up' by the media. The adjective most frequently applied to her was 'embattled'. One of her minor defaults was forgetting to renew the tolls order on the Erskine Bridge, at a cost of £13,000 a day. McNeill attained global celebrity last election night when, oblivious to the axiom 'in victory, magnanimity', her screeching rant at the count was placed on YouTube, provoking queries: "Who is that Scottish fishwife?"
Gibson, in his speech last Wednesday, declared that the Land Reform legislation was "not an event; it is a process". That process would have to be reviewed by parliament. The reason? Because the Ramblers' Association has lost one case. Here we have a novel doctrine: that every case heard under a particular piece of legislation must invariably be found in favour of the party representing a specific interest, in this instance the so-called right to roam. That applies to no other statute, whether passed at Westminster or Holyrood.
In the normal course of events, parliament passes a law, then stands aloof from its enforcement, resigning that duty to the judiciary. It is part of the principle of separation of powers. It has always been regarded as a vital safeguard of the subject's liberties. Now, however, for the first time in legal history, it appears it is incumbent on judges always to find for one side of the case, rather than reach the variety of decisions to which litigants have previously been exposed.
These legislators are not interested in the due process of law: they are concerned to impose a dictatorial regime upon property owners who, by virtue of their ownership, are automatically deemed to be in the wrong. The Land Reform Act was a hypocritical act of class warfare. Its bad faith was demonstrated by the refusal of MSPs to amend a clause allowing access right up to the immediate curtilage of a rural dwelling, even in the hours of darkness. What legitimate interest could possibly be served by such a criminals' charter? No responsible parliament would have passed such legislation.
Yet Holyrood did. Last Wednesday, we saw our pygmy legislature crudely indulging its grudge radicalism. This was a paradigm of parliamentary kitsch: the best small-minded assembly in the world, our own constitutional kailyard, the settled will of the Brigadoon consensus - the wee Scotch Senate.
The full article contains 1012 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
