Recognising John McEwen, an Advocate of Land Reform

The motion

That the Parliament recognises the 20th anniversary of the death of John McEwen who, it understands, was a lifelong forester, socialist and advocate of radical land reform; considers that the people of the Highlands and Islands and across Scotland owe him a debt of gratitude for what it considers was his painstaking work in cataloguing land ownership in his book, Who Owns Scotland?; believes that this work exposed inequity in land ownership patterns and helped foster debate about land reform; acknowledges the early work of the Parliament in passing what it considers to have been important legislation that encouraged changes in land ownership patterns and removed feudal rights; notes with pleasure the use of this legislation by many communities and what it considers are the many benefits that community ownership brings; considers these to be welcome and important developments but believes that the fundamental inequity of land ownership has changed little since John McEwen's work was published, and believes that, in order to permit a wider and greater stake for the people in the ownership of land and in pursuit of the changes and economic and social advances that were advocated by John McEwen and, it believes, are still needed, it would be a fitting tribute to his memory if the debate about the future of the country embraced more widely what it considers to be the need for further land reform measures.

No recorded vote on this motion. Most motions are never debated, and many that are debated are agreed without a division. Vote records are published from 2011.

Lab 9 SNP 5

Party shown is each supporter’s party when the motion was published.

No contribution in the Official Report cites S4M-03740 by reference.