✨ Album artwork reveal!!! ✨ I’m delighted to reveal this gorgeous album cover art by Elly Lucas. Elly took such care in creating this stunning collage of Scottish plants 🌱 You can now pre-order my album on Bandcamp! islaratcliff.bandcamp.com/album/the-sc... Only 5 days until release day! Isla x

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

Centuries of overgrazing & muirburn for grouse moors mean Highland Scotland looks treeless & desolate. But it doesn't have to be this way. New film Scotland's Missing Forests went online y'day. Chuffed to see almost 10k views. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuTV... @chrisgpackham.bsky.social

I’ve been nominated for ‘Musician of the Year’ at the @handsupfortrad.bsky.social Trad Awards 2025! 🥳 This is SUCH an honour ❤️ Now I need you to vote for me! Voting closes on Sunday 16th November. Vote here: projects.handsupfortrad.scot/scotstradmus...

Vlog No.1: A day of admin, social media promo and a Hegedu rehearsal 💻🎻🎶 Vote for me for ‘Musician of the Year’ (deadline 16th Nov): projects.handsupfortrad.scot/scotstradmus... Here is the first of several vlogs showing what being a professional musician actually involves (it’s not all music!).

The result of the Stage 3 vote on the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill is: ✅ Yes - 85 ❌ No - 28 🟣 Abstain - 9 The Bill is therefore passed. You can find out more online at: https://ow.ly/g4AC50XnkZw

Land Reform (Scotland) Bill passes with 85 voting yes, 28 voting no and 9 abstentions

Cabinet Secretary arguing that ownership of land should not be based on wealth or birth. AGREE. BUT wealth is precisely what is driving increased concentration. Just today I ordered a deed transferring even more land to one of richest women in the world with no questions asked /…

There had been ONE intervention in this debate with only the ScotGov Minister to close the debate. Debate? There has actually been NO debate.

Folk often ask me what I would do by way of land reform legislation. Have a read of this blog to find out. It seems pointless to do much further detailed work since there is so little appetite for such measures andywightman.scot/2023/12/land...

This debate is winding up now just 40 minutes after it started. Only 3 open debate speakers. I don’t think Parliament is interested in land reform any more. MSPs say all the right things but nothing changes.

Richard Leonard making the first meaningful speech in this Land Reform Bill debate

Curious to hear a Scottish Green politician be so critical of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill when it is a Bill signed of by them in Government as part of the SNP-Green coalition in March 2024

Still v frustarted that debates around tenant farming stilll resolves around trying to expand tenancies. But they are in decline whilst in other Euroopean countries the % tenanted land is much much higher BECAUSE they had real land reform in aftermath of French revolution

Scottish Parliament just passed the amendment that defines a large landholding with reference to the most complex of registers meaning a connected person is not just someone you can identify IN the register but someone who is REQUIRED to be in. Best of luck with this.

I have published a new briefing for MSPs for the Stage 3 debate on the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill tomorrow (wed 5 Nov). You can download a copy here andywightman.scot/2025/11/land...

I am pleased to publish this thoughtful essay by April Cumming on her recent homecoming to Lochaber from Australia. andywightman.scot/2025/11/duth...

I am looking forward to speaking at the @revivecoalition.bsky.social conference on Sat 8 Nov. Come along for a fascinating day to dicuss findings of its Big Land Question project. www.perththeatreandconcerthall.com/whats-on/rev...

OCTOBER UPDATE Who Owns Scotland now published with total of 4850 landholdings (76.55% rural Scotland). The project is financed solely by subscription income which is not rising as fast as expansion expenditure so may have to slow the project down. Subscriptions start at £5 whoownsscotland.org.uk

Here again for Stage 3 amending stage of Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. But voting system has gone down due to an “external issue with Microsoft” suspended until 1900

Scottish government’s bid to break up giant rural estates ‘too complex’ Critics say SNP’s ‘bureaucratic’ land reform bill will fail in its aim to benefit local communities

Well there are still some amendments to go but it does not look like there will be any substantive change in Part I of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill. A Bill that was not going to achive much is not going to achieve much.

In my Stage 3 briefing I invited MSPs 2 reject power 4 Ministers 2 "clarify" definiton of lg landholdings by 2ndary legislation. Meanings should b clear in primary legislation. Noone spoke to this though & for 1st time in SP, we have a <(or clarify)> in legislation andywightman.scot/2025/10/stag...

Debate in Group 7 as to the level of fine to be imposed for failure to prepare a management plan. Currently £40,000. Proposals to reduce £10k or £5k. This is a civil fine. In contrast failure to register beneficial ownership is only £5000 (cos it is a criminal penalty. This feels disproporitonate.

Now onto Group 6 which is about the definition of large landholdings - big policy issues. About the threshold (reduce to 500ha from 1000ha?), what counts as contiguous etc. Mercedes Villalba opening the debate in this group

Group 5 - Brian Whittle now proposing 4 amendments that community bodies which own a large landholding should be subject to stricter obligations than anyone else (eg by being required to implement a managament plan) whilst Tories voted against similar requirements for private landowners.

Votes so far suggest the monster pylons are not going to be stopped (at least not by any provision in the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill

Into a long series of votes on Group 4, all of which are succeeding or falling as expected. No surprises yet.

Douglas Lumsden now speaking to his amendments that deal with his concerns over "monster pylons"

One of the many weaknesses of the Bill is that the duty to prepare land management plans for large landholdings is NOT accompanied by a duty to IMPLEMENT them. Nor is there any duty on successive landowners to adopt OR implement them.

Bob Doris speaks to amend 258 - publish land management plans on “a single website”. Fine. But exacerbates scatter of land info all over the place. A 2015 commitment by John Swinney 2 create a comprehensive land informations system by 2017 was never met. See davidhumeinstitute.org/latest-news/...

Minister says she agrees with the aim of a completed Land Register. Fine. Except a commitment was given by her Govt in 2014 to complete the Land Register for all public-owned land by 2019 and private land by 2024. That never happened.

@ariane-burgess.bsky.social speaks to her amendment to require all large landholdings to be registered in the Land Register. Ths Bill is probably not the place for this (should instead amend Land Registration (Scotland) Act 2012) but a sensible new trigger if it could be otherwise be achieved.

I don't imagine that there are that many people excitedly following Stage 3 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill on bluesky. But if you are, you can find all the relevant documents here www.parliament.scot/bills-and-la...

@ariane-burgess.bsky.social and Mercedes Villalba speak to their amendments which introduce a public interest test on buyers as originally advised by @scottishlandcom.bsky.social Such a measure would dramatically strengthen the LR Bill but it won't pass....

I am in the Chamber for the first day of debate on Stage 3 Amendments to the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill Will post any points of interest. We open with amendments about access rights in Burntisland (even though a public bill is not the place to resolve them and the amendment will not be moved)

Edward MountainMSP raises a good point re Land Reform (Scotland) Bill Stage 3 debate. MSPs only get 5 min to speak to all amendments in a Group (so an MSP with 19 amendments in group of 20 gets total of 5 min. The one MSP with modest technical amendment also gets 5 min. Good point.

Claim: “In the broad sweep of land reform history, this Bill marks a watershed moment” says minister Mairi Gougeon. More like a platitudinous trickle: see andywightman.scot/2025/10/stag... Timid and disappointing stuff from @snp.org and @scottishgreens.org www.heraldscotland.com/politics/hol...

Kinlochbervie wind farm row raises questions over transparency – not turbines - www.scottishbeacon.com/news/local-d... @scottishbeacon.bsky.social #PowerShift

I've prepared a Stage 3 briefing for MSPs on the Land Reform (Scotland) Bill questioning whether the complex administrative processes in the Bill can really be justified if there is no meaningful impact on the pattern of landownership in Scotland. andywightman.scot/2025/10/stag...

In what is perhaps a slightly unusual alliance, Don MacLeod (Head of Property at Turcan Connell) & myself have written to the Cabinet Secretary urging further scrutiny of key provisions in Land Reform (Scotland) Bil due to be debated 28-29 Oct & 4 Nov. andywightman.scot/wp-content/u...

Quite a day. Not only did I give my new work, on Swift and the Enlightenment Constitution, its first public outing, but Helen Dale’s deeply thoughtful review of my last project, On the Law of Speaking Freely, has been published here: lawliberty.org/book-review/...

I agree with Don (at least on Parts 2-5 of Bill). We disagree on case 4 land reform. But as he points out, even if u consider it a good thing, you should want law that works, that provides clarity to all who engage with it & which leads to predictable outcomes. www.scottishlegal.com/articles/don...

✨ Friday 23rd January 2026 ✨ I am VERY excited to be performing my upcoming album, ‘The Scottish Four Seasons’, at Celtic Connections in the Barony Hall in January! I’ll be playing with a fantastic band 🎵 Tickets are on sale now from the Celtic Connections website! Can’t wait!! #CCFest2026

1/ This is outrageous. John Swinney misled parliament by falsely claiming that more than half of taxpayers in Scotland pay less income tax than if they lived elsewhere in the UK. Scot Gov says this is perfectly fine because his remarks were based on SFC forecasts for 2025-26.

Yet another article by a paper @heraldscotland.bsky.social that should know better with a story about ScotGov employee issues illustrated with a picture from a completely different workplace (the legislature) where as far as I know there are no workplace complaints

We're calling on the Scottish National Investment Bank to rethink investment in the Gresham House fund. Using @andywightman.scot's research, we raise key concerns around public expenditure, transparency & local economies. Scotsman article 👉 tinyurl.com/4re6ps6r Full article 👉 tinyurl.com/mt38ax9f

Our recent research has shown that peatland restoration is a poor fit for private finance, unless the Scottish Government bends over backwards to de-risk investment. This ultimately shifts risk onto the public while allowing investors to capture profits. Our work explores a public-led alternative.

"If El Mordjene was in short supply before, now it became mythically scarce. Prices climbed to twenty, even thirty euros a jar. I scared one up on Vinted, a Lithuanian resale site, transferring forty euros to an Algerian woman living in France, who had just been home for her grandfather’s funeral."