Panic in the ranks

Mike Smith
10 years ago
Categories: uncategorized

No its not our politicians, media or PR and pundits trying to make sense of what is happening here but this story from the Tatler via the Guardian is one for Robbie. The Scottish aristocracy is nervous. Change is afoot. ‘As one whose family was involved in the 1707 Act of Union, I can’t really comment on the referendum,’ barks one of the country’s pre-eminent dukes. ‘But the buggers are out to get us!’

Will their 80,000-acre estates be parcelled out to crofters? Might SNP leader Alex Salmond bring in a swingeing castle tax? Will treasonous Scots cast off the Queen as their head of state? It’s causing disquiet among the ranks, if not the file.

Oh dear. But if this wakes people up to the fact that over half the land is owned by 432 people it brings the clearances back into into sharp relief. A good thing too.

Mind you it looks as though there might be a bit of panic in the ranks of our local born-to-rule brigade – John Armstrong certainly seems ready to press the button for them.