Re: Jacboties

> There can be no apology for the Highland Clearances without an act of
> institutional contrition. Let the highlands be resettled by those who can
> prove that they are descendants of cleared highlanders and other cleared
> Scots. It would be a simple matter of ammending the laws of immigration and
> citizenship. It surely would bring a lot of investment into the country.
>
For what it's worth, my own view is that the Scottish Parliament should not go about raking all this up again. It smacks of a bit of a political stunt by Jamie Stone. It is not a topic to meddle with: in this list alone, we have seen how emotive the subject can be. It should concentrate on its core function of legislating for the people in Scotland. I think it is fair to say that most people here have put the pain of the Clearances behind them.

IMO, to think that the process can be reversed and the Highlands 'resettled' by descendants of emigrés is slightly fanciful. I'm not at all sure that there would much interest anyway.

No, if the Highlands are to be repopulated and the Scottish Parliament is to demonstrate any sort on contrition, the Parliament should open its chequebook and start spending on the infrastructre (esp. digital) so that 'settlers' can live rurally and work remotely.