1. Land, Property and Ownership
This blog is the first in a series that I will release weekly ending with the release of the Utopian Manifesto covering Land and Property.
Credit
All credit to everything I have written in this series of blogs go to the following books, which I have read and re-read. The words are mine, the rants are mine, but I cannot really add anything original to what they are already suggesting. Everything contained in my blogs has been inspired by them:
Who Owns England ~ Guy Shrubsole Land ~ Simon Winchester Regenesis ~ George Monbiot The Book of Trespass ~ Nick Hayes
Stop Thief ~ Peter Linebaugh
These books would be compulsory reading in schools if we lived in a country that wasn’t scared of revolution.
"I've been standing in the welfare lines Crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation Wasting time in the unemployment lines Sitting around waiting for a promotion Don't you know They're talking about a revolution It sounds like a whisper And finally the tables are starting to turn"
Tracy Chapman - Talkin' Bout a Revolution
Introduction
Land. It was here before you even arrived and will be here long after. With land add sea and air and you make up our planet, we crawled out of the sea a long time after the first 3 were in place.
You cannot really own land. What you actually own is whats known as a parcel of rights connected to the land. This parcel or rights are manmade legal constructs For example, you own the right to build on the land. No one else does. You own the right to call the police to remove someone from the land. So owning land means you’ve gained things within the manmade legal system and society we’ve invented. But you don’t own the land. The earth was there before this legal construct existed and will remain after thats gone.
And this human construct we call owning land causes problems, but what problems?
Homes are empty yet people sleep and die homeless on the streets. There is plenty of land and space yet we tell immigrants we’re full. House builders make more money by not building and pushing up the price of the few rabbit hutches they do build as they restrict the supply. Renting out your house by the sea for a couple of months makes you money whilst leaving seaside resorts hollow.
If everything was perfect in respect of land in the UK then things could carry on as they are, no change would be needed, no Utopian manifesto needed. But something has clearly gone wrong. Things are not perfect. Change is needed.
Land is Important
Our homes do not increase in value because people think bricks and cement are worth something like gold is. It is the land on which those bricks sit which becomes more valuable and which increase the value of our property.
Land is the original source of all wealth. Commoners used to grow and graze animals on the commons without permission needing to be given from anyone. They would survive from the land itself. The land provided. Or the land took away. Life and death was determined by what the land provided.
Then this wealth for the commoners began being lost. It was taken away. Taken by people who didn’t consider themselves commoners. They were better. They had wealth and power and could take the common wealth away from the commoner. Not being commoners, these people were instead royalty, hereditary aristocratic families, the landed gentry, the wealthy.
These same people did the same overseas. They took with them their manmade construct of ownership, landed somewhere, claimed no one owned the land under the terms they made up, and therefore laid claim to the land for themselves. Their own system of law was put in place and their construct of ownership was enforced, violently if necessary, but always with their law on their side, just not on the side of the people who had been living and surviving on that land for thousands of years prior, and who were not aware of this imported concept of land ownership into their common land.
In Britain since the war, property ownership has been seen as the pinnacle of middle class aspiration. Something which Generation Z are slowly being told they will never achieve as property get taken once again by the wealthy elite. Driving prices ever out of reach of these common kids.
And Britain aside, there is England. Half of England is owned by less than 1% of the population.
England, a country who’s anthem, played at the Commonwealth Games in lieu of God Save the King is about the god like status of the land itself.
“And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England's mountains green? And was the holy Lamb of God On England's pleasant pastures seen? And did the countenance divine Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here Among those dark satanic mills?”
Yet, you cannot access most of these mountains green, or pastures seen or clouded hills. They are now private property. Increasing in value as the commoner works hard in the dark satanic mills, yet the commoner is barred access from the land and certainly does not gain the wealth from it as its owner does.
Land Provides For Our Basic Needs
How we use land matters. At the very bottom of Maslow's ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ he puts food, water, warmth and shelter. All of these basic things come from the land. Land is where you grow food. Land is where plants grow what we eat and which produces the air we breath. Land is where we find shelter. Land holds deposits of gold, oil and water and perhaps more importantly, carbon.
Wealth can be held in things other than land. Shares in companies for example. But land remains the bed rock of the economy and of our survival.
What we do with land matters.
Land and Politics
Given that its so important why is no politician talking about land ownership today? Previous politicians did, Churchill did, David Lloyd George did. Churchill said:
“…we have the evils of an unreformed and vicious land system.”
Lloyd George said:
“Who ordained that a few should have the land of Britain as a perquisite, who made 10,000 people owners of the soil and the rest of us trespassers in the land of our birth?”
And nothing has changed since these politicians, in fact, things are even worse now 100 years later, so why aren’t our MPs demanding change?
Perhaps its because they are self interested? Many aristocrats and Lords of the Manor still become MPs. I wonder if these people represent the interests of the commoners, or if like Kings in olden days they remain committed to keeping everything for themselves.
Perhaps its because we no longer have the calibre of politician as we did in days gone by. Whatever the reason, we deserve better.
Land Matters
Often its said that when people who talk about changing how we manage, own and distribute land then its the politics of envy. Is it envious to talk unselfishly about how we survive, where our food comes from, our water, and how our planet lasts for more generations beyond us? Talking about the survival of all of us, rich or poor is not the politics of envy surely, its the politics of sense?
And who’s land is it anyway? Given that all of the country was common land before wealthy and powerful people decided for themselves is it the politics of envy to talk about our land? Is it envious of a shopkeeper to want his goods back from a shoplifter, or is he just talking about justice?
What's to Come?
In blogs over the coming weeks I will talk about who this country belonged to historically and who has taken it from them and how they manage to maintain the status quo.
In the beginning Eden belonged to Adam & Eve, the original commoners, the biblical representation of humanity. Our land used to belong to commoners, so I will start there.
Next week, who are these commoners?
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