Had the ‘land tax’ embedded in the 1707 Treaty of Union been sustained, the Highland Clearances would not have occurred. These articles examine how Westminster’s substitute arbitrary taxes on work and enterprise could not be afforded at the economic periphery. Resources and people were (and are) sucked inexorably to the economic centres. It remains the government’s choice today to sustain high unearned incomes for London site owners at the expense of peripheral UK society and culture. At the margin, citizens must suffer poverty and die up to 17 years early (e.g. Drumchapel males) — by Acts of Parliament.
