Peter MacAulay

What did you find most encouraging?
It's easy to forget that the Land Reform (Scotland) Act was preceded by dire warnings of economic meltdown, large-scale job losses, zero land values and 'Mugabe-style land raids'. This propaganda, emanating mainly from the Scottish Landowners Federation, was repeated endlessly by our media without a hint of shame. If memory serves me, one MSP described the Act as 'Mugabe in a tartan outfit'.
     Five or so years later there's still no sign of Mugabe, in tartan or in dashiki. The land is still worth as many millions as before, and very probably more. But now communities have the right to buy the land around them, if that's what they want to do, with help from public funds. Ownership of large swathes of land is not quite the tax dodge it once was. There is however a problem that requires urgent attention: the public kitty has dried up, while the City bonuses that underpin land speculation have not. 
     We now have rights of access that had been denied for many years, even centuries. With public rights come public responsibilities, so society as a whole will benefit. There is a long way to go, but journeys of a thousand miles begin with a single step.

What did you find most discouraging?
Private Finance Initiative, nowadays called Public-Private Partnership in a clumsy attempt to obscure its Thatcherite origins, is a matter of the utmost gravity. It began in this country with the Skye Bridge, which opened in 1995, and has expanded at a phenomenal rate under New Labour. Incredibly, PFI is now the mainstream vehicle for major public works in United Kingdom plc. Bankers' bonuses of the past decade will, despite the current fuss, be seen as nothing very much when compared to the PFI debt that will cripple taxpayers for decades to come. But since PFI costs are apparently not 'on the books', it's by no means certain we'll ever know the true extent of public liability. Yet the government turns a blind eye to it all. Our chancellor has gone the way of Nelson: he cannot read the signals. In the meantime, we've lost control of vital infrastructure – unless we buy it back from the private sector at extortionate cost. Much wiser folk than I are of the view that the Mafia itself could scarcely have devised a more disreputable business.    

Which public figure did you most admire?
Sir Kenneth Donald John MacDonald QC. There's something spiritually uplifting about a director of public prosecutions for England and Wales, even before he left office, warning of the danger which the state poses to civil liberties. 'We need to take very great care not to fall into a way of life in which freedom's back is broken by the relentless pressure of a security state,' wrote Sir Ken. 'We should take very great care to imagine the world we are creating before we build it.' His words should be engraved in the walls of 10 Downing Street and, increasingly, Bute House as a daily reminder to their occupants. If anyone would know about threats to our civilisation, Sir Ken would. 

Which public figure did you least admire?
It is impossible to choose from such a crowded field.