Andy Wightman

Last updated

Andy Wightman
AndyWightmanMSP.JPG
Member of the Scottish Parliament
for Lothian
In office
5 May 2016 –4 May 2021
Personal details
Born
Andrew Dearg Wightman

1963
Dundee, Scotland
Political party Independent (2020–present)
Other political
affiliations		 Scottish Greens (2009–2020)
Residence(s) Lochaber, Highlands
Alma mater University of Aberdeen
Occupationwriter
Website www.andywightman.com

Andrew Dearg Wightman (born 1963) is a Scottish Independent politician, who served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothian region from 2016 to 2021. He was elected as a member of the Scottish Greens, but resigned from the party in 2020 and served out the rest of his term as an independent. He is also a writer and researcher best known for his work on land ownership in Scotland. He is the author of Who Owns Scotland (1996) and The Poor Had No Lawyers (2015).

Contents

Background

Wightman was born in Dundee. He graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1985 with a degree in forestry. [1] [2] He was a co-founder of Reforesting Scotland, an environmental charity dedicated to substantial reforestation and the promotion of a sustainable forest culture. [3]

He began his career as a scientist working on renewable energy at the University of Aberdeen and then as a Projects Officer with Central Scotland Countryside Trust. He was appointed as the first development officer of Reforesting Scotland in 1991. He became a self-employed writer and researcher in 1993. Over the next 20 years, he contributed to a wide range of debates on land use, land reform, the Crown estate, common good land, local democracy and fiscal reform. Author of a number of reports on these topics, he also served as a Specialist Adviser to the UK Parliament's Scottish Affairs Committee Inquiry on land reform 2014–2015.[ citation needed ]

He appeared in the documentary You've Been Trumped (2011), which dealt with Donald Trump's controversial golf course development at Balmedie, Aberdeenshire where he advised Michael Forbes on his land dispute with Trump, [4] [ unreliable source? ] as well as the 2016 sequel You've Been Trumped Too . [5]

He was coordinator of the Land Action Scotland campaign. The campaign has the stated aim of supporting local residents through seeking to democratise companies that are run by a handful of people who are not living on the land involved. [6] [7]

In February 2015, Wightman was announced as being a member of the Commission on Local Tax Reform. [8] This cross-party group was set up by the Scottish Government, tasked with examining alternatives to the Council Tax. The final report Just Change: A New Approach to Local Taxation was published on 14 December 2015.

Political career

Wightman became a member of the Scottish Greens in 2009. [9] In March 2015, the Scottish Greens balloted their members to select candidates for the 2016 election, and Wightman was placed second on their Lothian list. [10] He was elected as an MSP on 5 May 2016. [11] On 23 May he was announced as the Scottish Greens spokesperson on Communities (including Housing), Land Reform and Local Government. [12]

Wightman was one of a group of Scottish politicians (two MSPs, an MP and three MEPs) who instituted proceedings against HM Government to clarify, through a judgment of the European Court of Justice, whether the Article 50 notice that formally started the Brexit process could be revoked unilaterally by the United Kingdom. [13] [14] In December 2018, the ECJ handed down its Wightman judgment in which it held that the Brexit notification could indeed be revoked unilaterally. [15] [16]

On 18 December 2020, Wightman announced his resignation from the Scottish Greens following a vote on an amendment to the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Bill, [17] alleging that the party was intolerant to discussion of potential clashes between transgender and women's rights. He stated in his resignation letter that voting for the amendment (and against the party whip) would have resulted in "complaints and disciplinary action leading to possible suspension, deselection or expulsion". [18] [19] [20] The Scottish Greens' co-leader Lorna Slater later dismissed the impact of Wightman's resignation, saying in an interview to The Scotsman that although his departure had come as a "massive shock", it wasn't a big issue: "[Wightman] has very specific followers, but most people have no idea who he is." She also said that Wightman had not engaged with women's and LGBT groups within the Scottish Greens before his departure. [21]

Wightman later stood unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for the Highlands and Islands region in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election. [22]

In August 2021, Wightman explained in his blog that he resigned from the Greens because he wanted "an environment that is more tolerant, questioning, critical, empathetic and more willing to listen". [23] [20]

In November 2022, Wightman announced that he would not support a second Scottish independence referendum "until there is sustained support for it". [24]

Published work

Related Research Articles

The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party. The party holds 63 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 43 out of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons in Westminster. It has 453 local councillors of 1,227.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish Greens</span> Scottish political party

The Scottish Greens are a green political party in Scotland. The party has seven MSPs in the Scottish Parliament as of May 2021. As of the 2022 local elections, the party sits on 13 of the 32 Scottish local councils, with a total of 36 councillors. They hold two ministerial posts in the Yousaf government following a power-sharing agreement with the SNP in August 2021, marking the first time Green Party politicians formed part of a government in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Ruskell</span> Scottish Green politician

Mark Christopher Ruskell is a Scottish Green Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP). He was elected to represent Mid Scotland and Fife from 2003−2007, then elected again in 2016 and re-elected in 2021. In the Scottish Parliament, Ruskell is the Greens' spokesperson on Climate, Energy, Environment, Food and Farming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gil Paterson</span> Scottish politician (born 1942)

Gilbert Martin Paterson is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician, who served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Clydebank and Milngavie, from 2011 to 2021. Previously he had been an MSP for the West of Scotland region, having been elected on 3 May 2007. From 1999 to 2003 he was an MSP for Central Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Harvie</span> Co-Leader of the Scottish Green Party

Patrick Harvie is a Scottish politician who has served as Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings, Active Travel and Tenants' Rights since 2021. He has served as one of two co-leaders of the Scottish Greens since 2008, and is one of the first Green politicians in the UK to serve as a government minister. Harvie has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region since 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iain Gray</span> Scottish Labour politician

Iain Cumming Gray is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2008 to 2011. He was the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the East Lothian constituency from 2007 to 2021, having previously represented Edinburgh Pentlands from 1999 to 2003. A former aid worker and teacher of mathematics and physics, Gray was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 as MSP for the Edinburgh Pentlands constituency, which he lost to Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party David McLetchie in 2003. Gray was returned to Holyrood in 2007 as MSP for East Lothian. Following Wendy Alexander's resignation as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2008, Gray stood at the subsequent leadership election, and was elected with a 57.8% share of the vote in the second round.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackson Carlaw</span> Former Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, MSP for Eastwood

David Jackson Carlaw is a Scottish politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2019 to 2020. He previously served as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party from 2011 to 2019. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) since 2007, first as an additional member for the West Scotland region and later for the Eastwood constituency since 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2007 Scottish Parliament election</span> Parliamentary election held in Scotland

The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fell on the same day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Wilson (Scottish Green politician)</span>

John Gordon Wilson is a Scottish politician. He was formerly a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Central Scotland region from 2007 until 2016. He sat as a Scottish National Party (SNP) member and then as an independent after 2014. He stood unsuccessfully as a Green Party candidate in the Coatbridge and Chryston constituency at the 2016 Scottish Parliament election and then as an independent candidate in the 2017 Scottish local elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Kelly (Scottish politician)</span> Scottish Labour Co-op politician

James Anthony Kelly is a Scottish politician who has served as General Secretary of the Scottish Labour Party since 2021. He was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region between 2016 and 2021, having previously been MSP for Rutherglen from 2007 to 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2021 Scottish Parliament election</span> General election in Scotland

The 2021 Scottish Parliament election took place on 6 May 2021, under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998. All 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament were elected in the sixth election since the parliament was re-established in 1999. The election was held alongside the Senedd election, English local elections, London Assembly and mayoral election and the Hartlepool by-election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aileen McLeod</span> Scottish politician (born 1971)

Aileen McLeod is a Scottish National Party (SNP) politician. She is a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Scotland constituency, having been elected in the 2019 European Parliament election. She served as MEP until the 31 January 2020 when the Brexit process was completed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Finnie</span> Scottish politician (born 1956)

John Bradford Finnie is a Scottish Greens politician. He was the Green Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Highlands and Islands region from 2016 up until 2021, having previously sat as a Scottish National Party (SNP) member from 2011 to 2012 then as an independent from 2012 to 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maggie Chapman</span> Scottish Greens politician

Maggie Chapman is a Scottish politician and lecturer who is a Scottish Green Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for North East Scotland. She was co-convenor of the Scottish Greens from November 2013 to August 2019, serving with Patrick Harvie, and was the party's lead candidate for the 2019 European election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5th Scottish Parliament</span> Fifth session of Scottish Parliament

This is a list of members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) who were returned to the fifth session of the Scottish Parliament. Of the 129 MSPs returned at the 2016 general election, 73 were returned from first past the post constituencies with a further 56 members returned from eight regions, each electing seven MSPs as a form of mixed member proportional representation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Johnson (Scottish politician)</span> Scottish Labour politician

Daniel Guy Johnson is a Scottish Labour politician who has served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Edinburgh Southern constituency since 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross Greer</span> Scottish Green politician

Ross John Greer is a Scottish politician who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since 2016. A member of the Scottish Greens, he was the youngest MSP elected in the 2016 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Leonard</span> Former Leader of the Scottish Labour Party

Richard Leonard is a British politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2017 to 2021. He has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), as one of the additional members for the Central Scotland region, since 2016. He ideologically identifies as a socialist, democrat and internationalist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Sturgeon government</span> Scottish Government following the May 2016 Scottish Parliament general election

Nicola Sturgeon formed the second Sturgeon government following her Scottish National Party's victory in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election. Sturgeon was nominated by a vote of the 5th Scottish Parliament for appointment to the post of first minister on 17 May 2016. She was subsequently appointed by Queen Elizabeth II on 18 May, and announced formation of a new Scottish National Party minority government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Ballantyne</span> British Reform UK politician

Michelle Lorraine Ballantyne is a British politician and former nurse who served as Leader of Reform UK Scotland from January 2021 to February 2022. She was a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the South Scotland region from 2017 to 2021, having been elected for the Scottish Conservatives.

References

  1. ↑ Wightman, Andy (February 2012). "Forest Ownership in Scotland: A Scoping Study" (PDF). Forest Policy Group. p. 4. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  2. ↑ "Author biography: Andy Wightman". Birlinn. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2020.
  3. ↑ Wightman, Andy (16 January 2011). "We can transform our countryside. Put forests in the hands of the people". The Observer . Archived from the original on 4 June 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  4. ↑ "You've Been Trumped (2011) - IMDb". Archived from the original on 18 December 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2016– via www.imdb.com.
  5. ↑ "Trump issues legal threat over new film". www.scotsman.com. 27 October 2016. Archived from the original on 27 December 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  6. ↑ "Community bids for Applecross and Mount Stuart trusts". BBC News. BBC. 28 September 2012. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  7. ↑ "Charles Kennedy criticises Applecross Trust decision". BBC News. BBC. 14 November 2012. Archived from the original on 16 May 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
  8. ↑ "Commission on Local Tax Reform" (Press release). Scottish Government. 20 February 2015. Archived from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 21 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Sanderson, Daniel (5 May 2016). "Andy Wightman may be a new face for the Scottish Greens but he is no stranger to Holyrood". The Herald . glasgow. Archived from the original on 27 October 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  10. ↑ "Scottish Greens regional list candidates". Holyrood . 11 January 2016. Archived from the original on 6 November 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  11. ↑ "Land reform expert Andy Wightman elected as Green MSP". Edinburgh Evening News . 6 May 2016. Archived from the original on 11 November 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  12. ↑ "Scottish Greens announce portfolios of new Holyrood group". The Herald. Glasgow. 23 May 2016. Archived from the original on 5 February 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  13. ↑ Dickie, Mure; Mance, Henry (21 September 2018). "Scottish court refers Article 50 ruling to ECJ". Financial Times . Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  14. ↑ Croft, Jane (20 November 2018). "UK government fails to block Brexit hearing at ECJ". Financial Times . Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  15. ↑ Cuyvers, Armin (2018). "Wightman, Brexit, and the sovereign right to remain". Common Market Law Review . 55 (5): 1303–1332. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  16. ↑ Taylor, Robert Brett; Wilson, Adelyn L. M. "Brexit, the revocation of Article 50, and the path not taken: Wightman and Others for Judicial Review against the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union". Edinburgh Law Review . 22 (3): 417–422. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 16 September 2021.
  17. ↑ "Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Act 2021". Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 20 April 2021.
  18. ↑ "Resignation from the Scottish Green Party". 18 December 2020. Archived from the original on 27 January 2021. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  19. ↑ Brooks, Libby; Carrell, Severin (18 December 2020). "Scottish Greens MSP resigns claiming 'intolerance' over women and trans rights". The Guardian . Archived from the original on 18 December 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  20. 1 2 "Why I Resigned from the Scottish Green Party". Land Matters …the blog and website of Andy Wightman. 7 August 2021. Archived from the original on 22 August 2021. Retrieved 22 August 2021.
  21. ↑ Matchett, Conor (1 February 2021). "'Most people have no idea who he is' - Green co-leader dismisses impact of Andy Wightman resignation". The Scotsman . Archived from the original on 9 February 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.
  22. ↑ Paterson, Kirsteen (8 May 2021). "Andy Wightman misses Highlands & Islands seat - while Douglas Ross gets in". The National. Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
  23. ↑ Andrews, Kieran (8 August 2021). "Andy Wightman accuses Scottish Greens of bullying and intimidation on trans issues". The Times . Archived from the original on 5 September 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2021.
  24. ↑ Nutt, Kathleen (27 November 2022). "Andy Wightman: I won't back Indyref until sustained support for new vote". The Herald. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  25. ↑ Who owns Scotland. Edinburgh : Canongate, 1996. WorldCat. OCLC   35137079.
  26. ↑ Arlidge, John (25 February 1996). "Who owns Scotland?". The Independent . Archived from the original on 22 February 2015. Retrieved 22 February 2015.
  27. ↑ The poor had no lawyers: who owns Scotland and (how they got it). Edinburgh : Birlinn, 2015. WorldCat. OCLC   923175798.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.