hiya i'm bruce fumi this is the third in
my series of three videos on the
crafters land wars
and sky uh if you haven't seen the first
two then click on the white tab above to
go back
to the start if you've already seen them
then this is the video
for you now if you're interested in
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let me tell you a story okay
so a quick summary so far for the last
hundred years people in sky have been
leaving
pushed or pulled to the urban areas or
to the americas by opportunity
hunger enticement or enforcement
those that are left are suffering under
the weight of increased rents
and landlords commandeering common land
and renting it to sheep farmers
for a healthy profit even william
gladstone the uk
prime minister of the day said that the
crafters had been surreptitiously
deprived of their common land over two
centuries people had started
to revolt were rent strikes and refusal
to cooperate
with court orders landlords threatened
evictions
there had been flash points at the back
of the brazen with the glendale martyrs
the government had set up a royal
commission it was called the napier
commission and that concluded that the
landowning classes had behaved
appallingly the recommendation
that folks paying more than six pounds a
year in rent should be given the
security of a 30-year lease
and those paying less should be helped
to move
to australia or canada now all the
crafters of glendale that we covered in
the last episode were below that
six-pound threshold
as a result nothing happened
what had happened though was that sky
had become a beacon and
a spark for other places there were rent
strikes
on lewis john macpherson the most famous
of our glendale martyrs had gone
on a speaking tour a land league was
established
i've talked about braze and glendale but
i haven't mentioned
kill muir this is a beautiful oog bay
and here in kilmura had been where the
first of the rent strikes had taken
place seven years earlier
now they were on rent strike again the
reasons were the same as
other times the reasons were the same as
the other locations
the land livelihoods and liberty of
crafters being squeezed by the interests
of large-scale
sheep farmers the response to the rent
strikes
ten policemen were sent here to eric to
deal with it
now if you've been paying attention in
the last two videos you know
the script they were greeted by a huge
crowd of crafters who drove them back
to portray now in his office
william ivory the sheriff of inverness
do i hear boone and hissing at this
point
anyway in his office he'd been keeping a
fully laden camel waiting for a straw
and sure enough the ignominy of the
police retreat in kilmura
weighed heavy as far as he was concerned
there was a hebridean island that had
effectively
declared an independent socialist state
now i know that's an anachronism in this
time but you get my point
of course as far as the crafters were
concerned the police weren't officers of
the law
they were a paramilitary force enforcing
the interests of the landed class
who had surreptitiously stolen their
common grazing
here's a question if you and i and the
rest of the community share communal
land
then whilst you're getting on with
tending the land and growing crops
i make up a set of rules that say that
the land's mine
and then i write your rules on a piece
of paper and call it law
is that legal if so
who says i think the answer might be
the guy that's got the gunboats
now some people get caught up in
imagining that every injustice in
scotland
was english let me disabuse you of that
the sympathies in much of the country
and the liberal government in london
were with the crafters the uk home
secretary of the day william harcourt
said
these notices of removal seem to me to
be a source of irritation which is not
to be justified at all
now there exists in these districts
extreme poverty in some parts born for
many years with extraordinary patience
i think everyone who's acquainted with
these districts must be
aware some people say oh the remedy for
this is
immigration well sir in my opinion
immigration is a very poor remedy indeed
i have myself no sympathy with a policy
which improves our country by getting
rid of its people
to my mind it's the policy of despair
it's like the old medical treatment of
san grado who cured all diseases by
bloodletting
but after all blood is the life of the
body
and the people are the life of the
country i
at all events do not accept the policy
of making a solitude
and calling it political economy
strong words but he sent the gun boats
anyway
on the 16th of november 1884 the gunboat
forester
the hms assistants and the lockheel
arrived out there in poetry bay
with 350 redcoat marines 100 battle
ready seamen and scores
of police john mcpherson the glendale
martyr crafter leader and orator
the man who had been the first to
address the napier commission on his
return to sky from prison
he'd been running back and forward
between glendale kilmur and portray
and haven't persuaded the crafters not
to meet force with force
he may have avoided a bloodbath
so when the red coats and the gunboats
arrived it was a land then to make a
show of force rather than a punitive
invasion another gunboat hilariously
named
the banter and the ship sailed from
portrait to oog to don vegan to call
post deposit and red coats
marines and police to start a seven
month occupation of this island
renowned for peace tranquility
and fairies
as troops came up to glendale after
landing at call post down the hill there
a crowd of 600 had gathered for an
open-air meeting
of the land league in this natural
amphitheater
behind me john macpherson was giving a
rousing speech
the troops gripped their rifles as the
sheriff of inverness
caressed the right act in his pocket
their triggers would have impact but
it's his
finger that pulled them as john
mcpherson
announced to the crowd that they would
never give in no matter what forces were
sent
against them a cheer went up junior
soldiers might have started
but their senior officer held them calm
several massacres in british military
history had happened with
misunderstandings
such as this
25 marines and six police were left here
at hamara lodge to enforce the
occupation
and the rest returned to the ship to be
deposited at their own locations
throughout the island now during the
seven
month occupation there were no incidents
of violence
in fact the locals to some extent
prospered in selling milk and eggs
to the troops but the sheriff of
inverness used the cover of the
occupation to go around the island
arrest and those that he saws involved
in the rent strikes
contempt court orders and such like and
bringing them to portray
for judgment now say there were no
incidents
and one celebrated incident in glendale
here john mcpherson
came face to face with sheriff ivory out
arresting
and his remonstrations led to an
outburst where the imperious sheriff of
inverness claimed that he just had to
give the order
and the troops would fire mcpherson
heard that
the troops heard that the journalists
heard that the nation heard that
pretty much all the people arrested
failed to even get to trial through lack
of evidence
and then on the 24th of june 1885 the
last of the troops left sky
the tranquil island the sky had changed
but something more important had changed
you see in 1884 the liberal government
passed the voting reform act
which changed the franchise and now in
inverness share the numbers of voters
have gone from 1851 to 9313.
in the next election crafters candidates
stood in five highland seats and were
elected
and four the crafters holding scotland
act was passed in june 1886.
it wasn't the end of the road it wasn't
the start of the road
it wasn't perfect it was just a step
along
the way as well the battle of the braze
the glendale martyrs and the 1884
military occupation
of sky given that many essential workers
can't afford houses here because they're
bought up for holiday let's
how far along that road are we
i mean dog who's going to be a llama
ally cheering drastic