Sir, – With the ink barely dry on the 2016 Land Reform Act, during which landlords promised to follow certain codes of practice, we now see not only a Tory MSP taking up the cudgels against Scotland's largest landowner in defence of tenants (ye gods!) but the leader of Scottish Land and Estates allegedly driving a coach and horses through industry rent review guidance which he himself helped write only two short years ago.

Increases were to be restricted to RPI, but he is demanding up to 40%!

The propaganda war over tree planting on tenanted land in the Borders, with claim and counter claim, would be worthy of the former East Germany or a banana republic and is an unedifying spectacle in 'modern' Scotland in the 21st century (or is it still the 15th century?)

We have been through all this before. During the 2003 Land Reform Act (when landlords promised to behave), politicians were fooled and the absolute right to buy was shelved.

Everything was going to be rosy in the garden, happy tenants, smiling landlords. Then the boot went in and the improved rent review process was unpicked in the land court, leaving tenants much worse off and the Salvesen Riddell case met a similar fate.

So roll on to 2018 and its the same-old same-old.

The promises of good behaviour by lairds in 2016 and lots of codes of practice are as much use as Neville Chamberlain's 'peace in our time' scrap of paper, as tenants yet again are under the cosh, the new rent test a total nightmare and eviction notices flying like confetti as landlords manoeuvre to grab as much government subsidy as possible.

All ill-thought out government financial incentives to evict tenants must be removed by ScotGov forthwith from all tenanted land, ie tree planting grants, basic payment entitlements, environmental and renewable grants, etc etc etc. This will halt evictions of limited partnership and limited duration tenants in their tracks.

These tenants have suffered the ignominy of being largely excluded from most such payments or been forced to share them with the laird for a long time now while still paying for them through their modulation as their landowning competitors cream off the bulk of the cash.

The area payment system was dreamt up in Europe where feudalism was outlawed long ago, and it just does not fit with our 'most concentrated in the world' pattern of land ownership. The incentives to evict are just too great.

The real answer to all these problems of course is to introduce an 'Option to buy' for all agricultural tenants for part or all of the holding at a time of their choosing, not when a laird is scrabbling for some good PR, as we saw last week.

Tenanted estates have demonstrated recently that they really do belong in the 19th century, along with the agents and owners and are no longer fit for purpose, so its time to give them a decent burial by option to buy before the glens get even emptier.

When a Tory politician sees fit to take on the landed establishment in those glens in defence of his constituents, things must be bad.

Name and address supplied.