SIR, – As a crofter who actually keeps livestock, I wish to express my dismay and sorrow that the Crofting Commission has issued a public apology to grazing committees who ignore the law. 
Keeping livestock in the Isle of Lewis is an increasingly difficult and expensive activity. Ensuring that ‘the majority elected committees’ who generally do not engage in crofting, can enhance their personal reputations by resuming common grazing land and spending the proceeds on projects which may or may not benefit the wider community is a sure-fire way to end active crofting.
Do we now just rip up the Crofting Act and our regulations and wait for all to be changed so that some people will make the law according to their desires? 
Can we expect a special clause so that resumption monies can be used for them to hand out as their personal largesse and build heroic monuments to themselves?
As one of the hundreds of crofters who listened via u-tube to Colin Kennedy’s efforts to explain the laws and rules in the face of stubborn ignorance and ugly hatred between villagers at the Coll meeting in November 2015, I would like to express my sorrow to him that belligerence and ignorance appears to have won the day.
A truly sad day indeed!


Name and address supplied