Sir, – All my life I have been a crofter. I was born on a croft, raised on a croft and followed crofting practices all my life!

It saddens me to read that the chairman of the Crofting Commission puts more store for the future on a bit of paper that, once it is received at Great Glen House, the staff haven't a clue to what it relates to, so it is shredded.

“How dare they revolt against the system that keeps us in a job?” – and so a witch-hunt begins to relate to tiny crofts of an acre or two and put anguish in their minds. That borders on mental cruelty!

Or, could the Scottish Government look at the situation of crofting with a different attitude, rather than the hounding, herding practice that puts everybody's backs up. Why not work with crofters to find a solution?

It has been broadcasted that there are going to be two new crofting officers in the Western Isles, train them and promote them to work the Chinese way. The Chinese have a similar 'crofting' problem – they have remote, agriculturally-based populations and that population is getting old. Young people want to go to the cities.

What they have done to counter this is to place a student in these areas. This person brings with them new ideas, is proficient in computer technology and as he/she is responsible for a large area, slowly the attitude of the Chinese 'crofter' is changing.

The same can be done here. Young people hoping to be crofters, can get out among real working crofters and stop bleating that Big Daddy should help you ruin a working system with dollops of cash, that, once it is squandered, means you scoot back to the cities.

We all, old and young, must work together to salvage a working system that has been savaged by deskbound insanity from 1955, known as the Crofters Commission!

We must take back control – make crofting great again!

Angus A Macdonald

Balivanich,

Benbecula.