Britain never had a land struggle quite like Ireland and to our eyes, their people are remarkably complacent with the enduring land grab that was the Norman invasions, but some still remember the wrongs of land enclosure.
By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 24th February 2009
….Allotments have been used as a sop to the dispossessed for at least four centuries. The General Enclosure Act of 1845 took 615,000 acres from the poor and gave them 2,200 acres of allotments in return(24). Just because we love and value allotments should not stop us from seeing that they also represent paternalistic tokenism. But I’m not asking the Trust to divide up all its lands and give them back to the people: its management of property on our behalf is liberal and benign. I am asking it to give us back our history.
