It must be very annoying being George Monbiot

It's not really possible to determine quite how many bees there are bouncing around George's bonnet but there are three that do stand out.

One is a noted antipathy to private property and markets as a method of organising the world.

Another is the spitting rage at the manner in which property ownership is so concentrated into few hands in this country. 

A third is the idea that we should stop farming and maintaining many of the formerly wild places in this country and "rewild" them.

We have a certain sympathy with that third idea and would most certainly love to see the lynx back, if perhaps not the bear or the wolf but we're open to that idea too.

But to what must be annoying about holding all three views:

Not since the Viking era has a Scandavian taken so much British land - but Denmark's richest man is now not far away from owning more private property in the UK than anyone else.

Billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen  has continued a personal crusade of snapping up swathes of the Scottish Highlands by purchasing the 18,000-acre Eriboll Estate.

According to The Times, his mission stems from a dream childhood holiday, and he now owns 218,364 acres of private land on our shores, only just bettered by the Duke Of Buccleuch's 236,000 acres.

But, as opposed to many modern developers who aim to make huge profits with development, Povlsen is seeking to return his land to nature with a huge rewilding process that will stretch over 200 years.

It must be just excruciating to find that it is precisely the concentration of property into the hands of one owner, that concentration only possible through the institution of private property and markets, which allows anyone to overcome the coordination problems of rewilding.

For us, well, it's his property he can do what he likes with it. That's what private property means. But it must just grate for George and others that the desired goal is being achieved through not Goodthink means.
 

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