The Politics of Land in the UK

England in particular has always been, aside from a very brief period, a rentier economy. It's an economy of landlords, aristocrats, and essentially asset-owned parasites. People have always had to fight for access to land. And this access has been steadily lost through various kinds of enclosures and privatizations right up until the present day. Nick Buret is a lecturer at the University of Essex who will have more to say on questions of land ownership later.