"In perpetuity"?

Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline (photo by Dirk Haun)

In 1968 Charles Turner, a retired civil servant, donated his marvellous collection of historical maths books to Keele University. In 1998 the University sold this collection secretly to a dealer (for a fraction of its value, as it happened). The collection has now been dispersed. This vandalism appalled many who did not expect a university to do such a thing. Who will now donate books to a university?

We would perhaps not expect any better of local politicians. In my home town of Dunfermline there is a wonderful park, Pittencrieff Park of "The Glen". All Dunfermline schoolchildren will remember their childhood Gala Days their. The Glen was given to the town by the millionaire Andrew Carnegie, who as a poor child in Dunfermline had looked at the walls forbidding public access, gave it, under a Royal Charter, to the people of Dunfermline in perpetuity.

And now it seems that a large part of the Glen is to be sacrificed to become a business college. Royal Charters can be changed, and none other than Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, has announced the project. It seems that "in perpetuity" means, in practice, barely 100 years.

Alasdair Gray has written powerfully about this scandal.