• abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    7 days ago

    Scottish person here, no we do not.

    This is a well-known scam that perpetrates a myth that you can become a lord or lady by owning land in Scotland. There is not, and never was a law saying that. If that was the case, my parents would be a lord and lady because we own land in Scotland (my house). In reality, my dad is banned from any official honours. No seriously. Its pretty based.

    The firm running the scam claims the money goes to reforesting schemes in the highlands. It does not. If you want to contribute to reforesting in the highlands, look up the national trust for Scotland or the Scottish wildlife trust.

    The title of lord is not one that you can buy by getting land in Scotland, it is the British equivalent of senator. I want you to imagine if someone claims that if you a square metre of land in Alaska. You can call yourself a senator.

      • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        7 days ago

        So he was a civil servant (nothing big, photographer and graphic design dept, some of his maps are in a preserved nuclear bunker in Fife) and one day the nurses went on strike and he (despite not being a nurse) walked out in solidarity. He was dragged in front of his boss who told him he was now banned from any official honours, meaning he couldn’t become a Knight, get an OBE, CBE, MBE, get a George Cross or become a Lord.

          • abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            19 hours ago

            He was a civil servant (aka, he worked for the Government directly in one of their departments), so she could do that. He has had an interesting life, he…

            • Has met Gorbachev.
            • Has been inside a Nuclear Reactor.
            • Watched someone use a sledgehammer to push down a stuck nuclear control rod (made him not trust Nuclear Power seeing that).
            • Has made maps that have been in (and still are in one, which is now a Museum).
            • Once revealed that upper management wasn’t doing their jobs with a prank.
            • Will randomly point at things during drives and say “See that, that doesn’t officially exist”.
            • Has signed the Official Secrets act.
            • Has driven a car halfway up Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon).
            • Photographed the aftermath of an electrocution at a substation.
            • Watched the Scotland Secretary nearly send a message about Margaret Thatcher being a bitch to all the major papers.
            • Learnt First Aid, specially in case the UK got Nuked.
            • Has photographed the Queen multiple times.
            • Has photographed Jimmy Savile (yeah).
            • Has made me more or less distrustful of the government because he’s seen it from the inside.
        • Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org
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          7 days ago

          Oh right I hadn’t even considered that the titles would be British. I bet he gave as much of a rat’s ass as any other Scotsman would in that case 😂

    • Avicenna@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      “YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS LEGAL LOOPHOLE IN SCOTLAND!”

      “This just may be the coolest gift ever” - FORBES

      Just a quick google reveals there are like dozens of different websites that claim to do this lol

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      6 days ago

      To me, I never thought the part about the titles was true. It felt very tongue in cheek. To me the bigger scandal is that it’s illegal to subdivide land that small and sell it as souvenir plots of land. So even when you strip away the part that most people understand is a gag, you’re still not even getting the thing they say you do.

      Like if someone said “I’ll send you a plastic crown to be pretend to be a king” but they never actually give you one.

    • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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      6 days ago

      (un) related fun fact: you can make up your own title in most countries.

      The only titles you can’t use, are those that would imply that you have authority or qualifications that you do not.

      Since being a “Lord” is basically meaningless in North America, you can literally just… Call yourself a Lord. No payment required.

      But you can’t go around saying you’re a doctor, or a veteran of any kind, or something like that… That shit will get you in trouble.

    • Akasazh@feddit.nl
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      7 days ago

      The title of lord is not one that you can buy by getting land in Scotland

      That’s why they call it ‘Laird’

      * smartly taps temple*

    • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca
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      6 days ago

      My last bottle of Laphroaig came with a deed to a square foot of bog, can I come visit? I promise I’ll behave…

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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        6 days ago

        I believe that this is one of the core scammers in this whole scheme.

        There’s whole documentary style videos on it, how it’s a scam, and that they’re largely just pocketing the money.

        But if it makes you happy to have paid $100 for a piece of paper that says Lord/Lady (your name here), then I don’t see why you would care, if that’s what you are getting from it.

        • Nexyte@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          Also, the thought of having a tree planted on a designated plot was a nice thought. I’ll look for a documentary on that topic. Sadly, I didn’t know before.

          • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
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            6 days ago

            That’s kind of the idea though.

            They don’t exactly advertise that they’re doing a bad thing.

            I have my reservations about the tree planting thing. I forget the specifics about it from the material I’ve seen.

            IIRC it’s half right? I forget why. It’s been a while.

      • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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        6 days ago

        You can’t get a lordship just by owning land and you can’t sell a sq meter of land who cares what trust pilot says?

        • Nexyte@lemmy.world
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          6 days ago

          I just checked trustpilot after reading all this. Actually I did order there because I heard of that stuff in multiple podcasts. I thought the lord/ladyship would just be a title for fun and the money would go towards reforestation. (I know that the titles and ownership of the land are without any legal ground.)