Isle of Eigg

This has been a slow day. Slow to get home. Slow to get up. But look at what I have found at the bottom of the drawer.
A t-shirt I bought 17 years ago when I was filming the run up to Independence Day on the Isle of Eigg for the BBC.
We have seen many crazy individuals buying large tracts of the Highlands and Islands but few can compare with Maruma, the fire eating artist, who was the last private owner of this beautiful island.
He did however prove to be the catalyst for the people of Eigg to buy their own island. An extraordinary achievement.
I spent a week there with Torcuil Crichton, now Westminster Editor with the Daily Record who was then a director with the BBC, recording the final days before the handover and the party on the big day.
I have not been back to Eigg since then. This t-shirt has reminded me that I should make the trip. It is a stunningly beautiful island.
In those days there was a public buy out every couple of years - Assynt, Eigg, Gigha, North Harris, Ness.
All of them successful. Making islands and communities better places for the residents.
Why has this stopped happening?