Morat wrote:

But no, there's no danger of any government seizing land in the UK. When land is needed for roads or w/e they have a thing called a CPO (Compulsory Purchase Order) where a value is calculated and the owner has to accept it.

There's the odd exception where they need to buy the land and offer a price, the owner rejects the offer so they up it until he does but just occasionally someone refuses to accept the offer no matter what it is. So you end up with a situation like this https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Whitefaced+Woodland+Sheep/@53.6415939,-1.9547333,663m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x487bda4f42ef164f:0x50ffd5e56e229444!2sM62!3b1!8m2!3d53.6625082!4d-1.8533994!3m4!1s0x487bc3fbb249a0cb:0xcf09aa3b3269ba94!8m2!3d53.6416195!4d-1.9520896?hl=en where a landowner refused to accept the offer (probably in the hope that the motorway wouldn't be built) so they ran the motorway either side of his house......

I've driven past that and did wonder why that had been done, that suddenly makes sense.

I see, interesting stuff. Some of those ramblers have a point, some of the country side should be preserved as is. However some of it should be open for recreational use, a decent balance is needed.

I didn't actually think the government was going to seize anyone's land, I was cheekily pointing out that when countries did, under the guise of communism, it didn't work out quite well ;) We too also have something called Eminent Domain here in the States where they can seize your land with payment.

I fully support private property rights and I believe government should be small and powerless as possible. Although, I must admit, it seems that I am a beneficiary of government procurement of frontier lands. Thanks to conversationalists like John Muir we get to enjoy National Parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone. Along those same lines we also have state funded Off Highway Vehicle Parks like Pismo Beach and Hollister Hills. I guess not all government programs are bad haha, although these lands were never in the private ownership of anyone before the government claimed them. I guess that is the benefit of having huge swaths of wide-open land.