Jamie Blackett

Educated at Eton College, Blackett served in the Coldstream Guards from 1983 to 2002, including service during The Troubles and the first Gulf War. In addition, he served as a Deputy Lieutenant for Dumfriesshire from 2013 to 2020. Blackett has been a member of the Royal Company of Archers since 2012.

Blackett is a direct descendant of Christopher Blackett of Wylam Hall, Northumberland, founder of The Globe[4] newspaper, and entrepreneur behind the world’s oldest surviving steam engine Puffing Billy.

Although he writes mainly about rural matters, Blackett's first book The Enigma of Kidson[5] is a partly autobiographical portrait of teacher Michael Kidson, whose pupils at Eton College included former Prime Minister David Cameron. In the book, Blackett describes being beaten by the Head, Michael McCrum, one of the last acts of corporal punishment at the school. It is currently being adapted for the stage by playwright Henry Filloux-Bennett.[6]

His books, Red Rag to a Bull and its sequel Land of Milk and Honey tell how he arrived home from military service to take over Arbigland, an agricultural estate on the Solway Firth in Dumfries and Galloway to find a rapidly changing countryside. Set over 20 years through the Scottish independence referendum, hunting ban, Brexit, Coronavirus and the 2021 Scottish Parliamentary Elections, the books cover challenges threatening a way of life and an emerging rural philosophy in which farmers have greater freedom to manage the countryside.[7]

In 2020, Blackett became the Deputy Leader of the Alliance for Unity, a party which was founded by George Galloway to contest the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.[8] The registered name of the party became All for Unity, with Blackett as the Leader and Galloway as the Nominating Officer.[9] In the election, Galloway stood as the lead candidate, with Blackett as second, in the South Scotland electoral region.[10] He and Galloway spoke out against what they saw as the ‘Ulsterisation’ of Scotland, Blackett linking it to his first-hand experience as a soldier in Northern Ireland. Blackett later broke with Galloway and All for Unity was de-registered as a political party.[11]