The Liberal Democrats ALTER

Summary of ALTER's LVT proposals May 2009

Open meeting of C4EJ Friday 22 May 09

You are invited to attend this meeting to understand how various organisations belonging to the newly formed Coalition for Economic Justice (C4EJ) - of which ALTER is a founder member - approach the idea of Land Value Capture in the current British political context. At least four organisations will have 15 minutes to present their views, followed by 15 minutes of questions.

The meeting is at the School of Economic Science, 11 Mandeville Place, London (near Bond Street underground) from 2pm to 6pm - and is free to members of ALTER or the Liberal Democrat Party, and their guests. Please let Tony Vickers know if you intend to be there.

A summary of ALTER's own position is being circulated to other C4EJ member organisations this week, along with those of the Labour Land Campaign, Social Liberalist Party and Land Value Taxation Campaign.

This summary was also sent to three Lib Dem MPs last week, prior to a meeting with them scheduled to discuss how ALTER can help them campaign on our policies in this area in the run-up to the General Election. Unfortunately the meeting was curtailed at the last minute: only Sarah Teather (housing spokesperson) could attend; Vince Cable had to be at a constituent's funeral and Lorely Burt had an important meeting with a small businesses lobby group (this is her portfolio). However all three MPs sent their researchers and four members of ALTER's committee had a useful discussion which we will be following up by further meetings.

Social Liberal Forum "Idea" and first Coalition for Economic Justice event

I regard the use of the term "Social Liberal" rather like an annoying itch that one cannot quite reach! It is a distraction from more important matters and could be an indication of serious illness in the body politic - in this case the Liberal Democrat Party that we Liberals find ourselves in. Until so-called Social Liberals invented themselves, in my 45 years as a member of the Party I'd never felt any problem describing myself as an economic liberal (small 'e' and 'l'). The Forum's current homepage has a piece reprinted from Liberator by David Boyle. Well done David - I'd have been less measured (probably why Liberator didn't print my response to the article "Blues under the Bed" in their last issue!)

Now I wish they'd go away and stick with Liberalism without the Socialist bit! I'm reminded of the way the old Labour Party (which possibly some Social Liberals hanker after?) used to behave......

Anyway I've been invited to put my views on why the whole Social Liberal thing is a waste of time and effort on the new Social Liberal Forum. You might like to visit this Idea (which will be familiar!) and post your own comment.

I'm happier directing you to the report of the first public event organised by the Coalition for Economic Justice, to which ALTER belongs. Andrew George MP was the only Parliamentarian who attended, apart from a brief appearance by Vince Cable, who hosted the seminar in Parliament.on 24th March.

Incidentally, do buy Vince's new book The Storm - via the Party's link to Amazon, which puts a few 'p' in Lib Dem coffers. Hope they use it to help work out a way to win elections on our policy of Site Value Rating - which I'm pretty sure hasn't had a penny spent on it by Cowley Street since the merger with SDP.

More on AGM and House of Commons seminar next Tuesday

I've been asked to give more details about how to attend both the ALTER AGM and the Seminar at the House of Commons next Tuesday 24th March. Some people are unclear about where exactly to go and how to ensure they will be allowed in.

First the Seminar. Full details are here. The public entrance to the Houses of Parliament is St Stephens Entrance, facing Parliament Square. Ask any policeman. Allow at least 15 minutes for going through security and finding your way inside the building. Ask for Committee Room 15 and mention Vince Cable as host. Although aimed at MPs and their researchers, there should be spare seats for anyone arriving early.

To attend the ALTER AGM beforehand, you must be a paid-up member and (first) a member of the Liberal Democrat Party. We can only accept membership of ALTER on the door, so bring your Party membership card with you. The AGM will commence at 4pm sharp in the Boardroom of Party HQ, 4 Cowley Street, which is a brisk 5 minute walk from Parliament itself. We will adjourn at 4.40, giving time for those present to also attend the seminar.

After the seminar, the ALTER AGM will re-convene in a nearby hostelry (not yet confirmed) to have a discussion on ALTER's strategy and tactics for the period up to and beyond the coming General Election. We aim to finish by 8.30pm, to give time for people to catch their train home.

The Executive Committee welcomes offers of practical help in our work. We need more active members, especially those with experience of grassroots campaigning among the Party. We have achieved a great deal deal in terms of formal policy making in the past 10 years: Land Value Taxation is Party policy. Now we must turn policies into election winning campaign tools.

Invitation to AGM and House of Commons Seminar

You may be getting an email from ALTER for the first time. That's because you gave us your address at our fringe meeting last weekend at Harrogate Conference. If you don't want to receive these occasional emails with links to our website, email me.

If you are a member already, you will have had snail-mail recently, giving Notice of our AGM and of the Seminar (organised by the Coalition for Economic Justice) at the House of Commons (hosted by Vince Cable) the same evening at 5pm-7: Tuesday 24th March. Details of the seminar are also on the website.

Members are welcome to the AGM, which starts at 4pm sharp in the Boardroom at Party HQ: 4 Cowley Street. We will adjourn at 4.40, so that people can make their way to the House for the seminar, then re-convene at a nearby hostelry (to be decided) for a discussion on What Next for ALTER.

The Executive Committee of ALTER is always in need of new blood. We particularly want people to contribute campaigning and other short, punchy written material on Land Value Taxation and other radical economic policy ideas, for our stalls at conferences and in other media.

You can join ALTER via the website using PayPal, or by emailing the membership secretary for a form,, or bring your cheque book to Cowley Street on 24th March.

We hope to see you then.

Agenda for CEJ Seminar at House of Commons

The final agenda for the event mentioned in the previous posting to this site has now been published here. Please send it to anyone you write to.

Polly Toynbee does it again

She mentioned land value taxation a few months ago. Today she does it again, with a more comprehensive analysis. It would be good to follow up with letters to the Guardian, mentioning that our Party has at least resolved to adopt LVT - eventually (like St Augustine said of chastity!)

Any letter might mention also that an all-Party Coalition for Economic Justice has been formed to work towards shifting taxes off wealth creation and onto wealth accumulation. Its first seminar, at the House of Commons, will be on 24th March, hosted by Vince Cable. And its Chairman has just written to the Chancellor.

ALTER is about to write to all Lib Dem MPs to invite them to the seminar. Please write to your MP whatever his/her Party.

Lib Dems ignore Peoples Budget Centenary

I'm sad to report that the Liberal Democrats will not be debating a motion at their Spring Conference this year on how to build a sustainable economic future for this country. ALTER had hoped to provide the Party with an opportunity to celebrate the centenary of the last attempt by our forbears - in 1909 - to legislate for Fair Taxation: the so-called Peoples Budget of David Lloyd George.

These are the reasons given for rejecting our Motion, which was widely supported by MPs, Council Leaders and Conference delegates.

I'm afraid your motion on the "people's budget" was not selected for
debate. There were several reasons for this.

Firstly, the time available for debating motions at this conference is
this year exceptionally limited, because there will be three policy
papers for debate, on various aspects of children's policy. We normally
only have one or two policy papers at a spring conference so this is
exceptional and has a severe impact on the time available for other
policy motions - in fact we were able to select only two other motions,
one of which was also on the general topic of the economic crisis.

Secondly, as you probably know, FCC has already taken the view for
previous conferences that the issue of the party's view on land
taxation has already been before conference during this Parliament, and
that therefore it does not plan to bring this back before conference
again during this Parliament, bearing in mind not least the vast range
of other policy topics that there is demand to put on the conference
agenda. Your motion did argue that the economic crisis calls for a
reappraisal of the situation, but I'm afraid that FCC took the view
that the fundamental basis of the argument for land taxation was not
sufficiently changed by this to merit debating this again.

Thirdly, FCC thought that there were one or two significant
inaccuracies in your motion. Specifically I understand that the 4p tax
cut is not funded by efficiency savings, but by green taxes, changes to
pensions and capital gains taxation. And I understand that a point
similar to point (iii) of this motion was also taken as an amendment at
conference not long ago, and was defeated.

ALTER understands that the world is still in financial firefighting mode and few are yet ready to tackle the fundamental problem, which is misappropriation (on an ever more vast scale) of the 'common wealth' of natural resources as private capital - and the creation of unsustainable debt by lending against this finite heritage of humankind. Lloyd George understood this. Vince Cable and ALTER's President Chris Huhne understand it. It is up to ALTER to keep reminding Liberals that until this is tackled we cannot have a Liberal, Democratic, Sustainable society.

Please let our Leader know your views on this.

Tony Vickers, Chair, ALTER.

ALTER needs you!

With the costs of our core activities (attending Federal and other Conferences, holding Fringe events, lobbying our MPs) all rising steeply, ALTER would much appreciate more paid-up members. We are keeping our subscription rate for 2009 unchanged - but are now maximising our use of electronic communications and payment methods.

The Treasurer's letter explains our preferred way of taking money off you! It also includes a form for you to complete and email back to her, giving us more details about yourself should we need to contact you.

Why not act now? (Just click on the "Join us" tab above). You'll then be able to feel you helped sustain our efforts to promote 'sane economics' within the Party. We know that Vince Cable values the way we nag his colleagues. So for Vince's sake, pay up!

The letter mentions our AGM. This year, it will be held in the House of Commons, immediately before a seminar chaired by Vince on Tuesday 24th March. This will be the first event held by the Coalition for Economic Justice, which ALTER helped to form late last year. The AGM will start at 4.15pm. The seminar is from 5pm to 7pm. You will be told more about the event when details are available.

Harrogate Motion Submitted

The final version of ALTER's Motion was submitted in time, last night, before a late flood of offers to sponsor the earlier draft. Apologies for the slight changes (we hope you agree they improve it). Thanks to all who responded to our appeal. Among them were three PPCs, two Local Party Chairs and a Council Group Leader.

While you are on our site, why not Join Us?

TOWARDS A NEW “PEOPLE’S BUDGET”

Conference

celebrates 2009 as the centenary of the last great reforming Liberal Government’s “People’s Budget”, Parliamentary rejection of which helped entrench poverty and exacerbate wealth inequality in Britain to the detriment of subsequent generations;

maintains that a free, fair and sustainable society can only arise when tax is switched from wealth creation to wealth appropriation and from value added to value removed;

notes that the Party's current tax policy was agreed prior to the present UK recession.

Accordingly, Conference

reaffirms the progressive legacy of the “People’s Budget” through Liberal Democrat commitments to switch the fiscal burden from productivity to pollution and privilege;

endorses Liberal Democrat plans to cut the basic rate of income tax by 4%, targeting waste and inefficiency and closing tax avoidance loopholes for those most able to pay; and

asserts the need for subsidiarity and choice in tax raising powers, so redistributive and sustainable fiscal best practice can emerge locally and regionally as well as nationally.

Conference therefore calls on the Party’s Treasury Team to

i. begin the work identified in our 2006 policy paper Fairer Simpler Greener, to enlarge the tax base through land taxation and lift National Minimum Wage earners out of tax;

ii. demand infrastructure investment and associated job creation by government spending money into circulation, rather than by inflationary debt-based borrowing from banks;

iii. explore the feasibility of a charge (post-recession) on the untaxed monopoly privilege of private banks to create, from nothing, interest-bearing deposits of British sterling;

iv. develop various tax options for local and devolved government during 2009, consistent with our enduring vision and values – and worthy of a 21st Century “People’s Budget”.

Draft Motion for Spring Conference: A New "Peoples Budget"

ALTER would like the Party to mark the centenary next April of the 1909 Peoples Budget, a landmark of the last Liberal Government, by responding in equally historic fashion to possibly the worst economic crisis since that time. The Motion would require the Party to make further proposals - beyond those made in 2006 & 2007 - on Tax Shifting.

If you are (or know) a Voting Conference Representative, please help us gather well over the necessary ten signatures of support for this Motion to be debated. Just send an email in response to the one notifying you of this, to ALTER, giving your
name,
Local Party name and
Party membership number, with (in the Subject line) ...
"I SUPPORT the New Peoples Budget motion"!

Three quarters of the candidates for election to Federal Policy Committee who responded in October to us agreed that the issue of land taxation needed to be addressed again urgently in the light of the Credit Crunch. This Motion will mandate FPC to do just that.

The Motion is.....

Conference

1. notes that 2009 is the centenary year of the celebrated People’s Budget of the last great reforming Liberal Government, Parliamentary rejection of which helped entrench poverty and exacerbate wealth inequality to the ongoing detriment of subsequent generations;

2. also notes that the Party's current tax policy was agreed before the Credit
Crunch arrived;

3. maintains that a free, fair and sustainable society can only arise when tax is switched from wealth creation to wealth appropriation and from value added to value removed.

Accordingly, Conference

A. reaffirms the progressive legacy of the People’s Budget through Liberal Democrat commitments to switch the fiscal burden from productivity to pollution and privilege;

B. endorses Liberal Democrat plans to cut the basic rate of income tax by 4%, targeting waste and inefficiency and closing tax avoidance loopholes for those most able to pay;

C. asserts the need for subsidiarity and choice in revenue raising, so that best practice in redistributive and sustainable economics is encouraged locally and regionally too.

Conference therefore calls on the Party’s Treasury Team

i. to develop fiscal options for UK-wide, local and devolved government during 2009, consistent with our enduring economic values and social vision;

ii. to begin the work identified in our 2006 policy paper Fairer Simpler Greener, which aspired to enlarge the tax base by developing policies for land taxation and to lift National Minimum Wage earners out of tax;

iii. to demand infrastructure investment and job creation through government spending money into circulation, rather than inflationary interest-bearing borrowing from banks.

Coalition for Economic Justice launched

Dovetailing nicely with ALTER's own Jobs First campaign to strengthen existing Lib Dem policy on LVT, a new cross-party initiative among LVT groups in the UK has just been launched, with which ALTER is associated. The Coalition for Economic Justice has resolved to seek cross-party agreement in manifestos for the next general election on the need for nation-wide LVT - with the means of achieving it left to each Party.

A Press Release went out on 27 December. The full text of the Mandeville Place Agreement, drawn up at a meeting hosted by the School of Economic Science on 27th November, is as follows:

“The current economic crisis highlights, again, the inadequacies of the economic system which is unstable and deeply flawed. It is clear that events are demonstrating the common feature of repeated economic booms and depressions in the speculative rise in land prices.

In order to address this problem we need to suggest to the wider world that it is possible to create a new approach that delivers both economic justice and prosperity for all. This solution must be based upon the annual collection of land value for public purposes.

This meeting agrees that there is an urgent need to convince policy makers of this, and for them to develop (with our assistance) policies to capture unearned land values. Such policies would enable taxes on labour and enterprise to be minimised. Investment in necessary public infrastructure would thus be recovered for public benefit.

We believe, however, that it is unproductive at this stage for our respective groups to attempt to agree how to achieve this. An agreement by the main parties on the need for a nation-wide tax on the value of land would trigger completion of the registration and valuation of land within a single parliament. We therefore commit to trying to persuade our parties to agree to this being a manifesto commitment.”

Since its first meeting, attended by 29 people from 10 organisations and belonging to five UK political parties, the coalition has added the Green Party to its membership and appointed a coordinating committee to take forward its agenda. The first event to be planned will be a seminar, hopefully in February at Westminster and hosted by Vince Cable MP. Vince has hosted two previous meetings on LVT at Westminster since becoming Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats.

Announcing "Jobs First" Campaign

LANDSCAPE winter 08.doc

In this issue of Landscape, we contribute ideas for ensuring that the UK comes out of economic depression sooner and more sustainably than it otherwise would. Although Vince Cable led the world in forecasting why and how the downturn would arrive, he has been held back by lesser mortals from pressing on the Party a more urgent and radical adoption of the classical Liberal idea: Land Value Taxation.

Recently adopted Lib Dem Tax policy takes us in the right direction - but too timidly, without conviction. ALTER is working with like minded radicals across the political spectrum to address this deficiency in political debate: how to capture Common Wealth to stabilise the global economy and secure economic justice.

Instead of prescribing more of what got us in this mess (feel-good, consumer-led debt), we propose investment-led wealth creation, the reward being a continuous stream of revenue from the uplifted rental value of land.

Credit Crunch and Land Value Taxation

ALTER has written to every Lib Dem MP to invite them to a briefing on proposals to "fireproof" the economic recovery plan launched by the Party last month. The proposals centre around a further tranche of Tax Shifting - reducing the burden on enterprise and earnings and clawing back unearned property wealth through a Land Value Tax (LVT).
The proposals draw on ideas endorsed as longer term aspirations by the Party's Federal Conference in 2006 and 2007 - before the Credit Crunch bit deep. As the economist and author of A New Model of the Economy puts it in his note to MPs: "Without LVT, Credit Crunch and Recession will recur. With it, there could truly be an end to the boom/bust cycle."
The letter to MPs includes a Ten Point Plan to End Boom-Bust and Wealth Inequality, which will be discussed with invited members of the Party's Federal Policy Committee at the House of Commons on Friday 28th November - and then with groups of LVT supporters from other parties.

Read or write for Land & Liberty

Two articles by ALTER members appear in the latest issue of the magazine Land & Liberty, which has chronicled the impact of the writings of Henry George for over a century.

One entitled "Owner, worker, giver, thief" by Ian Hopton, a member based in France, was first published by Resurgence (which "promotes [a] vision for a more ecological and equitable world"). Ian ably makes the connection between Land and Power, exercised through tax (dysfunctionally as now, or sustainably and equitably with LVT). He says: "Property in land is probably the most blatant act of theft perpetrated by society on itself".

The other, by chartered town planner Greg McGill and entitled "The Good Life Lost", deals with causes and effects on communities of land speculation in the absence of a means of recycling the unearned wealth accruing to owners, through tax. Significantly Greg, who is a constituent of mine in Newbury, has let his Lib Dem membership lapse because of disappointment over the Party's failure to fully grasp - or firmly tackle in campaigning - what he believes (like us) to be possibly the most powerful idea that it has inherited.

I would recommend that, if you are not already a subsriber to "L&L", you consider taking it. The latest issue is the best for some years. It is produced entirely 'pro bono' by members of the Henry George Foundation (HGF). Contact Land & Liberty for details. Back numbers can be downloaded free. HGF has the only library in UK (in London) dedicated to "The Land Question" - open every Friday at the School of Economic Science (SES), just off Oxford Street (and at other times by appointment). SES is the only place where courses drawing on Henry George's writings can be taken.