Climate change is a topic on which the Campaign does not take a view. We hold to our self-imposed terms of reference, on the basis that our supporters have differing views on just about everything apart from LVT. This is as it should be. This winter’s weather, however, raises the issue of large-scale landscape management. It may turn out to be a one-off event or part of a new pattern, but...

I was recently asked if crap on stilts is wealth? It may be, but only if someone wants it. Putting the crap on stilts is a work of  human labour, which is part of the qualification for falling into the category “wealth”, but the product must still satisfy someone’s desire. As crap is good fertiliser, this is the case, so yes, it probably is. Crap was at one time the subject of...

Most LVT campaigners are at some time tempted to believe that the reform we support is only just over the horizon. One more push, and we shall be there. The temptation seems to hit hardest at two points. The first is when we have “seen the cat”. Having spotted the elusive feline lurking in the branches, we find it difficult to appreciate that anyone else could miss seeing it. The other...

Our sleuth, a Latvian woman who works for a firm of contract cleaners, has been keeping a low profile of late, but her patience paid off when she discovered what appears to be a draft of the budget speech. It appears that the Chancellor has more courage than we have given him credit for and that Land Value Taxation will be the centre of his policy to get growth back into the economy. We will listen...

The internet is subtly changing. The Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Times are now behind paywalls and give limited free access. The Guardian adopted a different strategy with free access and a comments page called “Comment is Free” (CIF), paid for out of advertising. The quality of the articles is middling-to-poor, and they are mostly written by the Guardian’s old...

Some ideas for a change of name. Here are a few that have turned up…

This is a question that comes up from time to time. We have never been satisfied with the name we have inherited. Land value taxation (LVT) is not a tax but a user charge. The principle is that people pay for what they get and get what they pay for, so there is no free riding. Our proposal, in short, is for an annual ad valorem tax on the annual rental value of land. It is not a one-off payment,...

I have been in discussion with someone on the blog of a supporter of LVT who sometimes writes on the subject. His ideas came under attack by an anonymous individual whose views seem to have much in common with those held by Gollum, a character from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. But since these idea are so widespread, the exchange is worth publishing even though it is not enlightening.

And how big should it be?

“What seems to be the trouble Mr Britain? I really thought we had got you back on your feet.” “I was feeling a bit better last week with the Jubilee and that, but now it is over I am feeling pretty groggy again. The QE treatment just doesn’t seem to be working. I have no energy, I lack drive and I’m getting more and more into debt. My output has dropped through the...