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Bumper edition of Practical Politics

The April 2010 edition of Practical Politics covers a wide range of apparently disparate topics, all of which are ultimately linked to the ownership of land and what happens to the income stream it yields.

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British voting system ripe for change

The election campaign brought out the widespread feeling of dissatisfaction with the electoral system, to the point that electoral reform became one of the subjects of debate. In the event, even first past the post failed to produce a decisive result. Against, it argued that one of the biggest problems of PR is in minority parties either keeping unpopular majorities in power or holding governments...

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Round Two reveals bitter sweet Fanny Adams

The three prospective leaders have been hard at work all week perfecting the skill of ducking the question and giving us the same tired old routines. This was supposed to be a Foreign Affairs debate but turned out to be nothing of the sort.

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The election campaign

What are we to make of the election campaign? As we have no party political affiliation, we are restricted about what we can say. A little bit of support for LVT could be found in all the main parties. But there was next to nothing to enthuse about. Labour was judged on its miserable record, for having come up yet again in the last five years with variants on the tired old failed development land...

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Round 1 shows contenders unfit for top job

On last night’s showing the title could be undecided and require re-match With the Downing Street crown in contention, this 3-round contest of party heavyweights had the nation glued to the screen and on the edge of their seats – hyped up by the expectation of a clash of the Titans that would leave one contestant head and shoulders above the others.

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It wasn’t me sir

Its the end of term at Westfriars School and the Headmaster wants to clear up a serious financial crisis at Red House, where Gordon Frowne is the House Captain.

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LVT for Glasgow?

Glasgow City Council set up a Local Taxation Working Group which has seriously considered site value taxation. Its overall findings are in this report published last year. Our analyst David Mills has written a  detailed critique. The latter needs to be read with reference to the original report.

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Big guns fire only blanks

Our new expert commentator, leading economist Charlotte-Anne Schreiber, was in the TV audience Monday evening to hear the debate between Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable. She was not impressed. Here is her report for the Land Value Taxation Campaign.

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Increment taxes – the practical objections

There are some who argue for taxes on what is called the unearned increment in land. Even some who wish to capture the whole site rent, have been heard to make appreciative murmurs when increment is mentioned. This is a mistake. It is surely not necessary to repeat here the ethical argument, and the argument in economic theory, for collecting all of the Rent of Land and therefore against taxing...

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