Geoffrey Payne asks if the Green Alliance will ever acknowledge anything the Lib Dems do.
Jo Christie-Smith gives her review of the new Lib Dem website design (broadly agree with her conclusions).
An interesting article by Guy Hassan about the state of UK think tanks.
Thoroughly Good Egg Mark Braund makes the case for Land Value Taxation in South Africa with a view to avoiding Zimbabwefication (which may or may not be a word I just made up but I trust the meaning of it is clear?)
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Well and good for South Africa, but the national government just forced Johannesburg (and the other towns) to abandon the land value tax in July. Already, my cousin and his wife are selling their Jo-Burg house.
Namibia has actually gone further with LVT as a way to get land into the hands of the people with Mugabe-zation. Namibia, a Quiet Success
Compared to South Africa’s (RSA) stumbling efforts at land reform (they dumped LVT because some very important foreigners told them to), and Zimbabwe’s land grabbing Berserker-as-Government philosophy, Namibia’s experience has been the bane of the wild-eyed. No trauma, no train-wreck outcomes, little noise.
This sane process is what theorists expect of LVT: a use of market forces to achieve justice and equity, without the guns, corpses and mayhem that mar so much of our planet’s history.
The national land value tax, imposed on agricultural land raised N$28 million ($4.6 million US) in 2005. The cash is going to willing, mostly foreign sellers (who have become more willing since LVT started) and the land transferred to Namibians.
There are concerns that farms at the margin of viability owned by smallholders might be sold, but this is not seen as a reason to abandon the program.
The Dutch government has funded a study of the program, as it exists. The study is fair and well done, and compares the Namibian experience to neighbors to the North and south. Happily, the Euro-tendency to doubt success that does not entail confiscatory policies is muted: http://www.lac.org.na/lead/Pdf/landwefarm.pdf .
By taking the Taiwanese and Japanese alternative, instead of the Mugabe abyss or RSA errors, Namibia enjoys the civic peace its people deserve.
Joshua, cheers for that comment. I did not know of Namibia’s success.
All aboard for LVT.
Yes – thanks for that Joshua. Very useful.