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.

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.

For the first time, ALTER is producing a guide for its members and supporters attending Federal Conference, with its ever growing number of fringe meetings. A selection of training events during the day and meetings before, in lunch breaks and after the main debating sessions, is included in Your ALTERnative Fringe Guide, which can be downloaded here.
ALTER members and supporters attending Conference are asked to help us produce a report for the next issue of our newsletter Landscape. Anyone attending a session listed in the Guide who is prepared to write up about 250 words on what they learned should email Landscape's Editor or contact us at Bournemouth at our stand in the exhibition.