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Or the collective euphoria might overwhelm us.

The BBC reports a new scheme to encourage young school children to role play the effects of taking drugs: Pupils act out effects of drugs:

Primary school pupils will be encouraged to act out the effects of LSD and cannabis as part of an anti-drug programme.

Hmm - notice they didn't choose ecstasy. "Now children, I want you all to hug each other, make friends with someone you don't know yet, and share your sweets with the whole class. No, stay awake Johnny, you're not doing it properly!"

I do wonder about the cannabis one though - they're a bit young to stay up till 3am talking shit and sorting the world's problems out aren't they?

As to LSD - why not just watch the Tweenies instead!

ALTER (the Lib Dems' Land Value Tax and Economic Reform group) have spent the time over the holidays preparing arguments for the "Tax Commission II" which will focus, amongst other things on that bit of tax policy that was left hanging at Conference - the details of how to implement Land Value Tax.

One thing I noticed just before Christmas which didn't seem to be picked up anywhere else was some research from "Inside Housing" magazine, also reported in the Telegraph, that in some places up to 50% of new build housing is standing empty, bought up, often "off-plan", by speculators who just want to hold it and hope to make a turn on it selling it on after a year or two, but not even putting tenants into them because they don't want to have to carry out any remediation work before they sell and don't want any "vacant possession" issues to affect their choice of timing.

It particularly affects apartments, and so disproportionately also those trying to get onto the housing ladder.

The Lib Dems already have policy to shift the Uniform Business Rate to a Site Value Rating basis, and at conference as part of the tax paper it was agreed that this should also apply to vacant brownfield sites to encourage development.

Anyway, as one way of beginning a shift to LVT more generally as the main, or hopefully only, property based tax, we are suggesting that once land is in the SVR system it should stay there. So new homes would attract SVR even after purchase rather than Council Tax or anything else. This would provide a huge disincentive for people to "abuse" the new housing market in this way. At the moment, and even under Local Income Tax, most of these buyers would pay little or nothing while the properties lie empty, but if they attracted SVR from the moment they got planning permission, such buyers would have to factor in a tax bill when deciding to leave them empty.

Problem solved?

As someone who is always campaigning for financial and economic fairness and inclusion I wholeheartedly endorse Andrew Smith’s dismay at the number of ATM machines that charge, and that they disproportionately affect poorer areas and those less well served with other services.

Will he now perhaps campaign for the return and preservation of local sub-Post Offices whose network of for the most part free cheque cashing facilities has been decimated under the Labour government’s administration.

A good start might be to join the renewed calls for an competition investigation into Tesco takeover of T&S stores which has resulted in yet more counter closures. Maybe he could also explain what happened to the “Universal Bank”.