"People think I'm just trying to look after nice fluffy animals, What I'm actually trying to do is stop the human race from committing suicide." Gerald Durrell
From my 30 years as a nature conservationist I have learned the utter futility of trying to protect nature under our current economic system. But by making some small changes to our taxation system we could make a world fit for our children to inherit full of wildlife & prosperity for all.
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root....
Henry David Thoreau
"In many ways, nature conservation has become just another method of rent extraction by landowners who are trying to hide the fact that modern farmers’ fields are essentially deserts, devoid of wildlife, and the taxpayer must pay ‘rent’ if we want wild animals to occupy ‘their land’."
Peter Smith
Land Value Tax, which is in my opinion the Holy Grail of legislative changes to protect wildlife, is the simplest expression of the Economic theories of Henry George. This theory goes that if we abolish all harmful taxes on our hard work and trade and instead charge a rent for the use of natural resources such as Land we will not waste them or allow private interests to exploit the rest of humanities access to them.
Such a tax would not only stimulate jobs and enterprise but put a value on all of our natural resources and force us to look after them. If it was implemented for agricultural land, where the lower value of perpetually designated wilderness or natural grazing land is reflected in its land value taxation, it would be the surest way to save the wildlife of the UK and for the least cost to the taxpayer”
This would mean hard to farm areas, steep banks, riverbanks, rocky outcrops and areas landowners want to designate a nature reserves, which must be legally binding, could be set aside for wildlife and as such attract no taxation. The result of this would be that unproductive and marginal land would become wildlife havens and receive long term protection for future generation to enjoy. But it would also take away land and monopolies from our plutocrats who own wealth with no obligation to the rest of society, these plutocrats fund both the red and blue (and Yellow) faction of the vested interest or ‘line my friends pocket’parties that control the legislature in Britain.
This blog is dedicated to teaching those who love nature that there is a simple ‘magic bullet’ that can save the rare wildlife of this country at no cost to the taxpayer. This magic bullet will actually grow our economy and create jobs and help create a better society based on rewarding those who work hard while penalising idol people who make monopolies such as bankers and landowners.
The solution if adopted worldwide would alleviate poverty and starvation and make a significant contribution to preventing war and terrorism.
A short radio interview where I talk about the plight of the hedgehog and why they are disappearing from the British countryside, broadcast on BBC radio.
The real issue why our hedgehog population is crashing is a simple food pyramid whereby intensive agriculture and pesticide use has killed of the slugs, worms and snails hedgehogs eat.
The efficient solution as ever is to levy a land value tax and tax pesticide use relative to its effects(externalities). This will steer farming to producing food in a way that will allow wildlife to thrive.
Why are Hedgehogs disappearing from the British Countryside:
This short BBC documentary follow the Wild Konik Ponies that are spreading across the UK helping to Rewild Britain.
It has been great fun learning the art of the cowboy and having our work documented for all to see.
This is small but vital programme cutting costs of nature reserve management. But it also highlights a fundamental problem in nature conservation. Because so little land is left to wildlife we have to intensively manage small nature reserves for specific species. The wild horses would do a much better job if the nature reserves where bigger and where connected.
Once again we see that the real solution to rewilding is land availability and to make land available we must stop subsidising land use and remove associated tax breaks. But the best solution is to Levy a Land Value Tax on land.
Watching the sickening well-manicured war criminal & sociopath Tony Blair defend his terrible crime of waging aggressive war has made me both sick and full of hate for him today.
Looking into his eyes you saw the terror that his careful ego construct was cracking while he defended the indefensible. But the story missed by most commentators is what are the underlining forces that pushes groups of politicians, who profess they are doing good, to want to perpetrate such terrible crimes. It is my belief that politicians are not policy makers but policy takers, they are people who instinctively know how to adopt the positions that will satisfy their most powerful supporters to ensure their careers progress and they can retire to wealth and comfort.
This is the main reasons why elites will do anything to unseat moderate conviction politicians whether that is Jeremy Corbyn, Mohammad Mosaddegh or Salvador Allende.
Find out more about Mohammad Mosaddegh who threatened the UK and USA’s control of Iran’s oil by nationalising it: https://youtu.be/Os9ggGN-R-E
Salvador Allende threatening the USA’s control of its strategically important copper mines https://youtu.be/X6kkaIfy9wU
Tony Blair is guilty of two big ‘crimes’; one great crime against the people of this world & one great economic crime against the people of Britain…
The Great War Crime:
Firstly, the war crime of aggressive war making, which he still is in utter denial. The Chilcot report has documented how he lied to us all along, we knew this but had no proof. We had to suffer watching the disaster unfold, with bush and Blair making it worse and worse by incompetence and cover-up as the real objective on capturing the oil wealth of Iraq enforced the terrible decisions that saw Iraq descend into anarchy and conflict.
But most commentators have ignored how a natural resource at the root of this disaster. The profits to be made by the elites of Europe and America from mostly oil but many other natural resources mean that there is always a ‘war party’ ready to give their support to politicians looking to invade. Cold heartless minds of diplomats look to solve economic problems and establish power by stealing the wealth of others.
The many businesses who donate and fund (even just provide friendship) to politicians can benefit hugely by the calamity of war and getting their hands on oil. We have seen this recently in Iraq and in Libya but this has gone on for centuries. The more chaos and human misery created, the more internal factions fight and terrorise each other means there is no coherent internal state to defend their resources from our rapacious oil companies and dominion of powerful nations.
Many people in those countries see the duplicity of the installed puppet politicians and fight either for national sovereignty or get their own hands on the huge wealth of the natural resources being fought over.
But what is the solution to natural resource disasters and war? How can we keep the greedy hands of interfering states, bankers, corporations and politicians from accessing the riches of our natural world & sowing the seeds of unimaginable barbarity and anarchy?
This web of murderous self-interest is at the root of many such conflicts and it is easy to get side tracked by the dishonesty and duplicity of all the states and groups indulging in this.
My heart is broken by what has befallen the Iraqi people and I have wept for the victims. But my anger must really be reserved for the stupidity of all of us at preventing war. The anti-war movement needs a concrete objective, a remedy, that will remove the causes of warfare such as environmental destruction, loss of lively hood and remove the incentive of those that seek to profit from war. Only a Land Value Tax as a policy objective can fulfil these objectives so why do anti-war, anti-poverty & environmental campaigners not band together to promote this as a policy?
Land Value Tax is the solution to both the macro and micro issues in preventing war. This goes for land (a land Value tax), water use (abstraction tax), carbon tax etc and other natural resources & 'green' taxes. This solves scarcity but also suppresses the use of the fossil fuels removing the incentive for war and controlling our insatiable thirst to exploit those natural resources.
This solution will suppress those seeking to push our foreign policy to war by removing the perverse incentive to fight over natural resources rents as they will be impossible to monopolise by one group, country or corporation under such as system.
So what the Iraqi people really need is a Land Value Tax & Nationalisation of oil to stop people internally or externally killing each other to acquire the riches that ownership brings.
My thoughts on war:
Fred Harrison's thoughts on war:
The great economic crime against the people of Britain…
The other great Crime Tony Blair was architect to was the impoverishment of the people of Britain. This destroyed our productive industries, brought huge social divides and even created the climate of fear of immigration that saw us vote for BREXIT.
What was this crime, it was to continue the policies that saw the house price bubble grow ever bigger. Taxing wages and trade can never provide the income of government to tackle poverty. As rents and mortgages capture the income of the poor and funnel it up to landowners and banks, destroying jobs, reducing wages and robbing our country of the ability to trade economically with the rest of the world. Only our financial sector prospered because we financed other rent seekers around the world to rape our planet and exploit the labour of other countries.
This crime is best expressed by my friend, the author and investigative reporter, Fred Harrison.
Tony Blair’s Dereliction of Duty to the People of Britain
1.In 1997, Tony Blair was elected Britain’s Prime Minister. He claimed to be heading a government that would define a Third Way in politics, after abandoning the socialist economic agenda of nationalising the means of production. This meant his government needed new tools to control the boom/bust business cycle that periodically ruptures the capitalist economy.
2.When they moved into Downing Street and HM Treasury, I wrote to Mr Blair and his four key colleagues to explain that a house price bubble, driven by speculation in the land market, would peak in 2007. They had 10 years in which to adopt the policies that could prevent the housing market from getting out of control. I provided the detailed analysis in The Chaos Makers (1997), explaining how to realign tax policy to secure and sustain full employment. At the time, 20% of UK households had nobody in employment. I submitted further alerts to the British government, and reaffirmed the risks to the UK and the global economy in Boom Bust: house prices, banking and the depression of 2010 (2005).
3.No preventative action was taken. Blair resigned in June 2007. UK house prices peaked five months later, precipitating the worst depression since the 1930s.
4.Following his departure from Downing Street, Blair amassed a portfolio of London residential properties worth many millions of pounds. Many other families had their homes repossessed. Many others could not afford to buy homes for their families.
5.Tony Blair, in his memoir A Journey (2010), insists that he was responsible for his government's economic policies. Therefore, he must accept personal responsibility for the land speculation that triggered the financial crisis of 2008 (when banks lost faith in the value of the sub-prime mortgages which they had created). The documentation on Blair’s failure is provided in my book 2010: The Inquest (2010).
6.Britain is now being steered towards the next land-led property boom/bust.
7.On stepping down as Prime Minister, Blair was appointed by the United Nations as its envoy to help secure peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This role required insight into the significance of land in the life of a population. Blair had demonstrated a wilful disregard of this aspect of British life. He is not qualified to resolve the land question that divides Israeli from the people of Palestine.
8.I herewith pronounce that Tony Blair, in view of his dereliction of duty towards the people of Britain, does not deserve the respect of a statesman, and that he is not qualified to act on behalf of the UN and the community of nations.
