Peter Smith

An old story as relevant to day as it was then: Many years ago a company of tradesmen united themselves into a guild and each one had to relate what he could contribute to its support. First the blacksmith came forward and said:— "Gentlemen, I wish to become a member of your organisation." "Well, what can you do?" "Oh, I can make springs and axles for your carriages, shoe your horses, and make all kinds of implements." "Very well, come in, Mr. Blacksmith." The mason applied for admission into the society. "What can you do, sir?" "I can build your barns, bridges, houses, and stables." "Very well, come in; we cannot do without you." Along comes the shoemaker and says:— "I wish to become a member of your society." "Well, what can you do?" "I can make boots and shoes for you." "Come in, Mr. Shoemaker; we must have you." In turn all the trades and professions a...

A certain popular wildlife Conservationist was on the BBC’s top house price ramping programme, ‘Escape to the Country’ this week. The Wildwood Trust attracts hundreds of thousands of people each year, keen to experience the many animals it protects, such as these very cute baby beaver and rescued dormice which were featured on the programme. Clip from the BBC 'Escape to the Country' This programme shows very well how property prices are affected by the community that surrounds the houses. The infamous phrase; LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION tells us the largest part of a ‘property’s price’ is the location value, i.e. that which is created by the whole community. Now that means that, with all probability,  the popular tourist destination and conservation charity Wildwood Trust is adding many thousands, if not millions, of pounds to the land prices of the houses & businesses in the area, these landowners (free-loaders) have enjoyed this ...

Only a few miles from where I am typing this the needlessly cruel practice of live animal exports has started again in Ramsgate Kent. Understanding that a small loss of income, say from not being allowed to live export sheep, will make the sheep farmed on ‘marginal’ land not worth farming. Thus a number of livelihoods will be ruined, and so a body of people are highly motivated to campaign on an issue to protect their livelihood/privilege (the privilege being the landowners of tenanted farms in marginal areas).  Thus the government is constantly pushed by people with the motivation and means to lobby for such a vile practice of causing such huge animal suffering. My favourite saying at the moment is: “it all happens at the margins” A similar augment can be made for cows and M.Bovis as the marginal dairy farmers are the ones so motivated to campaign so strongly to blame badgers and campaign  for the cull. Such desperate people are easi...

The biggest threat to beaver reintroduction to the UK is powerful  landowners and thier campaigning bodies such as the NFU, CLA & CONFOR. The owners of riverbanks see beavers as a threat. In my view the solution to the beaver issue is Land Value Tax... In the fight to reintroduce the beavers the battle lines have been drawn, and will always exist between private landowners wanting to derive as much profit from their land as possible, i.e. intensive farming on riverbanks and the public need for 'ecosystem services' such as water quality and flood plain buffering of peak flow. The natural tendency towards people trying to create monopolies means landowning groups want to co-opt the taxpayer into paying for services they receive such as river management and drainage, while at the same time receiving private profits and government hand-outs with little taxation. Much of the research into 'ecosystem services' is being sponsored so as to allow a valuation for ...

Land Value Tax and badgers... I have been having a long campaign against the state funding of badger culling in the UK - My thoughts are both animal welfare and Georgist in nature. I would welcome your thoughts on the Georgist aspects of agricultural subsidies. Fred Harrison recorded my thoughts on the subject above: My argument is the solution to M.Bovis (bovine tuberculosis) are well known and well documented. The problem is that landowners want the taxpayer to fund this to protect agricultural rents.  In my view farming must internalise the costs of production and solve their own problems. Ricardo's law of rent tells us that every £1 taken off the selling price of beef and milk by subsidy means and extra £1 of rent in the landowners pocket (or profit if the farmer owns the land). While the badger is in the public eye landowners can avoid addressing the problem. We must consider M.Bovis like industrial pollution, their is no excuse for it and it can be simply eradicated ...

Robert Burns and Independence.  By Dr. Duncan  Pickard Scots! Vha hae wi' Wallace bled Those who are trying to persuade us to vote for Scottish ‘Independence’ are keen to imply that Robert Burns would have supported their cause.  It cannot have been simple coincidence that January 25 th was chosen for the speech and press conference to declare the supposed benefits to the people of Scotland of a vote for 'Independence'. My reading of Burns has led me to conclude that he would not have been in favour of the 'Independence' we are asked to choose.    Burns' enthusiasm for freedom, liberty, independence and the end of tyranny was on behalf of individual people, not the county of Scotland.  The tyrants whom Burns wanted to be rid of were the landowners, who were the rulers of Scotland -not the English.  The poem "Scots! Vha hae wi' Wallace bled" had nothing to do with rousing the Scots of the late eighteenth century to fight for independ...

Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave talks about her new role as the guest director of this year's Brighton Festival.  The event starts with Vanessa promoting her Son, Carlo Nero's, ground breaking New documentary film The Killing Fields which will be premiered at the festival. The event will be held in the Brighton Dome Concert Hall Sunday 6th May, tickets £10.  Tickets can be booked from this website. http://brightonfestival.org/event/477/the_killing_fields/# The Film explores the relationship between Wildlife, Land, taxation and Law. The film Documents how the introduction of Land Value Tax would give Value to Wildlife and ensure Its protection. The film is presented by Economist Fred Harrison and features Peter Smith CEO and Founder of the Wildwood Trust, Dr Duncan Pickard, Landowner and Farmer, and Polly Higgins, Environmental barrister, author & Campaigner.

Wildlife group’s proposal for land tax reform backed by Oscar winning actress  By Chris Murphy BACK TO NATURE: Actress Vanessa Redgrave (left) will be appearing at a showing of the Wildwood Trust’s The Killing Fields featuring its chief executive Peter Smith (above) A SEISMIC change in the way land around the world is taxed could save many of our threatened species, claims a wildlife organisation that has the backing of actress Vanessa Redgrave and her son who has made a film on the issue. Oscar winner Redgrave is backing Wildwood, near Canterbury, because she wants to save the world’s natural resources before they are completely plundered for profit. As the Unicef Goodwill Ambassador she launched the Brighton Festival with a special screening of Wildwood’s new documentary, The Killing Fields. It was shown to an audience of more than 1,000 of the biggest names in theatre and arts in the hope of stirring up more support for its aims. Wildwood Trust’s vision is to restore...

Robin Harding in the FT today article explains Economic Rent. What beats me is why it is seen as radical - economic rent is the key to the problems of our economy.  Economics and society: Barrier to a breakthrough But Harding downplays the role of economic rent from its classical source land with no evidence, land & natural assets still accounts for about 80% of economic rent. My favourite Keynes Qoute: “First, let's euthanize all the rentiers” John Maynard Keynes in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money from the comments section: "The failure of government to collect rent in lieu of taxes leaves a huge imputed income stream to the owners of nature, which is capitalized by market forces into a selling price (this selling price driven upward by the use of credit as leverage as fuel to an inherently speculation-driven market dynamic). Thus, the most important -- critical -- change in public polic...

Professor Joshua Farley Explains Ecological Economics - Excellent Interview that covers all the issues very well - well worth watching. Ecological economics provides us with insights into the relationship between economic activity and the capacity of the Earths resources to sustain us. In this video Joshua Farley one of the visionary thinkers in this discipline, provides an overview of some these critical relationships, and gives examples of how responsive policy measures can be applied in an urban setting.

Cap & Enslave - Or.... Don't put a cork up your donkey's bum, just give it less carrots Cap and trade is something I have blogged about for a few years as a travesty of an economic policy designed to enrich the rich and impoverish the poor while not helping reduce carbon emissions. This great YouTube video has been produced by Annie Leonard and explains the problem to non-economists. The only issue with the video is that  Annie does not fully understand just how the Cap & Trade system would enslave humanity. This is because we would create new energy monopolists (a bit like today's landowners) that would own nearly all of production in perpetuity, owning the right to pollute and renting it out to humanity who would have to pay them for the privilege of economic activity and prevent a free market in energy and manufacturing. Today's large polluting companies  (or to be more precise their...

Mark Drakeford, Labour AM for Cardiff West, led a short debate on the subject 'A Land Value Tax for Wales'

The Real News Network (TRNN) made this excellent news report on third world land grabs. This will cause a food crisis as described but its implications are much, much wider. Its a pity that the  TRNN did not follow this land speculation to its obvious conclusion that it will enshrine poverty of the world.  The solution to this is for the countries to tax the value of land and return it  equally to all the people of the country. That way they can attract investment for  modern farming and increase production while everyone receives the fruits of the land. Without land rent capture the population of the Third World are doomed to poverty forever more, land grabs, biodiversity and commodity speculation will make them poorer. Biofules are an environmental and human nightmare where the starving children of the third world are left landless and our most precious wildlife habitats are destroyed to allow fat Americans to drive their S...

An old University friend of mine, who has been a senior financial journalist for many years and  is now a newspaper editor, asked this question today in his newspaper and asked for responses: "What shall we call the financial crisis? We've had the Great Depression, the Credit Crunch and Black Monday. How will history remember the last five years of economic calamity?" My thoughts to him where if we had The Great War & the Great Depression so the Great War became World War One, so the Great Depression becomes World Depression One and our current situation is World Depression Two. You can make your own response too on this link: http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/industry-insights/economics/crisis-what-crisis-its-likely-to-be-more-serious-than-that My old friend has yet to discover the wisdom of Henry George, Minsky, Stiglitz or the many other economists who understand the role of economic ...

Barrister, Author and Campaigner, Polly Higgns explains the concept of Ecocide. Ecocide is a legal concept of Laws and Governance to Prevent the Destruction of our Planet. She explains the need to change from property laws to trusteeship laws for land "I owe NOT I own" Published by Geophilos