ALTER calls for Lib Dems to rekindle the "spirit of 1909"

Just under two years' from now sees the centenary of Lloyd-George's 1909 "People's Budget" that many regard as the launch pad of the Welfare State and the Liberal Reform agenda. Lib Dem campaign group ALTER (Action on Land Taxation and Economic Reform) is calling for a party-wide celebration of that centenary and a re-examination of some of the key issues that were left as "Unfinished Business" in the constitutional upheavals wrought by that government's radical liberal economic and social agenda.

This week the Federal Policy Committee received the final draft of the Party's Tax Commission report, which should include new proposals on Land Vale Taxation (LVT) - the main innovation Lloyd-George was forced to surrender to secure the grudging support of the entrenched privilege in the House of Lords. These proposals will be debated at the Brighton Conference in September, alongside policy papers on Climate Change and Tackling Poverty & Inequality.

ALTER Chair Cllr Tony Vickers, a member of the Tax Commission for the past two years, said on launching an appeal for other groups wishing to commemorate the People's Budget to join their proposed "1909 Group":

"It is uncanny how the same issues of embedded economic and social injustice which our forbears planned to tackle 100 years ago still haunt us. A century of Socialism and Monetarism has failed humanity. It is time we re-discovered our liberal economic traditions and stopped arguing about whether social and economic liberalism are 'left' or 'right'. The Land Question was answered 100 years ago - or more. The answer - LVT - brings the two wings of politics together harmoniously: you get an entreprenerial but just society, which we call Liberal Democracy. Add green to the mix and there was never a better time to resurrect LVT and address other structural economic inequities, and the hereditary peers are not around to stop us this century! It is time we planned finally to complete Lloyd-George's 'Unfinished Business'."

Cllr Vickers has written specifically to the Chairs of the Green Lib Dems, the Beveridge Group, Lib Dem Youth & Students and the Lib Dem History Group, suggesting an initial meeting be held during the Green Lib Dems' conference in Oxford on 9th/10th June but anyone interested can find out about some of the aims of The 1909 Group on the website here, which will be developing rapidly over the next few days and weeks.