Just to summarise...
YPP's aims are to shift this country's economy towards Georgism, which is mainly about funding government spending out of the value it generates (i.e. land values) instead of taxing wages and output to pay for it. There are endless knock-on benefits of this, if nothing else, it will reverse the entirely artificial "housing crisis" and make housing more affordable, thereby reducing income inequality between landowners (owner-occupiers or landlords) and tenants/first time buyers.
Our strategy is to try and get so many votes in elections that the major parties are forced to move towards Georgist policies to try and claw those votes back again. We're not going to be elected to anything any time soon, but that is irrelevant right now.
We currently have around thirty members plus non-members who make donations, which was enough to put up three candidates in the 2017 and 2019 General Elections. This was the second or third time we tried in those three constituencies in 2019, and all of them saw their vote share increase. It is a slow hard slog and none of us is doing it for fun.
So whether you see yourself as a natural Labour voter, natural Conservative voter or natural "none of the above voter", we need your your support if you want to nudge Labour or the Conservatives towards Georgism.
You can support us by
a. joining or making a donation. For every ten members paying £12 a year subscriptions, we can afford to pay the £500 deposit for one candidate at General Elections (assuming there's a General Election every four or five years), and
b. putting yourself up as a YPP candidate in local elections where you live (you don't have to pay a deposit and the forms are easier than in General Elections). We tend to do better in locals, because people are more prepared to vote "none of the above" in local elections; it's also good practice and very good groundwork to get people into the habit of voting YPP in your area (which benefits us in future elections in your area, there's a snowball effect).
Thanks and we hope to welcome you onboard!
The name sucks, sorry but it's important.
ReplyDeleteSM, others have said that too. Funnily enough, nobody has thought of anything better. If somebody did, we'd have a vote on whether to change it.
ReplyDeleteThe Commonwealth and Enterprise Party.
DeleteWorks on a few different levels ;)
I'd use the word Georgist in the name, because it might draw people into reading the details about Georgism, LVT, etc.
DeleteIf you want to keep it professional:
- Georgist Liberty Party
- Georgism True Freedom
- Georgist Reform Party
If you want to attract media attention, something outrageous and extremely bold, like:
- Cheap Housing and Cash Party
- Double Our Income Party
- Economic Firepower Party
Or maybe some combination of the two..
Also feel free to use the symbol of the New Physiocratic League if needed
ReplyDeleteF23, but have enough people heard of Georgism or the physiocrats? I just don't they no so. If these ideas were well known, of course we'd simply be "Georgist Party" and have done with it.
ReplyDeleteProbably nobody will have heard of Georgism, etc. But if people are researching political parties, the wealth of information about Georgism online might draw people in.
DeleteBut this would depend on what the goal of the name change would be.
Otherwise, a controversial name to capture people's attention might have some beneficial effects.
"they no" = "think so"
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping we can organise a bit of a party conference in the next couple of months. Now Brexit is almost done, I think we have an opportunity to properly raise the profile of our single issue. On the Party name- I'm game for a vote- but the proviso is the name you vote for you have to personally be willing to stand under! I'm not super keen on YPP, and I get told it's rubbish by everyone- but as Mark mentioned- it's hard to think of something better.
ReplyDeleteI am beginning to think Georgist Party might now work- as F23 says- Georgism is something that can be found out very quickly. Also, if we want any endorsements, there are quite a few public figures who are Georgist...
ThomasBH, MarkW, all the folks above,
ReplyDeleteGreat idea. I have been thinking about what to do for some time too. Each time I think of putting on my slippers and joining the local Greens something happens. As I explained to Mark, I no longer think joining a major party useful in progressing our cause after 2019. So back to Mark's 'chipping away'! Believe me, I am not well suited to this project!!
But I would like to discuss the following:
(1)We use the term the 'New Georgism' to describe what we are. That is we can start with LVT Lite or move from Georgism proper backwards to Lite. I believe Mark has done a great service with this model/idea and it needs to be front and centre.Of course, we need to be discussing all the other aspects of Social Justice, Market Failure and Tax reform too. For myself though, I would sooner hold up a copy of 'Progress and Poverty' than a PDF chapter from the 'Mirrlees Report' about LVT. But each of us has to find a path.
(2)In all my time here I never doubted for one moment I was with a group of people who valued Democracy and their Citizenship above all. After Brexit we need to see our Citizenship and hatred of Slavery in action in the new circumstances of 2020.
So(3) follows from this ideal. Mark doesn't think the political name important - fine. But the 'Risk strategy' is all we have. The 'Risk' I cannot think of a better word myself,is for the bigger parties ignore us. So we still need to make that central to our activity.
(4) We need to call ourserlves collectively say The 'UK Land Party'. But this is simply an umbrella term/Confederation for all the parties who adopt LVT/LVT Lite. So You can stand for example, as YPP candidate or you could stand as a local Labour Land Campaign candidate (if they allow it), and Shiney, Lola, Bayard, Stigler, myself, et al, can stand as 'Georgist Independent' or Independent Georgist candidates. Build a Party in your town or city whatever. In short, individual citizen or small party it matters not.
But (5) we do not have to try to grow the 'Risk strategy': we adopt it from the begining and make it explicit. We will not stand against any party who satisfies our collective Georgist criteria. In principle at least then, even a Green candidate could stand under the rubic Land Party and/or Green Party.
Thus the above YPP/Land Party website is the hub of support, ideas, fellowship that will sustain this long journey.
So TBH, Yes, I will stand for the local council elections next time ,in my city, as a Georgist Independent. Better look into it!
Happy New Year
@MikeW - first of all, Happy New Year, and I'm very happy you'll stand for election as a Georgist! The electoral commission allows all sorts of descriptions for parties to use, and Mark and I have discussed registering a number of YPP brands with them. The problem with a broad alliance is that we want the big parties to notice us- and that requires a number of candidates standing under something clearly identifiable as the same party. An independent stands in many if not most constituencies, they are all separate and ignored. If a Georgist Party stood a candidate in every constituency, there is no way they could be ignored (even if they come last in every one).
ReplyDeleteAnd while in practice, I'd definitely not campaign against a member of any party that had Georgist leanings, the option of pure Georgism on the ballot would massively help keep those few Georgist leaning politicians honest- much like the Brexit Party forced the Cons to take a stronger position on Brexit.
We went through this exercise with the "Land Value Taxation Campaign but could not think of anything better. It works as a letter heading in Times Roman, and as a heading to a deliberately boring web site since we were set up to respond to government departments and think tanks, it is good enough. The name is too long to display on a mobile phone screen so the title block will have to change. "LAND VALUE TAX", perhaps, as a graphic?
ReplyDeleteRe our Party name, I will set up a separate page to explain all this.
ReplyDeleteSee here http://www.yppuk.org/p/why-we-are-called-young-peoples-party.html.
ReplyDelete