Labour party leadership outsider Andy Burnham has garnered some headlines today with the idea of a land value tax, and his claim that it is an idea that goes back to Thomas Paine is given credence in a new book dedicated to the history of the land issues in this country, The Land Question in Britain, 1750-1950, reviewed here by Jamie Bronstein.
This fascinating book shows how many luminaries of British history were involved in different ways with land question, from the Chartists, through Gladstone, to Lloyd George, but also how it had declined in importance after the Second World War – at least until the intervention of our former Culture Minister…