Andrew MacLaren (28 May 1883 – 11 April 1975) was a British politician who represented Burslem as a Member of Parliament for three separate terms during the 20th century.
An engineering apprentice from age 14 (working alongside John later Lord Reith), he attended art classes in the evening when able.
However, on discovering Glasgow’s single tax movement and reading Henry George’s "Progress and Poverty" (c 1905) he was set ablaze.
From then on, his fine oratory was used to demand that everyone looked to the one issue that (as he believed) could solve the social and economic problems and hence men free: Land Value Taxation.
[1] Andrew MacLaren’s political hero was Campbell-Bannerman, and he often repeated CB’s pledge " … to make the land less of a pleasure ground for the rich, and more of a treasure-house for the nation …".
[4] He was knowledgeable on renaissance art and in 1948 was commissioned by National Gallery to write a report on Leonardo da Vinci’s "Madonna of the Rocks".