Conference: Robin Hood Tax

One of the Emergency Motions that I supported at the Green party conference was backing the "Robin Hood tax" and resolving to include a financial transaction tax in the 2010 manifesto. Strangely by cooincidence have just seen the Kevin Costner Robin Hood film.....see also my main blog about conference here.

Photo: conference cafe area

Anyway this tax is an issue I have already raised on this blog - see here - and indeed I've supported it's predecessor, the Tobin Tax. We have seen hundreds of billions of our money spent on bail-outs, yet the banks are still unreformed, raking in billions in profit and bonuses while the public finances are gutted.

This so-called “Robin Hood tax” on international bank speculation is at last gathering support across the spectrum and could raise hundreds of billions in return for the NHS and schools, as well as helping to tackle poverty and protect the global environment. But it wont be easy....apparently when an online vote on this proposal was launched a Goldman Sachs bank server was used to send in thousands of rigged votes within minutes!

You can sign the petition here:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/robin_hood/?vl

However read first Green economist Molly Scott Cato's view opposing this tax here. That gave me food for thought - I have still signed - the proposal is clearly not the whole answer but a small move that could make a difference - could achieving such a move against the banks spur on the needed reforms?