Taking from the rich…

A “Robin Hood tax” on transactions between banks could raise billions of pounds to fight global poverty, according to 48 British non-profit organizations, including Oxfam, Action Aid and Comic Relief.

Promoted with a tongue in cheek video by romcom whiz Richard Curtis, which stars Bill Nighy in the role of an arrogant, if slightly hesitant, investment banker, the campaign is proposing a tax of an average of 0.05% from speculative banking transactions, which it says could raise hundreds of billions of pounds every year.

 “We have a once in a generation opportunity to make global finance work in the interests of ordinary people at home and abroad,” Barbara Stocking, chief executive officer of Oxfam’s U.K. operations, said today in a statement. “A tiny tax on banks would make a massive difference.”

In a more sweeping statement ONE, the charity which campaigns against AIDS and global poverty, backed by Bono and Bob Geldof, said: “bailouts shouldn’t just be for banks – the world’s poorest people have suffered too.”

Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel are all amongst nation leaders who have recently called for such taxes to be implemented, albeit to fund, amongst other things, future bank bailouts.

The campaign, however, is taking this approach a step further.

“Frontline services at home – like the NHS and our schools – are under fire. At the same time, poor communities and the environment are being hit hard – as aid and green budgets are slashed by rich countries,” the Robin Hood Tax website stated.

“It’s time for the people who caused this mess to pay to clean it up.”

Meanwhile, David Buik, a London-based analyst at BGC Partners, which matches trades between banks, was reported by Bloomberg as saying it was a “lovely idea” that won’t work.

“You’ll never be able to monitor and enforce a tax of that nature. It’s impossible, too complicated.”

The campaign does not agree. With claimed backers such as George Soros and Warren Buffet and basing itself on Nobel Laureate economist James Tobin’s idea from 1972, it stated “this isn’t a crazy  pipedream. It’s a simple and brilliant idea which transcends party politics and which – with your support – can become a reality.”

In the space of just two days since its launch on February 10, almost 15,000 people have signed the petition, with numbers growing by the minute.

Time will tell whether their voice will be heard.

robinhoodtax.org.uk