Twitter action: fire an arrow #~~> @Your MP

Bands of merry men (and women) are all over the web making a noise about the Robin Hood Tax. Join in, cause some mischief and get your friends on board....

stop putting women in parenthesis!!! they dont need to be bracketed...it looks like they're an add on....like you just remembered they're there!!! Women all over the globe are doing activist work...get over sexism in print - in language - in your mind.....Colette

How bloody stupid can you get. The original Robin Hood had his band of merry men, so referring to Robin Hoods merry men (and women) is merely updating an old folk tale, not sexism.

What next, complaints about King Arthur and his knights (and ladies) of the round table.

Grow up

whats not to like? reparations from the bankers - yes please!

Dear Ms Griggs-Trevarthen,

Thank you for contacting me about the Robin Hood tax campaign - and thanks for your kind words re the Energy Bill. I am sorry that I have taken some time to reply to you but I wanted to examine this proposal in some detail and give a personal response to this campaign. I have discussed this with Vince Cable's team and thoroughly explored the arguments on both sides so I can now give a more informed - and longer ! - reply.

I have long-supported a Tobin Tax, support the Robin Hood Tax and have signed the EDM.

Arguments for the Tobin Tax (Robin Hood Tax)

I have long supported the idea of a Tobin Tax - a tax on financial transactions which would discourage speculative trading, often in meaningless financial instruments, commonly seen as one of the reasons for the financial crisis. There are plenty of examples, particularly from the late 90s, of entire economies - despite their fundamentals being sound - brought down by speculative activity.

Short-term speculative trading creates a lack of responsibility over the financial instruments created. In the credit crunch of 2008, the impacts of which are still being keenly felt, sub-prime loans and mortgages could be packaged up into highly complex "securitised" assets and then sold quickly from trader to trader without anyone knowing what they really contained, how much they were worth, or how risky they were.

I am impressed with the range of expert economists that have lined up in support of the idea. Adair Turner, the Chairman of the FSA, and not normally seen as radical, is in favour of a tax on what he rightly describes as "socially useless" activity - to, in James Tobin’s words, ‘throw some sand in the wheels’ of speculative activity. Paul Krugman, the widely-respected Nobel Prize-winning economist and keen supporter of a transactions tax, recently wrote that "It would be a trivial expense for long-term investors, but it would deter much of the churning that now takes place in our hyperactive financial markets." It would not have entirely prevented the financial crisis, and it would not be a panacea to future crises, but it does solve part of the problem.

A transaction tax would therefore be a desirable thing simply on the basis of the cost, and thereby disincentive, that it would create to speculators. But it would also be very desirable in the money that it could raise. The Robin Hood Tax campaign suggests that an average tax of 0.005% on transactions could raise as much as $400 billion. If even a quarter of that money were collected it could amount to doubling the developed world's annual Official Development Assistance (of about $100 billion). How this money would be used is a separate question, and I would certainly advocate a large proportion of it going to development aid and climate change mitigation in developing countries. However, it could also be used to help pay down our mounting deficit - which has arisen, of course, largely because of the greed of the banks.

Implementation

The principle of whether such a tax would be a good thing is somewhat separate from the possibility of implementing it. But of course the two (desirability and practicability) cannot be separated entirely. How easy would such a transaction tax be to introduce?

Although it may be possible to levy a small transaction tax on sterling transactions alone, I am told it would be much better to have a common approach by leading financial centres including North American, European and Asian governments. Given the fluidity of capital around the world, there is always the danger that unilateral action will just lead to capital moving elsewhere. However, once we have this agreement, we would be able to catch taxes fairly easily. As Krugman points out in his article, although transactions may take many different routes, they are normally 'settled' in large centralised institutions - and this is where the tax could be applied.

The European Parliament has already voted for a European transaction tax. This is welcome, and will help to work out how to get round some of the technical obstacles to implementation, as well as creating a 'real-world' example of the transaction tax in practice.

Related Lib Dem policy

The Liberal Democrats have already proposed creating an immediate new levy on bank profits at a rate of 10%. This would be a direct recognition of the beneficial and explicit taxpayer support which banks have received: the UK banks owe their very existence to the British taxpayer. Some banks such as RBS, Lloyds-HBOS and Northern Rock have received direct taxpayer bailouts. However, all have benefited from the explicit guarantee that none of them will be allowed to fail.

The Governor of the Bank of England has estimated that the UK banks have received the equivalent of £1 trillion in taxpayer support. But it does not stop there. The banking industry is unique in having the taxpayer acting as its safety net and the Liberal Democrats believe that this should be recognised. Our banking levy would be expected to yield around £2bn next year and this revenue would be used for the moment to tackle the UK structural deficit – thus ensuring that the banking sector helps to pay for the problems it has in part created.

Again, thanks for taking the time to write to me. I am very pleased that there is such a sizeable weight of public opinion behind such a transaction tax. It is important to keep up pressure behind a proposal which has such strong merits - from reducing dangerous speculation, to potentially raising hundreds of billions for international development and reducing the impacts of climate change on the poorest countries.

Yours sincerely,

Evan Harris

Oh boy - I know it seems picky - but arrows are NOT fired they are SHOT, There are no flames or gunpowder involved and you do not set light to a bow to make it work.

Only guns, rockets, cannon and torpedos are fired (andm if certain people get their way, MPs too !)

You can fire Twitter arrows at PPCs from other parties too, presumably..?

Dear Ms Ureche Thank you for your email addressed to Mr Mercer. I will certainly ensure that Patrick sees your email as soon as practicable. However, I am sorry to say that he will not be able to attend the launch of the Robin Hood tax on Wednesday. This is because he is at home recuperating from recent major spinal surgery and is unable to travel to Westminster at present.


I am impressed/ amazed took about an hour!

What a great idea - after all when banks loan customers money they expect them to pay it back - it's only fair that the banks pay back "some" if not all of what they received. And a tax of only 0.05% is hardly going to break their "piggy banks" and reduce them to living in cardboard boxes under bridges!!

Thanks @Chaostician. Yes, clocked your email address, great work with the trolls!

Hi Merry (wo)men!!!!!!!!

Rob Wilson (Member of Parliament for Reading East) has had the necessary arrow fired in his direction via Twitter....

I also emailled him, asking for his thoughts, with a link through to your site...

Furthermore, I'm having fun investigating and nullifying the SLAVE-TROLLS on your Facebook group (your admins on this site will be able to tell which of the Merry Peeps I am from my email address!!!)

All the best,
Chaostician.

@Harry Katz

Better that some money for helping to sort out issues internationally than none at all.

and @Rech

Why are all your comments so negative?
What have you personally got to lose from the tax?

I have always favoured the Tobin tax and welcome this initiative. I do hope, however, that the proceeds would be used , as initially intended, for third-world development and world-wide issues, and not to bail out overheated Western economies.

Hi Great idea,
I heard about this on BBC R4 I think it was? I've added a link on my blog -

http://hodges-model.blogspot.com/

and twittered. I will also add you to the POLITICAL resources page at:

http://www.p-jones.demon.co.uk/linksIV.htm

I will incorporate this somehow into a blog post...
Best,
PJ

Great idea! I have just sent an email to Tim Yeo my MP asking him to support the Tax. Now I have to spread the word even further.

I liked this:

"Let’s hope that the Live Aid generation is now in a position to really act on the promises they made all those years ago."

Do the Robin Hood gang actually remember what happened to the money from Live Aid?

This rather highlights the naïveté and misconceptions of those in ‘show business’ who seek to meddle in financial matters.

No doubt these people also think that their National Insurance contributions go towards their healthcare and paying their pensions.

Do they really think that all (even some) of the tax raised will go to the causes they espouse? IT will (if it goes anywhere and doesn’t get wasted) go to bailing out economies from the present mess in which the find themselves.

However my guess is that in the UK at least it will help to pay higher salaries for MPs and yet more luxurious duck houses.

I am wholeheartedly behind The Robin Hood Tax campaign. I have fired my arrow @JLeechMP , let's see if it hits it's metaphorical target! I'm so glad my local MP is a Lib Dem!

A very good point Simon. Wonder where we could find @names for PPC's who tweet?

Sent my #~~> to my Tory PPC - the MP's standing down at the next election, like one third of current MPs, so make sure you aim your arrows where they are likely to have the greatest effect!

Another outstanding idea from you wonderful people. I sent a Tweet to Con/Lab/LibDem and was hoping to read some response - your system is better and I can firmly say that if I don't see the Twibbon - they don't get to be in the running for my vote.

Namaste,
Tina Louise
@tinalouiseUK

I'm noTwitterer, but I posted it on Alistair Campbells Facebook Page and asked him to support it and blog about it.
Incidentally, GB seems to be debating just such a tax right now at the G8 (or is it 7!). Is it the same as you're suggesting?

Very clever, very smart!

I tweeted @tweetminster yesterday about MPs urged to back and asked Austin Mitchell MP who's been our Chairman for years. After all, Grimsby is not far from Sherwood!...

Sabine
Organiser, Forum for Stable Currencies