March 2011
Bill' s Banker Challenge

The British have a sense of fairness that is legendary, and it has been stretched to the limits by the continued spectacle of huge pay increases and bonuses while ordinary people suffer.

This Branch has been pointing out the unfairness of £6 billion being cut from public services and four million of our children living in poverty, whilst the banks hand out bonuses of £6 billion.

Now, Bill Nighy, everyone's favourite Robin Hood Taxman, has laid down a challenge. He's offering to accompany Britain's biggest bankers on a world-changing trip around the UK and then on to Kenya. Bill is asking them to see the impact of crushing poverty on poor people in the UK, on those who will lose the Disability Living Allowance, on those made homeless and jobless or those struggling to pay their heating bills and onto see the havoc it has wreaked in Kenya.

Why? So these mega-money-makers can see the impact the banking crisis has had first-hand. And, crucially to ask them to see this and to then explain why they don't support a Robin Hood Tax.

We want to challenge the government too. It doesn't have to be this way. Polls show that more than three quarters of those who voted for the coalition government also support more taxation on the banks (75% conservatives, 87% Lib Dems).

This would be the most popular tax in history. Bill has done his bit, now we need to do ours.

Watch Bill in action and vote if you want to see the Banks go with Bill.

YOU'RE PART OF THE WORLD'S GREATEST BANK JOB

A tiny tax of 0.05% from international bankers' transactions could generate hundreds of billions of pounds every year to stop cuts in crucial public services in the UK and help fight global poverty and climate change. And it shouldn't cost the public a penny. Turning a crisis for the banks into an opportunity for the world www.robinhoodtax.org.uk

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