Robin Hood Campaign seeks money from banks

The Robin Hood Tax campaign launched with the release of a video showing film actor Bill Nighie playing an increasingly uncomfortable banker trying to explain why the tax should not be implemented.

The campaign is backed by organisations form across civil society in the UK including anti poverty campaigners, environmental groups, development NGOs, trade unions and faith groups. The campaign quickly caught the attention of both the media and the general public, with the Robin Hood Tax Campaign becoming the number one "twitter" topic in the UK. The "web 2.0" credentials of the camlpaign are also evident with facebook friends of the Robin Hood Tax campaign being more numerous than all of the three main political parties combined.

But the campaign is not limited to the UK, with campaigns and similar coalitions in different European countries benefiting from the profile achieved in the UK. In Germany the long running campaign for financial transaction taxes to fund social spending used the video released by the Robin Hood campaign to launch a similar German version at the Berlin film festival.

Many of the examples of the use to which the money raised by such a tax would be put have been health care by many of these campaigns. Examples come form the financing of health services in Europe, the fight against the social determinants of health and poverty in Europe or improving health services in developing countries.

National campaigns across Europe from France to Finland, Italy to Ireland, and Spain to Sweden are also ongoing.