Tobin Tax “We cannot act in a vacuum”

11th March

From today’s Financial Times:

Brown retreat dents hopes for Tobin tax

Gordon Brown backed away from his ambitious plans for a global tax on financial transactions yesterday and dashed hopes of anti-poverty campaigners that revenues from any taxes on banks would be directed to developing countries.
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he ditched any mention of a global tax on financial transactions, often called a Tobin tax, saying: “We cannot act in a vacuum”.
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Although the prime minister’s retreat will disappoint many on the left, his move brings Britain back into line with the emerging international consensus. Number 10 has tested the international appetite for a financial transactions tax for several months and found little support.

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My comment:

It is obviously disappointing that Brown is retreating from a Tobin tax, but it is hardly surprising.

What it demonstrates, I suggest, is firstly that in the end simultaneous international action is likely to be needed because no nation wants to go it alone. Secondly that, to ensure politicians don’t lose their nerve as Brown just has, NGOs that support a Tobin tax would do well to support Simpol and so ensure that politicians have an electoral reason to keep them committed to such policies.

When will they realise, I wonder, that their traditional campaigning methods – i.e. simply lobbying individual governments – no longer function very well in a globalised world!

best wishes
John

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John Bunzl – Trustee
International Simultaneous Policy Organisation
http://www.simpol.org
Simpol: Humanity taking responsibility