'Robin Hood Tax' Campaign's Hilarious New Ad With Bill Nighy (VIDEO)

A coalition of British organizations calling itself the Robin Hood Tax campaign is proposing a new tax on banks to fund global anti-poverty and anti-climate change initiatives. The idea is to skim about 0.05% off of all speculative banking transactions, which proponents say would raise hundreds of billions of dollars each year and forge "a new deal between banks and society":

"It sounds complicated, but actually it isn't. A tiny tax on bankers has the power to raise hundreds of billions every year - giving a vital boost to the NHS, our schools, and the fight against child poverty - as well as tackling poverty and climate change around the world."

In an ad for the campaign, British actor Bill Nighy, who will star in the next installment of the Harry Potter films, plays a haughty banker who's forced to admit the tax would barely phase the finance industry.

WATCH the video below:

Comments

[Chauncey Zalkin]

06:31 AM on 02/16/2010

i wouldn't call it hilarious. poignant maybe.

[LberalSpace]

10:38 AM on 02/15/2010

hat tip to: http://bertreport.blogspot.com

[sheaintsayin]

09:28 PM on 02/14/2010

I'm good with it...

[LberalSpace]

09:17 PM on 02/14/2010

Good reading: http://bertreport.blogspot.com

[la2010verdad]

07:06 PM on 02/14/2010

use the $$ for poverty reduction, but don't waste it on the non-problem known as climate change: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html

[Paul Hackett]

03:22 PM on 02/15/2010

Ah yes, the Daily Mail, that bastion of journalistic excellence. I well remember their front page headline published shortly after scientists isolated a gene that they believed was responsible for homesexuality. The Mai's headline? 'ABORTION HOPE AFTER GAY GENES FINDING'.

The Mail is a pathetic establishment rag, a true embarrassment to journalism. I pity anyone naive enough to pay the least attention to their pathetic 'climate sceptic' nonsense when there is a consensus based on literally thousands of studies conducted by reputable scientists from around the world.

[gypsy508]

01:43 PM on 03/03/2010

That heavily polluted areas cause a greenhouse effect is basic science.

[beingreal]

01:15 PM on 02/14/2010

There is legislation introduced by Peter Defazio here in Oregon for a securities transaction tax that could raise billions. Let the financial industry bail themselves out, and pay for health care for all now! It is in committee now and you can track it here. Get involved!!!

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-1068

[rabiddog6708]

11:22 AM on 02/14/2010

Great idea, but our politicians would never pass such a thing, unfortunately.

[gypsy508]

01:44 PM on 03/03/2010

They'd rather scrape every penny they can off the general populace. Sooner or later people will push back. Even then though the banks will keep us fighting amongst ourselves.

[americawasgreatonce]

09:18 AM on 02/14/2010

Great ad...

And just think of all the bureaucratic no work administrative jobs it would create!

Everyone wins.

[JeanRR]

10:54 AM on 02/14/2010

Great ad, great idea, great actor.

[yourmomscalling]

08:34 AM on 02/14/2010

HOW TRUE THIS ADD IS HOW TRUE !!!!!!

[RomeoMD25]

04:44 AM on 02/14/2010

the scam of AGW begins to unravel!

Those who have made billions from 'carbon credits' and 'green policies' will be hurriedly losing their data too, and packing up ready to jump on the next money-making bandwagon.

Nobody doubts climate CHANGE: after all, it's been happening for billions of years and will continue whether we're here or not. What few people genuinely believe is the fact that mankind CAUSES it or can actually INFLUENCE it to any extent.

Now the scam is drawing to a close, perhaps we can concentrate on how we DEAL with climate change in a sensible way rather than these hair-brained schemes for reducing irrelevant carbon emissions!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html?ITO=1490

[tiredofthesameoldstuff]

06:58 AM on 02/14/2010

Climategate isn't real. It's a hoax that the emails were a conspiracy.

[gypsy508]

01:47 PM on 03/03/2010

It's basic science that's been taught far before the term global warming ever came about. It's only now that people are disputing it for financial reasons. If you live in New York City, for example, it will be hotter than outlaying areas due to the greenhouse effect.

[EquinsuOcha]

04:41 AM on 02/14/2010

As much as I would endorse this "fee" in the US, I would rather see it replace the IMF / World Bank. Aside from the horribly vague website about "how it works", I appreciate the motivation, I'm just not impressed with the management and direction part.

So, where does the money go? Into a general fund? Who manages it? What is their overhead expenses? How do you track it? How do you enforce it? What are the punishments and / or penalties for bypassing it? What does it pay for, and how do you pay for it? Is it a charity? A non-profit? What other agencies would be involved?

See, I love the idea, but if you really want to make it work, then put together a plan BEFORE the commercial, not after.

If Bill Nighy can build a fully functional backup copy of our planet, I'm pretty sure he can whip up some answers to my questions.

[Firbolg]

09:57 AM on 02/14/2010

No need to get your knickers in a twist.
The fee I mentioned below in another post would apply to all transaction between licensed financial institutions – banks of all hues and sizes, stockbrokers, lending brokers and so on.
The fee can be collected electronically every time a deposit is created in the account of such an institution. They all have plenty of data processing capacity fine tuned to collecting fees, so no issue there.
The fee, together with corporate taxes, would go to a deficit reduction fund, to be exhausted fully for government spending before resorting to taxing real flesh and blood people.

[EquinsuOcha]

02:23 PM on 02/14/2010

Like I said, I don't object to the concept at all, but if you've been to the website in the OP, there's really nothing about the logistics, and that concerns me. When it comes to government, the devil is in the details, because if you leave out the details, the devils will take over.

[ghee99]

02:08 AM on 02/14/2010

great actor

love him when he plays "the science guy"

[Martin Cline]

08:13 AM on 02/14/2010

uhh... no; that's Bill Nye the science guy. This is Bill Nighy and they are very different actors.

[lizmckenzie55]

02:53 PM on 02/14/2010

Bill Nye is not an actor ... he really is a science guy! Just saw him the other day on the tube talking about global warming.

[ghee99]

08:30 PM on 02/14/2010

either way he is great

he was awesome in "love actually, and recently on the rachel maddow show too

[Firbolg]

12:30 AM on 02/14/2010

Why call it a tax?
Call it a fee.
That’s what banks do when they want more money. Invent a new fee or increase an existing one.
The state provides and underwrites the monetary system that the banks use to make their profits, so they ought to pay a fee to the state. The banks are, in effect, customers of the state.
If the banks don’t want to pay a fee, then they should be prohibited from charging fees to their customers.

[carolina919]

01:02 AM on 02/14/2010

You are my friend "a steel eyed rocket man"....Brilliant....

And so much the nicer solution and better, I should think to their fragile little egos, instead of letting them continue to be thought of as the "welfare queens" that they truly are

[CologneCitizen]

02:46 AM on 02/14/2010

A fee sounds good.

Anyway outside America the USA is called home of the fee, land of the slave.

[alexhoward]

11:49 PM on 02/13/2010

It's "faze," not "phase."

[bdaved]

07:58 PM on 02/14/2010

It's kind of ironic, isn't it, that in this day of non-spellers who are used to shortening everything so they can text it, here someone chose to use the longer wrong word. I was just wondering, what does "editor" mean, in the context of this website? They seem to have a lot of 'em, but what exactly do they do? I see an awful lot of articles that don't look like they ever saw any adult supervision.

[AlsoSarah]

11:06 PM on 02/13/2010

We need the Robinhood Taxe in the USA!!!!

[SiberianRat]

11:38 PM on 02/13/2010

I absolutely agree!