Encouragingly, the campaign is gaining strength and important international support. Earlier this month, a thousand economists wrote to G20 finance ministers meeting in Washington to show their support for the tax. Gathered from 53 countries, experts such as Professor Jeffrey Sachs (advisor to Ban Ki-Moon) commended the tax as ‘technically feasible’ and ‘morally right’, and urged politicians take action that could raise billions of dollars to help the world’s poor.

Several fantastic events have helped raise awareness of and support for the tax among the public. Half a million people descended on London to ‘March for the Alternative’ on the 26^th of March, with the Robin Hood Tax cited as a strong part of the argument against cuts.  Indignation at the banks’ ability to ‘get away with it’ was the key note at the NEF/ Fink Club event ‘Where did all our money go?’, while a debate at St Paul’s Cathedral ‘Should we bank on the Robin Hood Tax?’, chaired by Evan Davis,  focused on to what extent banks have a responsibility to contribute to the common good and whether, if so, the Robin Hood Tax might be the solution.

It’s easy to get lost in abstractions and debates, but ultimately the Robin Hood Tax is about raising vital funds for real people, both abroad and here in the UK. To understand more about where such revenue might be spent Robin Hood (or at least four of his merry band) took to the road to find out more about the vital services people across the country rely on – services which now face crippling cuts. Bill Nighy joined the visit to a food bank in Wales, Sam West visited a Sure Start centre in Corby, and many other people and services were able to share their stories and fears for the future.

What can you do? Watch, read, find out more and please please spread the word. For more info, and all the latest visit the RHT site – http://robinhoodtax.org/

The article below taken from The Morning Star, www.morningstaronline.co.uk. Thanks to John Millington for giving permission to re-print it here.

The Con-Dems are going on a “patriarchal offensive” against women at every level of society, a leading economist warned today.

Addressing a Fawcett Society briefing on the effects of the cuts on women, Professor Victoria Chick questioned government claims that drastically cutting the deficit would lead to an economic recovery.

“We should be talking about expanding the economy rather than just the narrow view of reducing public expenditure. I agree that these cuts represent a patriarchal offensive against women.” She said the austerity drive should be opposed “by education and grassroots campaigning.”

Chaired by Channel 4 news presenter Samira Ahmed, the “Macho Economics” event sought to bring economists and women’s campaigners together to look into the economic, social and long-term effects of the current phase of the austerity drive on women across the country. Fawcett Society acting CEO Anna Bird criticised the government’s tax incentives for married couples, arguing that they “favoured one form of relationship over another.”

Ms Bird went onto highlight the critical role of “gender impact assessments” on determining how women are affected by economic policy.

“Women in the labour market are condensed in low-paid, low-grade work with the pay gap between men and women currently standing at 16 per cent.”

Women’s Budget Group spokeswoman professor Susan Himmelweit said that, as a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review, some people were losing vital services equivalent to a fifth of their income. “Single pensioners and mothers are the worst hit,” she warned.

Single Parent Action Network activist Julie King gave a very personal account of the difficulty of being a single mother trying to find work.

“All the jobs on offer are all low paid and insecure. The so-called ‘better off in work calculation’ doesn’t take into account my kids who receive free schools meals.”

And publisher Penny Liechti said things weren’t much better for professional mothers with a male partner who worked.

“65 per cent of the funding for play services for children are being cut,” she said. “Its really hard to find full-time places for mothers who work full time.”

Join the debate – come to next Tuesday’s panel debate in St Paul’s cathedral, to contribute to a discussion on the extent to which the financial sector has a moral role to play in contributing to the common good.

29^th March, 7.00, St Paul’s Cathedral, London – free, but seats on a first come first served basis. See you there!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=184159751619141 and follow the debate at #rhtdebate http://www.mooreblackett.net/robin-hood.html

 The Responsible Partnerships Exhibition has the aim of facilitating networking between charities, encouraging them to participate in best-practice seminars and facilitating partnerships between voluntary and corporate sectors.

Free to attend, visitors to the exhibition will also be able to attend a series of seminars over the two days covering topics ranging from how to achieve the best results in a tough economic climate; using social media to increase awareness; how to build a strategic approach to funding. There will also be several case studies from companies and NGOs that have established successful CSR strategies offering plenty of opportunities for participants to network and take away ideas for their own organisations.

 “Charities have an invaluable role to play in the corporate responsibility strategies of every business and we are actively engaging with as many as possible to ensure that they are face-to-face with the key decision makers in CSR programmes. We are grateful to Oxfam and our other partners for their support on this new venture,” said UBM event lead, John Welsh.

For more information on the exhibition, and how to get involved, go to http://www.responsiblebusinessevent.org/

While these warnings flag up an important issue, they come as part of broader concerns about the impact that the proposed radical reforms will have on millions of people in Britain, and whether the government has sufficiently considered and scrutinised the potential negative impacts of their plans to simplify the benefit system.

In response to today’s second reading of the Welfare Reform Bill, Oxfam joins a group of leading organisations who work to reduce poverty in the UK, to ask for:

1. Clarity about how the Bill will contribute to the Government’s broader goals and obligations, such as reducing child poverty, promoting equality, protecting vulnerable groups and making work pay.
2. More detail on the face of the Bill and more information during its passage about the regulations that will flow from it. We are very concerned about the lack of detail in the Bill, and about the reliance on regulations to determine numerous – and often highly significant – provisions. There are a number of important questions that the Government needs to answer before passing this Bill into law.
3. Some important changes to the Bill in order for it to help achieve the Government’s stated aims.

Oxfam has also issued its own briefing, in which we propose five specific changes to the Bill, each of which would significantly improve people’s ability to use the benefits system to exit poverty:

1. Don’t reduce support for childcare

2. Cancel plans to switch benefit uprating to the CPI measure of inflation

3. Investigate the impact of plans to pay UC in a single payment to one member of a household, and propose a clear solution

4. Don’t increase harmful conditionality

5. Don’t subject child benefit to further means testing

For more information, contact Ben Morgan, UK Advocacy Officer, bmorgan@oxfam.org.uk,

Normally £10, the RGS has given Oxfam’s UK Poverty Programme 50 free tickets – available to the first 25 people who get in touch.

Email 21cc@rgs.org, subject ‘Oxfam ticket offer’, and include your name, email, and address to receive 2 free tickets.

For more details of the event see http://www.21stcenturychallenges.org/challenges/persistent-poverty-in-britain/

“Today’s Bill, though a step in the right direction, still lacks a lot of detail. The government must make sure the safety net welfare provides is not being pulled from under our feet. Iain Duncan Smith has largely ignored warnings that people will be forced into destitution, and we want to see real action on his commitment that no one needs to live below the poverty line.

“Welfare is an emergency service that we must be able to access in times of crisis. The NHS would not stop treating a patient after a certain amount of time, yet the government are proposing to take benefits away from those struggling to get a job, an agenda which unfairly stigmatises people for claiming their entitlements.

“Rather than introducing punishments there need to be decent jobs available, which pay enough to live on. The government must recognise that by taking out 36* times more money than they are putting back in they are creating a system that doesn’t have the resources to meet the principles they have set out.

“We are pleased to see there is commitment to making work pay and that the idea of taking away people’s housing benefit has been scrapped. We will work with the government to make sure this bill is a step towards ending poverty, not exacerbating it.

“Paying Universal Credit to one claimant in a household assumes that money will be fairly shared, but we know that women and children tend to lose out if payments go directly to their husband or partner. Given that women are usually responsible for looking after children and household purse strings, the government needs to look at how to make sure their system works for everyone in a family.”

/Ends

For more information, or to arrange an interview, please contact: Sarah Dransfield, Oxfam Press Officer, on 01865 472269, 07767 085636 or sdransfield@oxfam.org.uk

Notes to editors:

*£18 billion a year taken out of the system against £2 billion over four years invested in Universal Credit. Simplifying and in many cases improving work incentives by making sure that those entering work can keep 35p of every pound they earn still equates to 65 per cent of their wages being paid back to the state, in loss of benefits and tax, whereas the highest earners in the country get to keep 50p of every extra pound they earn.

Oxfam is successfully delivering targeted aid to help eliminate global poverty. Last year, we helped more than 17m people in 62 countries. Around the world, millions more people are being pushed into extreme poverty as a result of the economic crisis. Britain has made promises to the world’s poorest; our sense of fairness dictates we should keep them in bad times as well as good.