A Robin Hood tax.

[davywavy]

As a gift, the she-David lately bought me the DVD set of the 80's Robin of Sherwood. You know, the hippy one where Michael Praed demonstrates the efficacy of medaeval haircare techniques. I remember it from when I was but young as being completely ace - must watch telly - and it delights me to report that after 25 years it's still really, really good. There was a period in the 80's when the ITV companies put out a whole bunch of stuff with really high production values such as Brideshead or the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes*, but it surprised me just what quality they even imparted to kids Saturday evening telly.

Some gaps show, obviously. It's clear the episodes were made on a tight schedule, but the sets and costumes and acting are all first rate (especially an early showing from Ray Winstone playing Will Scarlett as a dangerous thug). What I liked most of all was the quality of the scripting. It has a confidence lacking in much contemporary television to take its time to tell a story; to allow characters to develop through dialogue and to pay the audience the compliment of assuming they're not so thick they'll switch off if there's not a scrap every couple of minutes. Compared to the BBC's recent vague attempt at a Robin Hood series, it's an order of magnitude better in pretty much every respect.

Anyway, enough about that. I was wanting to talk about the episode I watched the other night, which was this one, and how surprisingly pertinent it was to modern events. The plot of the episode was that the Sherriff of Nottingham, having borrowed far more than was sensible from moneylenders, decided to wriggle out of paying them back by raising the people against them and driving them out of Nottingham. Of course it all works out as Robin shows up, defeats the evil sherriff, and gets the moneylender his cash back.

There's no way this episode would get made now.

In the original series the episode was a parable of the Nazi's - the moneylenders are Jewish and Guy of Gisburne burns them out of their home with the immortal words "I'm only obeying orders", just in case you needed the point ramming home. However, the message the episode carries to contemporary eyes - the government raising hatred of moneylenders amongst the people to get out of repaying money they shouldn't have borrowed in the first place - carries a certain bleak entertainment value, especially considering how people with no particular grasp of economics are calling for a Robin Hood tax.**

Well, I thought the parallels were amusing, anyway.

^{*Note to zenicurean: if you haven't seen this, I have a feeling you'd enjoy it tremendously.
**I'd always been of the notion that Robin Hood took money from the tax-gatherers (like the Sherriff) and gave it back to the people it rightfully belonged to, thus making the idea of a Robin Hood tax doubly ironic.***
***Someone I know once averred that a Robin Hood tax "could" raise up to £20bn in revenues to the exchequer. Then again, back in 2005 they told me there wasn't going to be an economic crash because Gordon Brown was a genius, so I wouldn't pay much attention to claims like that if I were you.}

Comments

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... Do they mean a windfall tax or the Tobin Tax (a proposed transaction tax)?

The latter already exists: its called Stamp Duty, and a quick study of its failures is instructive.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I've tried explaining to Tobin Tax advocates that Stamp Duties already cover that particular base, but given that Tobin Tax advocates claim that a globally applied Tobin Tax could raise more revenue than the entire global profits of the affected companies that doesn't cut much ice in the face of their "understanding".

On the other hand, a Tobin Tax would also reach areas which stamp duty doesn't cover, such as ETFs and CFDs.

Or rather, it wouldn't, because I'd just trade them through a non-EU country. But let us not let facts get in the way of polemic, eh?

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Derivative securities like CFD's exist, in part, to bypass the transaction taxes on trading directly in the underlying securities.

So Transaction taxes have to cover every type of trade that can be conceived: that will be complex and expensive to administer, and doomed to failure in the face of ingenuity and regulatory delay.

Or regulatory capture.

Another failure mode of Tobin Taxes is that they must be effective everywhere: there's nothing to stop trading in (say) the Cayman Islands...

Or exchanging rights to tightly-regulated German stocks in London by some new derivative or indirect trade we haven't got round to taxing yet.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Quite; large financial institutions will avoid the tax by trading in huge blocks which will be broken into derivatives and traded in Hong Kong. Not much will happen.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

But yes, it's the transaction tax which is getting called the "Robin Hood" tax. Because Robin Hood was famous for skimming a small percentage off everything his local moneylender did, you see.

[belak-krin.livejournal.com]

I kind of think that any form of 'Robin Hood' tax fails on the same level as a lot of the attempts to stop 'benefit scroungers' - you basically just give the motivated more reason to work around it whilst screwing the people who you are supposedly trying to help.

But then I also fail to understand why the banks haven't just started paying token 'bonuses' to the government at the same as their traders so they can make a big media spectacle of it to get the public off their backs.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

People act in their own economic interest. If it is more cost-effective for someone to take the measures to avoid a tax than to pay it, what do you think will happen? This "could" raise £20bn a year is cobblers.

My personal belief is that the tobin tax people actually want to drive the financial services industry out of London, for whatever reason. I'd have more respect for them if they were honest about thier objectives than relying on made up numbers to trick people into supporting them.

[belak-krin.livejournal.com]

I suspect they are more interested in vote/headline grabbing with a piece of legislation that sounds good but is ineffective so that they can then calm the financial sectors by pointing out how they have left sufficient loopholes to allow trading to continue as normal.

Although that might be banging the conspiracy drum a little hard. Its probably just good vote gaining rhetoric.

[matgb]

Nothing is ever forgotten, David ;-)

In the first two series, whenever Herne is in the background walking through smoke, that's my then uncle, when I was learning archery at school he got me some of the practice arrows from the set-no one ever believed me, but, y'know, a lot of it was filmed in Devon apparently.

Love that show, it's both utterly ludicrous and really good at the same time, even if it is a bit hammy at times. One of the few shows I remember from the era that still stand up, unlike, say, Star Cops, which is dire.

And yeah, I've given up on FTT idiots, it's palpable none of them want to even think through the suggestion or the implications, let alone even understand tax incidence.

"that's my then uncle"

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Really?

How marvellous!
I remember it as having been 'must watch' TV, and I'm pleased my memories aren't playing me false - I'd probably make time for something this good even now, which is rare for me.

Re: "that's my then uncle"

[matgb]

He was a complete shit though, my cousins father, neither has much contact with him, Richard "Dick" Pratt, rarely credited but in a lot, Prison guard #12 in Eastenders, Ferryman #3 in random cop show, etc.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, the Jeremy Brett Holmes is great stuff. We always seemed to have this or that Granada-made Holmes series on the air back when I was a touch younger, and for whatever reason I never saw much of the Basil Rathbone films to give Brett's Holmes any real competition. So in a lot of ways Brett's (excellent) portrayal has sort of defined the live-action Holmes for me.

Incidentally, speaking of British TV productions, I have a dim recollection of being utterly terrified of Mr Noseybonk up there in the icon. Yeah, thanks a bunch, BBC.

[vampyrefate.livejournal.com]

Jeremy Bulloch, who played Edward of Wickham, was also Boba Fett in Star Wars.

RoS is a great show, mostly I feel due to Richard Carpenter's excellent writing. It has a few booboos in it - Will Scarlet scaling a castle wall in Doc Marten's for example.
Check out "Hounds of Lucifer" and "The Greatest Enemy" for the best two episodes, and the latter for one of the best series endings since Avon in Blake's Seven smiled at the camera.

I also agree with you on the Jeremy Brett Holmes - magnetic acting - and the set was awesome (they had it at Granada Studios...)

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

I'm watching them in order so those episodes are still to come, although I remember the Hounds of Lucifer being great from first time round. According to the box those episodes are the Swords of Wayland parts 1 and 2. Who knew?

[vampyrefate.livejournal.com]

Hounds/Swords is a two parter; Greatest Enemy was a single episode.

But heck, what does it matter :-)

You've got Richard O'Brien as Gulnar still to come...

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

All right, guldurn it!