Owen Tudor

Funny thing, journalism. The Daily Telegraph reports today that the Japanese Foreign Minister has backed the idea of a financial transactions tax – following up earlier reports of support from more junior ministers. It then says that the idea has failed to gain “major traction among leading governments”. And then cites other supporters of the idea – UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. So, no leading Governments there then! The Japanese coming on board of course puts the Robin Hood Tax on the table in a majority of the G7 richest nations on the planet. The USA remains to be persuaded, but campaigners there, including the AFL-CIO, are working on that.