{"id":533546,"date":"2010-04-19T05:37:14","date_gmt":"2010-04-19T09:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.oxfam.org.uk\/applications\/blogs\/pressoffice\/?p=12234"},"modified":"2010-04-19T05:37:14","modified_gmt":"2010-04-19T09:37:14","slug":"merry-wo-men-of-bath-stage-a-hold-up%e2%80%a6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/533546","title":{"rendered":"Merry (Wo) Men of Bath stage a hold-up\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Five shady-looking youths skulk in the shadows of a multi-story car park, heading towards a wealthy banker as he strolls towards his expensive car. They\u2019re clutching a large pair of pliers, their\u00a0<\/span>hoodies\u00a0<\/span>up\u2026But this isn\u2019t a dangerous attack\u2026 it\u2019s the Robin\u00a0<\/span>Hoodies!\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>The Robin Hood Tax<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>is causing a stir with its new film, \u2018The Banker 2\u2019<\/a>, starring Ben Kingsley and a host of rising stars.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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But you don\u2019t have to be famous to stage a robbery\u2026merrily proved with plenty of Sherwood spirit by the Bath\u00a0<\/span>Oxfam\u00a0<\/span>group! They chose to wear their green masks and feathered caps rather than their\u00a0<\/span>hoodies\u00a0<\/span>to hold up their MP, Don Foster (Lib Dem Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary), pinning him down on his party’s position on the proposed financial transaction tax. Not only did he \u2018rob\u2019 a local \u2018banker\u2019 from the Bath\u00a0<\/span>Oxfam\u00a0<\/span>group, he provided a list of key names to contact at Liberal Democrat head office and a pledge to support the proposal. Furthermore, the bandits got an article in the paper!\u00a0A few more emails and hold ups later, the Liberal Democrat manifesto came out more clearly in favour of a financial transaction tax than their initial position. Still not good enough, but the Bath\u00a0<\/span>Oxfam\u00a0<\/span>Group are now decided \u2013 the occasional hold- up helps to move things along!\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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The Robin Hood Tax now has a following of\u00a080497<\/span> positive voters. This phenomenal support shows just how relevant this initiative is to people in the UK \u2013 and therefore also to the voters in the upcoming election. The main parties have now given their official responses to the RHT, and although some progress is being made, we must maintain the momentum if we want the Robin Hood Tax to remain a key election issue.\u00a0<\/span>Whilst the\u00a0<\/span>Labour\u00a0<\/span><\/a>party wants only a global agreement, the\u00a0<\/span>Conservatives<\/a><\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>stated this wasn\u2019t essential but still did not secure plans for a tax on banks. Meanwhile, The\u00a0<\/span>Liberal Democrats<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>said they were committed to tackling global poverty through a financial transaction tax, but we hope this means they are prepared to move forward without waiting for the rest of the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Why not follow in the footsteps of the Bath\u00a0<\/span>Oxfam\u00a0<\/span>Group and hold-up your MP?\u00a0Dressing up as Merry (Wo) Men has never been easier, particularly when you can download a template to make your own green mask<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>here<\/a>. If you\u2019re not quite ready to draw your bows and arrows, you could attend your<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span>local hustings<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and raise the issues of the RHT with your prospective candidates. Or perhaps you\u2019d just like to go along and sit in the audience wearing your Robin Hood mask?! However you choose to act, let\u2019s keep the momentum on The Robin Hood Tax going in the South West!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0Email Fiona Remnant:\u00a0<\/span>fremnant@oxfam.org.uk\u00a0<\/span>for any support and advice on how to get your campaigning message out there!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

To show your support for the campaign,\u00a0vote \u2018yes\u2019 on the Robin Hood Tax website<\/a>, spread the word on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and tell everyone you know!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Five shady-looking youths skulk in the shadows of a multi-story car park, heading towards a wealthy banker as he strolls towards his expensive car. They\u2019re clutching a large pair of pliers, their\u00a0hoodies\u00a0up\u2026But this isn\u2019t a dangerous attack\u2026 it\u2019s the Robin\u00a0Hoodies!\u00a0The Robin Hood Tax\u00a0is causing a stir with its new film, \u2018The Banker 2\u2019, starring Ben […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6804,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-533546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6804"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533546\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}