A Robin Hood Tax on the banks could raise tens of billions to help protect public services, fight poverty and tackle climate change at home and abroad.

This tax has gathered support from dozens of countries, including Germany, France, South Africa and Brazil. Bill Gates, Archbishop Rowan Williams, the Vatican and 1,000 economists have added their support. Yet the U.K. Government is continuing to resist this growing international pressure to introduce a Robin Hood Tax.

It’s simple: the financial crisis and the recession have left a massive hole in the U.K.’s public finances. Jobs and public services are at risk in the U.K. while many other developed and developing countries face a similar struggle.

But there is another way. Thousands of Robin Hood supporters believe that banks, hedge funds and the rest of the financial sector should pay their fair share to clear up the mess they helped create.

In a nutshell, the big idea behind the Robin Hood Tax is to generate billions of pounds – hopefully even hundreds of billions of pounds. That money will fight poverty in the U.K. and overseas. It will tackle climate change. And it will come from fairer taxation of the financial sector.

A tiny tax on the financial sector can generate £20 billion annually in the U.K. alone. That's enough to protect schools and hospitals. Enough to stop massive cuts across the public sector. Enough to build new lives around the world – and to deal with the new climate challenges our world is facing.

As a result of the financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has calculated U.K. government debt will be 40% higher. That 40% equates to £737 billion pounds, or £28,000 pounds for every taxpayer in the country. Having to pay back that debt means cuts in vital services on which millions of people around the country rely.

Total cost to the U.K. of financial crisis in terms of lost output according to the IMF was 27% of 2008 GDP.

So it's time for justice. It's time for justice for ordinary families and businesses. For the one in five British families faced with a choice between buying food or paying the heating bill. For the millions of people around the world forced into poverty by a financial crisis they did absolutely nothing to bring about.

The Robin Hood Tax is justice. The banks can afford it. The systems are in place to collect it. It won't affect ordinary members of the public, their bank accounts or their savings. It's fair, it's timely, and it's possible.

It is an idea for which the time has come.

A police officer is facing an investigation for tasering a 61-year-old blind stroke victim after he mistook his stick for a samurai sword.

Colin Farmer was on his way to meet friends for a drink in his hometown of Chorley, Lancashire, when he was shot in the back with the 50,000 stun gun.

Farmer is blind as a result of two strokes, one in 2008 and one this year. He can only walk very slowly and has difficulty performing simple tasks with the left side of his body.

“I heard this man shouting. I thought they were shouting at some people," he said.

“I thought I was going to be attacked by some hooligans. The next thing they fire a taser at me, though I didn’t know it was a taser at the time.

“I just felt this thump in my back. As soon as the taser hit me I hit the ground.

“I hit my head on the floor, then this policeman came around. I said ‘I’m blind, I’m blind. I’m blind’."

Farmer has lodged an official complaint and is pursuing legal action against Lancashire Police.

Chief Supt Stuart Williams, of Chorley Police said: "Lancashire Constabulary deeply regrets what has happened. We have clearly put this man through a traumatic experience and we are extremely sorry for that.

"We have launched an urgent investigation to understand what lessons can be learned and the matter has also been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission."

A group of eight squatters entered the north London library last week through an open window. They have now reopened the library to residents with the help of local volunteers. The Guardian spoke to both the squatters and community volunteers campaigning to keep the local library open.

The controversial WikiLeaks founder is safe inside the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, Ecuador’s president said Saturday. President Rafael Correa said British police have withdrawn threats to force their way into the building where Julian Assange has remained since being granted asylum by the South American nation. “We consider this unfortunate incident over, after a grave diplomatic error by the British in which they said they would enter our embassy.” Assange is wanted in Sweden on allegations of sexual assault, and he fears that he would be extradited to the United States to face charges over his WikiLeaks activity. The United States has not issued any such charges and denies it has made any attempt to extradite Assange.

Meanwhile, in the photograph above, a London policeman has accidentally leaked an arrest plan for Assange, in what UK media have branded an "embarrassing slip-up" by London's Metropolitan Police.

The photo, captured by the Press Association news agency and published in several newspapers, shows a clipboard held by a uniformed officer Friday outside the Ecuadorian embassy where Assange has been holed up since June.

"Clearly legible in a zoomed-in view of the clipboard, on a sheet of paper headed "Restricted," are the words: "EQ Embassy brief - Summary of current position re. Assange. Action required - Assange to be arrested under all circumstances."'

The paper also suggests possible ways in which Assange could be removed from the building, such as in a "diplomatic bag or vehicle."

Police told CNN that the photo is not related to the Assange case. Must be some other "Assange" they want to arrest in a "diplomatic bag."

The hacktivist collective Anonymous says that it has attacked government websites in retaliation for the UK's handling of the Julian Assange case.

It claimed responsibility on Twitter for the denial-of-service attacks. Websites affected include the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office.

The latest attacks were launched on Monday and most of the affected websites appeared to be operating normally on Tuesday evening.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice website said it "had been experiencing some disruption" and that "The Ministry of Justice website was the subject of an online attack."

The Ministry of Justice website is a public information site, and held no sensitive or confidential data.

"Measures put in place to keep the website running mean that some visitors may be unable to access the site intermittently," said the spokeswoman.

[Via]

Julian Assange makes his first public appearance in two months, ever since he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The WikiLeaks founder was granted political asylum on Thursday -- a decision that ignited a wave of international responses, with the UK and Sweden opposing the verdict and Latin American countries strongly supporting Ecuador's move.

Assange called upon the U.S. to end its 'witch hunt' on wikileaks, and to 'end the war on whistleblowers.'

A full transcript of his remarks follows:

“I am here today because I cannot be there with you today. But thank you for coming. Thank you for your resolve and your generosity of spirit.

“On Wednesday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy and the police descended on this building, you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it and you brought the world’s eyes with you.

“Inside this embassy, after dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through its internal fire escape. But I knew there would be witnesses. And that is because of you.

“If the UK did not throw away the Vienna conventions the other night, it is because the world was watching. And the world was watching because you were watching.

“So, the next time somebody tells you that it is pointless to defend those rights that we hold dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark before the Embassy of Ecuador.

“Remind them how, in the morning, the sun came up on a different world and a courageous Latin America nation took a stand for justice.

And so, to those brave people. I thank President Correa for the courage he has shown in considering and in granting me political asylum.

“And I also thank the government, and in particular Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, who upheld the Ecuadorian constitution and its notion of universal rights in their consideration of my asylum. And to the Ecuadorian people for supporting and defending this constitution.

“And I also have a debt of gratitude to the staff of this embassy, whose families live in London and who have shown me the hospitality and kindness despite the threats we all received.

Continue reading »

Via:

It was a warning meant to remind Ecuador that Britain's patience has limits. But as the stalemate over Julian Assange settled in Friday, it appeared London's veiled threat that it could storm Ecuador's embassy and drag Assange out has backfired — drawing supporters to the mission where the WikiLeaks founder is holed up and prompting angry denunciations from Ecuador and elsewhere.

Experts and ex-diplomats say Britain's Foreign Office, which warned Ecuador of a little known law that would allow it to side-step usual diplomatic protocols, messed up by issuing a threat it couldn't back up.

"It was a big mistake," said former British ambassador Oliver Miles. "It puts the British government in the position of asking for something illegitimate."

Extradition expert Julian Knowles said that said British officials could arrest Assange once the diplomatic and media ferment faded.

"I think they'll take the view that within a few days or weeks it will all blow over," he said.

The U.S. state department chimed in with this: "The United States is not a party to the 1954 OAS Convention on Diplomatic Asylum and does not recognize the concept of diplomatic asylum as a matter of international law."

This will no doubt come as a shock to Chinese human rights campaigner Chen Guangcheng, who fled to the US embassy in Beijing after evading house arrest and beatings in May.

Live video for mobile from Ustream

10:45am Update:

William Hague, the foreign secretary, has made it clear that Britain will not give Assange safe passage to South America. He told a press conference:

"We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom, nor is there any legal basis for us to do so. The United Kingdom does not recognize the principle of diplomatic asylum."

Vaughan Smith, a friend of Assange who put him up for more than a year at his Norfolk residence. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's World at One this afternoon, Smith said:

I'm extremely pleased; I'm absolutely delighted. I'm very pleased indeed.

I think he would like to go to Ecuador; I think that's where he should go. And hopefully we'll be a little bit more tolerant about this. I think we need to consider the fact that the Ecuadoreans are the other people who have really considered the matters they've considered. They've concluded there is a threat to his life. I think we should honor that.

He said that "ideally" Assange should face Swedish questioning, but that the Ecuadoreans had offered the Swedes the opportunity to interview him in the embassy and they had refused.

I think there's a lot of pride involved here... They have interviewed an alleged murderer in Serbia but they choose not to come to London to interview Julian Assange. I think that's very disappointing.

6:05am Update:

"Britain will carry out its "binding obligation" to extradite Assange to Sweden in spite of Ecuador's decision, a spokesperson for the FCO has said.

We are disappointed by the statement from Ecuador’s Foreign Minister that Ecuador has offered political asylum to Julian Assange.

Under our law, with Mr Assange having exhausted all options of appeal, the British authorities are under a binding obligation to extradite him to Sweden. We shall carry out that obligation. The Ecuadorian Government's decision this afternoon does not change that.

We remain committed to a negotiated solution that allows us to carry out our obligations under the Extradition Act."

5:42am Update:

Ecuador has granted political asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange:

"We can state that there is a risk that he will be persecuted politically...

We trust the UK will offer the necessary guarantees so that both governments can act adequately and properly respect international rights and the right of asylum.

We also trust the excellent relationship the two countries have will continue."

The questions remain: Will the UK storm the embassy to arrest Assange as threatened? How will Ecuador get Assange out of the country?

4:40am Update:

Asylum for Assange decision is expected at 1pm UK time today.

Assange supporters wearing "Anonymous" masks holding up "I'm Julian Assange."

4:10am Update:

Three protesters have been arrested following a brawl with London police.

President of the Ecuadorian National Assembly Fernando Cordero has called a special meeting on the UK’s potential raid of the Ecuadorian Embassy. Although Parliament is in recess for 15 days, he called 124 legislators to attend the meeting. This session will not address the issue of Assange’s bid for asylum, Cordero said.

“I think that this point in time, other nations need to stand up and defend Ecuador's right to make this decision. They haven't even made the decision, they're being threatened. Imagine threatening to storm an embassy to this because they're protecting the rights of a journalist. We have to respect Ecuador's sovereignty, something that the UK might like to take on board. This is a serious decision. ” – Christine Assange, Julian Assange's mother, Brisbane, Australia.

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If you missed the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday evening, here's a glimpse. This was seriously mind blowing, a country where the people pay higher taxes for nationalized health care, and they celebrate it. The mere mention of it in the U.S. makes the right-wing recoil in horror and hiss all at once.

"It’s something that is very dear to people's hearts. If you live here, you will end up there, it does not matter how rich or powerful you are. ... We got hundreds of volunteers from the National Health Service. All the
volunteers made a special sacrifice to be with us and to be rehearsed, but these guys are extraordinary.”

– Danny Boyle on celebration of the U.K.'s NHS during London Olympics

More on Danny Boyle and the UK's 2012 Olympics opening ceremony here.

H/T Michael Moore

Courtesy of the DNC, highlights from #RomneyShambles. In case you missed David Cameron's stinging comeback to Romney's implication that London wasn't prepared for the Olympics:

"We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world," the prime minister said, pointedly. "Of course it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere." (Romney ran the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake Ciy, Utah.)

I just hope that Romney isn't headed to any other nations overseas to show off his foreign diplomacy skills. We really can't spare any allies.