Archbishop backs new finance tax

The Archbishop of Canterbury has backed calls for a new tax on financial trading – dubbed a “Robin Hood” tax.

Writing in the Financial Times, Dr Rowan Williams said the levy would be one way of advancing the “moral agenda” of the protesters outside St Paul’s.

Dr Williams has been accused of failing to exercise sufficient leadership as the crisis at the cathedral unfolded.

The government has said it would consider such a tax only if it were to be introduced globally.

‘Powerful sense’

In his first substantial response to the protest, Dr Williams cited ideas put forward by the Vatican for creating ethical regulation of financial markets.

He supported controversial proposals for the so-called Tobin tax – dubbed a “Robin Hood tax” by the FT – which would levy a small tax on share, bond and currency transactions with the proceeds reinvested in the “real economy”.

Dr Williams said the best outcome from the unhappy controversies at St Paul’s would be if such ideas could form the basis for “credible change in the financial world”.

The archbishop wrote: “There is still a powerful sense around – fair or not – of a whole society paying for the errors and irresponsibility of bankers; of messages not getting through; of impatience with a return to ‘business as usual’ – represented by still soaring bonuses and little visible change in banking practices.”

Starting point

Dr Williams referred to a document produced by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace last week.

The article also suggested separating the retail and trading arms of banks and placing more obligations on banks that were bailed out with public money.

“These ideas – ideas that have been advanced from other quarters, religious and secular, in recent years – do not amount to a simplistic call for the end of capitalism, but they are far more than a general expression of discontent”, he said.

“If we want to take seriously the moral agenda of the protesters at St Paul’s, these are some of the ways in which we should be taking it forward.”

Dr Williams said the protesters’ demands needed to be “a bit more specific”, and said the Vatican’s proposals should be a starting point for debate.

Legal action

BBC religious affairs correspondent Robert Pigott says Dr Williams’ remarks suggest he has some degree of sympathy with what he described as the widespread and deep exasperation with the financial establishment articulated by the protesters.

This perhaps more, our correspondent adds, than he does with the bankers themselves.

The City of London Corporation has “paused” its legal action against the camp outside St Paul’s, set up by protesters opposed to corporate excess.

Stuart Fraser, the corporation’s policy chairman, said the decision followed the cathedral’s move to suspend its own legal action against the camp.

The church said it had wanted to “engage directly” with the protesters.

Occupy London Stock Exchange said it was “delighted” the two potential legal cases had been suspended.

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