Published: August 9th 2010 - at 5:32 pm

Robinhood Tax launches Spending Challenge copy


by Sunny Hundal    

The Treasury recently launched the ‘Spending Challenge’ site to: “help shape the way government works. We need to reduce the deficit by cutting public spending in a way that is fair and responsible.”

They wanted people to help them ‘get more for less’.

Now the Robinhood Tax campaign have launched their response: The Saving Challenge site.

They say:

We all understand the deficit we are facing and remember how we got here. The financial crisis started in the banking sector and we spent £1.4 trillion bailing it out. With the economy in a mess, the government’s Spending Challenge is asking us to make difficult choices over what it should cut.

But there is a better way. A series of taxes on the banks in the UK could raise tens of billions each year to help recoup some of this lost money and help the poorest at home and abroad who have been hit hardest by the economic crisis.

We’ll pull your ideas together into a daily blog and overall report at the end of August. We’ll take it to the heart of government and you can use it to pressure your own MP. By putting our ideas together, we can make them stonger.

This weekend the Spending Challenge site also came in for ridicule in the Sunday Times, which covered the story of Gideon the Goat being more popular on Facebook than their own site.

Well done to Political Scrapbook for spotting it. The goat was supported by Liberal Conspiracy, Political Scrapbook and Other Taxpayers Alliance. Our victory is complete.


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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. Luis Enrique

we spent £1.4 trillion bailing it out

OH MY F-ING GOD I THINK I’M GOING TO HAVE A FIT

Luis – but Tories included that in their sums to demand spending cuts didn’t they?

3. Luis Enrique

Did they?

OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO HAVE ANOTHER FIT

OH MY GOD

a campaigning group exaggerated something; instead of saying “the deficit was primarily caused by a shortfall in expected revenue as a result of the irresponsibility of the financial industry who subsequently continued to profit after a government bailout” they claimed the deficit was the result of a 1.4 trillian bailout.

OH MY GOD I’M GOING TO HAVE A FIT

HAVEN’T THESE MORONS EVER READ AN ECONOMICS TEXTBOOK?

OMG

(etc)

5. Luis Enrique

do me a favour planeshift, and recognize self-parody when you see it. Don’t make me use smiley faces.

(And it’s not as if “we spent £1.4 trillion bailing it out” is merely an exaggeration. Just what degree of completely and utterly misleading claims from campaigners are you OK with? C02 emissions actually cause planetary cooling? The invasion or Iraq is wildly popular with Iraqis? Cutting taxes will raise government revenues?)


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  2. yorkierosie

    RT @libcon: Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  3. Liz K

    RT @libcon: Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  4. sunny hundal

    And our goat was in S. Times! RT @libcon: Robinhood tax launches parody of 'Spending Challenge' site: http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  5. Robinhood Tax launches Spending Challenge copy | Liberal Conspiracy « Tax explained to you.

    [...] from: Robinhood Tax launches Spending Challenge copy | Liberal Conspiracy Related Posts:Tax Cuts And Spending (Very Wonkish) – Paul Krugman Blog – [...]

  6. SMS PolicyWatch

    RT @libcon: Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  7. max lawson

    RT @libcon: Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  8. gemma tumelty

    RT @libcon: Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  9. Richard A Brooks

    RT @libcon Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition’s ‘Spending Challenge’ http://bit.ly/bgtjIo

  10. Robin Hood

    RT @libcon: Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  11. Better Banking

    RT @libcon: Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  12. Daniel Bamsey

    RT @libcon: Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  13. manishta sunnia

    RT @libcon: Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  14. Julia

    RT @libcon Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition’s ‘Spending Challenge’ http://bit.ly/bgtjIo

  15. Lynda Waltho

    RT @libcon Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition’s ‘Spending Challenge’ http://bit.ly/bgtjIo

  16. Theo Chung

    RT @libcon: Robinhood campaign launches parody of Coalition's 'Spending Challenge' http://bit.ly/bRyF9K

  17. Rick

    @libcon £1.4 trillion bank bailout? Are you sure? http://bit.ly/bRyF9K





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