Good to see that the Grauniad's Sunday stable-mate, the Observer picked up on the Tobin Tax story in its editorial column today
I chided the Economist for missing it on Friday,
I'm not sure that I share the Observer's rather unimaginative conclusion:
The real obstacle is the endurance of the ideology that believes in deregulated, untaxed, ever-expanding global capital markets as an end in themselves. It is clear from the past two years who wins and who loses when such a creed is allowed to dictate government policy. It is also clear, from his endorsement of a Tobin tax, that Mr Brown is no longer taking that dictation.The conversion has probably come too late in domestic political terms. It is derided by many Conservatives as cynical City-bashing ahead of an election. But if Mr Brown secures global agreement on a Tobin tax, his motives are irrelevant. The policy is a good one; it would make a worthy legacy.
As a member of Labour's National Executive Committee representing grassroots members, I think its my job to help develop a different political narrative. We want the vast majority of the electorate to appreciate what's going on here when it comes to deciding where to put their cross on the ballot paper whenever the General Election comes in 2010.
I hope my avid readers among 'the powers that be' will remember the 'X' goes against the person representing 'The Labour Party', not Gordon Brown. He has merely been won round to an idea whose time has come.
Remember that quote from the back of Labour Party card.
[The Party} believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few.’