Peter Hain lends support for 'Robin Hood tax' on banks | Business | The Guardian‏

Arguments about the tax itself aside, some good work on naming it the Robin Hood tax. The names and associations of things is so important in politics, the difference between 'death tax' and 'inheritance tax' being prime examples.
'Robin Hood' is a good, if entirely hollow, name for this tax.
On the tax itself - yeah, me is socialist so me likey taxes. I studied Tobin tax proposals some time ago at uni, and it's a good idea if implemented universally.

Gordy and a Tobin Tax

"A study by the Austrian government showed that a 0.05% tax imposed on UK financial trades would raise about £100bn a year. That spells a near end to the debt problem caused by the banks and/or cash for climate change action in poor countries. Now, Brown says, the risks fall on the taxpayer, the rewards on the banks; but a new system must insure against future risk and yield a fair levy to society."
That'd be lovely.
"But that remarkable £100bn is the sum the Treasury would reap even if a transaction tax were to lead to a highly unlikely two-thirds drop in UK transactions"
that's a pretty conservative estimate, so a 0.05% tax WITHOUT a drop would probably wipe out our deficit. And there's also the possibility that some people might be willing to pay for a decent service.

"Brown needed a public reckoning, a time to say: "The world has changed and so have I. Like other leaders and most economists in the boom years I got things wrong. I should have regulated more, not less. Our new industrial policy acknowledges that I relied too much on the financial sector. When the facts change, I change my mind. As everyone should, I learn from experience, and now I see what must be done. Not only was the whole economy unbalanced by the dominance of finance, but the rewards were too unfairly shared in the boom years; we must ensure the pain of these hard times is born by the broadest shoulders.""
Agreed.