Based on the Tobin Tax, the Robin Hood tax could raise up to £20 billion per year in the UK and is attracting growing support from the European Community.  The panel will address whether the Robin Hood tax would be an effective response to the nation’s deficit crisis, or whether it would risk further destabilising the economy.

The event will be held on 21 October at the Watershed Media Centre in Bristol and will bring together David Hillman, Coordinator, Stamp Out Poverty; Professor David Gordon, Director of the Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research at the School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol; Stephen Williams MP, Bristol West; and a key opponent of the tax. The panel will be chaired by Dr Jane Harrington, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean Faculty of Business and Law, University of the West of England.

Professor David Gordon has researched and published in the fields of social and distributional justice, social harm, scientific measurement of poverty, child poverty and human rights, childhood disability, crime and poverty, area-based anti-poverty measures, the causal effects of poverty on ill health and rural poverty.

To book tickets, priced at £4/3, contact Watershed Media Centre on 0117 927 5100, book online, or visit in person.

The Bristol Festival of Ideas aims to stimulate people’s minds and passions with an inspiring programme of discussion and debate throughout the year. To find out more about this event and other evens, visit the Bristol Festival of Ideas website, www.ideasfestival.co.uk.