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International Financial Transactions (Tax)

My hon. Friend—if I may call him that—raises several good points and one total lying falsehood. I have lots of other unparliamentary expressions about his account of Robin Hood. One thing that is not in dispute, however, is Nottingham castle, which still exists. There is also a sheriff of Nottingham and none but the most misguided could possibly doubt the fact that there lived in Sherwood forest someone who took from the rich and gave to the poor. The proposal before us is not so extreme. I am talking about assisting bankers to recover their reputation at a tiny, virtually imperceptible, level of taxation so that they can be seen to be not merely exploiting the financial system but putting in some social good, too. On the more serious point that has just been made, much work still needs to be done. We are at the beginning of a very long campaign, and I am sure that the issues raised need to be tackled and explained clearly. We are on the way to doing that. Given that the Prime Minister has strongly supported such a scheme, I want to ask my hon. Friend the Minister what work, research and analysis the Treasury is doing to assess whether a Robin Hood tax is workable? The Prime Minister does not throw out such phrases in front of the G20 willy-nilly. He clearly has a wish to see this proposal thought through very carefully, and I would like to know quite specifically from my hon. Friend what the Treasury is doing about it. He may not be able to answer this next question, but will we be in a position to float the idea at the Dispatch Box in the Budget, which I understand is about two weeks away? Can we at least say that the idea is being considered seriously, as we would expect of any announcement by the Prime Minister?