Radiohead's music backs a War on Want advert for a Tobin tax

War on Want, the anti-poverty charity, has launched a cinema advert for a tax on currency speculation on Tobin Tax Day, 13 March, with Ewan McGregor's voice-over set to Radiohead's music. The film shows vultures picking apart a dead animal. The charity says it has been kept off television for its political message, and that the cinema censors asked for cuts before it could be shown there. It is to be screened today at a House of Commons reception hosted by Roy Hattersley, as the charity seeks MPs' backing alongside a Commons motion for the tax. The full version is streamed on the charity's website, and an edited cut is expected to run in cinemas across Britain.

War on Want argues that currency speculation unsettles the economies of poorer countries for the profit of Western speculators. A tax of a fraction of one per cent, it says, would calm the markets and raise money for development; in Britain it calls the idea a Robin Hood tax, taking from the rich to give to the poor.