Stevenage Residents join Mass Lobby at Westminster
Stevenage residents joined thousands of other concerned citizens who converged on Westminster last Wednesday to urge their Members of Parliament to help the poorest people on earth.
After queuing in drenching rain the Stevenage lobbyists, led by local Christian Aid Chair, Laurence Arnold, met Barbara Follett MP in the terrace tea room. They then spent an hour, over tea and flapjacks, discussing their concerns about the way the world trade system disadvantages poor countries and favours the rich.
Laurence Arnold told Mrs Follett that “Stevenage people want to know what the Government is going to be doing about these inequities when the World Trade Organisation meets in Hong Kong in December.” Mr Arnold said that “We want trade to be fair, not free. This means allowing the world’s poorest countries to sell us the things they grow, and we need, like Ethiopian coffee and Senegalese rice. At the moment the world trade system is so unfair that it’s like Chelsea playing the village football team – the poorest countries can’t even get the ball!”
Barbara Follett said “Until we reform the quite criminal system of barriers, tariffs, subsidies and preferences which dominates today’s world trade we cannot meet our Millennium Development goals. That is why the government, and I are so committed to changing it. I will be urging the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry to do just that in Hong Kong next month”.
Issued: 09.11.05
Further information
Please contact Faye Bunch via the 'Contact' page, or by fax on 020 7219 1158.
