Poverty lobby (From Penarth Times)

Poverty lobby

THREE local members of the Cardiff South and Penarth constituency - Erica Stansfield from Llandough and Rob Hancock and Phil Kingston from Penarth - travelled to London last Wednesday to lobby Parliament to Make Poverty History.

Although Alun Michael MP was engaged in Department of Trade and Industry business on the day, he wrote to give his support for fairer trading rules, and arranged for the three to meet with Julia Twaits, his assistant, at the House of Commons.

Together with other constituency members, they were able to convey their concerns to her.

The Make Poverty History campaign has three aims: to reduce the debts of the poorest countries, to increase Aid to them; and to change the rules of international trade so that those rules cease to advantage richer countries.

A campaign spokesman said: "The G8 Summit in Edinburgh in July brought about some valuable improvements with regard to debt and aid, but did little to improve trade rules.

"The current rules follow the model of free trade whilst the MPH campaign is seeking trade rules that are much more just for the poorer countries.

"Thus, it wants those countries to be able to protect their own food security by keeping out subsidised food from the European Union."

The current MPH campaign has produced a postcard to be sent to Alan Johnson, Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry.

Erica Stansfield and Phil Kingston delivered more than 300 cards to the DTI office that had mainly been signed by people in Penarth and Dinas Powys.