Author: Katy Wright

With one debate remaining for our potential Prime Ministers, Katy Wright looks at last week’s questions and what’s on the bill for Thursday night.

The next leaders’ debate on Sky takes place in two days. I find the entertainment factor of the debates is significantly increased by following the Twitter comments at the same time. While the tweets are no analytical commentary they are eagle-eyed in their appraisal of style! Last week, surges would occur any time there was a bit of drama or comedy in the debate – Gordon Brown’s “get real Nick” over Trident, Nick Clegg’s flattery of a female audience member, or another anecdote from David Cameron about who he’d met.

My feeling about the international debate as a whole was that it did not really focus on the international very much! We heard about Afghanistan but nothing about the people there; we heard about the banks, but nothing about the potential of a Robin Hood Tax; and we heard nothing about international development or aid. Then the debate very quickly moved on to expenses, pensions and immigration. Our parliamentary officer Jonathan Tench (@jonnytench) was busy tweeting for Oxfam – he summed it up well with his tweet, “‘uffffff’ on behalf of all our Oxfam followers who wanted to see the parties grilled on global poverty”.

We did however get a question on climate, which was great news. The leaders were asked what action they had taken in their own lives to reduce their emissions – a fair question, but to my mind it doesn’t acknowledge that these men are vying to become a world leader. Of course we should expect a personal lifestyle commitment from them – that goes without saying. But what we really need to know is what necessary domestic and international decisions they are going to make to tackle climate change. When you’re Prime Minister you can do more than insulate your loft – you can insulate everyone’s loft, provide money to help shield the world’s poorest people from the effects of climate change, lead negotiations for a global climate deal, and invest in a domestic green economy.

So, one debate left! And it’s going to be on the economy. I think it’s a pretty safe bet that a question on the banks will come up – and when it does, I’ll be waiting for an answer on the Robin Hood Tax. That will really be something to tweet.

Oxfam and the 2010 General Election

For those of you not spending Sunday feigning sympathy for colleagues and friends “trapped” on holiday by volcanic ash (oh, you’re not back to work on Monday? You have to stay by the pool? Must be terrible…) you may have noticed a welcome trend in the election campaign.  Sunday was ‘world poverty day’, meaning that

Photo of scool children in Kenya. Credit: Geoff Sayer/Oxfam

parties and party leaders were speaking about the issues we care about: poverty, development and aid.

So what did the parties get up to? 

Conservative leader David Cameron teamed up with Jeffrey Sachs to write in the Independent on Sunday about the importance of educating girls.  Their article asks “how can we put women at the heart of our vision for international development?” – an important question since over two-thirds of the world’s 776 million illiterate people are women; and worldwide, women earn on average only 84 per cent of what men earn in formal waged work. Conservative development spokesperson Andrew Mitchell also wrote an article on Conservative grass roots website ConservativeHome, urging his party to take the time, even in an election campaign, to “stand back and think big”.

Visiting a church in New Malden, Surrey, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg spoke of the moral duty to address the issue of poverty. He stressed the need for Britain to keep its aid promises to the poor and provide the resources to meet any targets we set. Nick Clegg also focused on the issue of climate change as the biggest problem we faced – but argued that it is the poorest that are always hit hardest.  Unfortunately Oxfam’s experience around the world has found that to be indeed the case. Changes in the seasons are hitting poor farmers hard and extreme weather events are on the increase – pushing poor people backwards as they strive for progress.

The Labour leader Gordon Brown also addressed a church congregation in London, and wrote to the heads of Britain’s development organisations. His letter set out his party’s policies but also praised the work of campaigners such as you, stating, “When there is no global campaign on these issues, our ability to bring change is much less”.

The letter from the Labour leader identifies 2010 as a critical year in the fight against poverty – five years after Make Poverty History and five years before we are due to deliver on the Millennium Development Goals.  Add to that the need for movement this year on a global climate deal, and an international arms trade treaty, and we begin to get a sense of the international challenges any new government and parliament will face.

This is why, though World Poverty Day was a welcome focus, we need to see these issues discussed time and time again in the election campaign. We need candidates to be addressing poverty issues at local hustings, we need leaders to be talking about their commitments on aid in the next televised debate, and we need to tackle our candidates directly and ask them what they and their parties will do to meet the challenges of the future.

Email your local candidate and make this election matter.

Parliament is closed, manifestos are being published, and some serious analysis of who is wearing what colour tie has begun. Welcome to the general election 2010.

For campaigners like myself it is actually the election campaign period that is more interesting than the result. We hope that our supporters use this vital period to raise some key questions about poverty and climate change. The more our supporters do that the more a new government – of whatever tie-colour – will make those issues their priority.

If you haven’t already, contact your local candidates on the issues you care about.

If you have already lobbied local candidates then its time to move straight on to party leaders! In a first for a UK general election, the three main party leaders are going to be facing each other in a series of televised debates. Yesterday was the first, on domestic affairs, and it’s created a real buzz in our office (and not just about the colours of the ties). Undoubtedly these debates will be a highlight of the campaign, with some commentators stressing that this could be a real make-or-break moment for the three men hoping to be named Prime Minister next month.

We need the leaders to be talking about poverty and climate change in these debates and you can help make this happen. Here are the details of the debates, how to submit a question, and also some ideas for what to ask:

The debate on international affairs is happening on Thursday 22nd April
Why not ask:
All the main parties have committed to spending 0.7% of national income as overseas aid by 2013, but will you commit to making annual increases in the aid budget from this year, towards meeting that target?

Climate change is already having an effect on the world’s poorest people. Will you commit the UK to providing its fair share of the money needed – $200bn each year by 2020 – to help poor countries adapt to climate change and move towards low carbon development. Will you ensure that this is additional to existing promises to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid?

Submit your question

The final debate on the economy is taking place on Thursday 29th April
Why not ask:
The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax on banks that could raise billions for fighting poverty at home and abroad, and to tackle climate change. Will you support a unilateral tax on sterling currency transactions of 0.005%, and international calls for a tax on all financial transactions of 0.05%?

Submit your question

Good luck getting your question asked and don’t forget to watch on the night!

People we work with around the globe are feeling the effect of more frequent and more destructive natural disasters. Their lives and livelihoods are being hit by the changing climate, and their efforts to escape poverty are being frustrated.

Following the failure of world leaders to agree a global climate deal in Copenhagen, the next UK government must play a leading role in revived international negotiations – and must ensure the EU does the same.

We are now weeks away from an election, and we need climate to be a top priority of the next UK Government, whoever they are.  To ensure this Oxfam has teamed up with some of the UK’s biggest environmental and development charities to arrange Climate Question Time style events with local candidates in the top 51 marginal constituencies. 

Our aim is very simply to shout the loudest about climate change where the parties are listening the hardest.

If there’s a hustings happening near you and you want to ask the climate question then you might want to take a look at some of our suggestions below:

What will you and your party do to…

Take a leading role in making sure that the international climate change negotiations secure a fair, ambitious and binding deal? (One that keeps global temperatures below 2 degrees Centigrade and turns the so-far antagonistic negotiations into collaborative engagement).

Deliver the UK’s fair share of the promised $30bn in short term financing to help poor countries adapt to climate impact and curb emissions? (Promised in 2009 Copenhagen Accord over 3 years, 2010 to 2012).

Show international leadership on generating the new finance needed to help developing countries curb emissions and adapt to climate change (Over and above the $100bn per year agreed by rich countries at Copenhagen).

It would be great to hear back from you about the responses you get – contact me on [email protected]

Last week the Robin Hood Tax campaign began. Katy Wright explains what happened when a gang of merry (wo)men took the campaign to David Cameron’s constituency, Witney.

Robin Hood aims to get Cameron’s attention

Dressed in homemade green costumes and peaked hats, a band of merry (wo)men set up camp on a dreary Friday in the middle of Witney’s market square.  Along with our supporters and local shop volunteers we were there to bring the campaign for a Robin Hood Tax to Witney, home turf of Conservative Party Leader David Cameron.

It turned out that the news of a tiny tax that can make a huge difference was just the idea to cheer up a cold morning.

The idea is simple: if the world’s leaders put a tax of 0.05% on the transactions between banks it could raise £250 billion a year worldwide. That’s £250 billion to spend on protecting public services, fighting poverty and helping the world’s poorest adapt to climate change.

Lots of people were happy to sign our petition straightaway and mentioned they’d already seen Mr Nighy on the TV. Some were more sceptical but when we explained that the tax would be designed to come out of the banks’ pockets not ours; we won over a few more folks. In the end we had over 120 names on our petition. 

20 super-stars of Witney also appeared in a video letter to David Cameron asking him to support the Robin Hood tax. Once Mr Cameron has had a good look, we’ll put the video on the main website for everyone to enjoy.

And as a lasting memento of Sherwood, earlier that Friday morning a bunch of merry mischief-makers had been out putting the message on streets. Yup, actually on the pavements with a bit of clean stencilling asking people to “Be part of the world’s greatest bank job”.

Our outlaw-ish actions all done with rainwater!

But it’s not just Witney that can get merry; we think every neighbourhood can become Sherwood from the one near your home to your one online but we need your help. So make sure you join our Facebook fan page and “officially” sign up at the website. But then do that little bit more and ask your favourite café to put the poster up or starting asking your friends and family if they want to “be part of the world’s great bank job”. We’ve got loads of ideas to help you get merry.

Find out more about the Robin Hood Tax.

People at the Tunbridge Wells climate hearing write "leaves of truth" with their thoughts on the climate

Last year was full of highs and lows for climate change campaigning. We mobilised millions around the world in support of a global climate change deal, over one hundred thousand people took action in the UK with Oxfam and yet Copenhagen did not deliver. So we’re asking you, the people who make the campaign happen, how should we take the climate change campaign forward?

Before we do lets have a quick whiz through some of last year’s big moments. From Dhaka to Doncaster, over 1.5 million people took part in our climate hearings, including one in Tunbridge Wells and a hearing in London’s City Hall on the eve of Copenhagen itself. And we can’t forget the summer fete at the Kingsnorth power station in Kent – the chants are still ringing in my ears.

And Oxfam supporters really made some noise. Anna Collins, volunteered for the ‘Adopt a Negotiatior’ project, she ‘adopted’ (tracked, met with and held accountable) Jan Thompson the lead climate change negotiator for the UK. They became quite friendly through the negotiation process. Jan assured her in the final couple of days [sic] “I promise we’re still really trying”. Before rushing off to keep trying.

In the South East we had our own crack team, the “Copenhagen 5”, raising awareness and reporting back to their hometowns from Copenhagen.

For many of us the year culminated in the largest climate change demonstration this country has ever seen. 50,000 people made up ‘The Wave‘ as it flowed through London.

So we need to make sure that this year is even bigger, even better and even louder. Maybe there’s something we should be doing more of? Or something we haven’t thought of? Let us know, we’re all ears:

What do you think Oxfam and our supporters should do to make even more noise this year?

Should we focus on getting supporters to send specific one-off email actions? Should we put money into advertising and spread the word that way? What about producing educational materials for schools, colleges and the like? Or should we become a group of moles and infiltrate online message boards and spaces, taking the arguments to the darkest recesses of the internet? Something else?

Give us your thoughts.

There’s been a second slip of the tongue from a government minister this weekend and bookmaker’s Coral have suspended betting.  Yes, the likely date of the next general election – 6th May – is now the worst kept secret since Victoria Beckham’s third boob-job.

So are we excited?  Well we should be.  General Elections are as rare as comets*, they come complete with their own rituals and traditions (Peter Snow’s swingometer for one) may include moderate violence and always result in a lot of kissed babies.  There will be intrigue, there will be spin, there will be promises and there will be airbrushing (allegedly).

And if you want your role in this to be more than putting an ‘X’ on a piece of paper, then you need to get onboard with Oxfam’s campaigning and really make your mark. 

The election campaign is about the whole country debating how we want to live. It is an opportunity to be listened to, to demand that our fears and hopes be heard, and to look towards the future. Together, we need to make sure that international poverty is a big part of that national debate up to and beyond the election.

And for that to happen we need you to get involved. This could be anything from talking to local candidates, organising an election event in your community, being a media spokesperson in your local press or online campaigning. Basically, we need you to be ready to make your concerns heard.

The world is facing a perfect storm: The food crisis, the financial crisis, the increasing effects of climate change and new and existing conflicts are increasing poverty and suffering. The new government can and must make a significant contribution to tackling these challenges and here is where you, the voter can make a difference.

And this election is a little bit special too.  Whether or not we see a change in government, we are certainly going to see a whole load of new MPs enter the commons.  Boundary changes, MPs retiring, and the probable gain of quite a few Conservative seats mean that there are going to be hundreds of new people filling the green benches. We need to make sure that they hear us.

If you’re interested in seeing what you can do, or applying for some of our voluntary positions, please send your name, postcode and contact details to me on [email protected] and we can start hatching plans together!

Find out more about campaigning with Oxfam

*The BBC science site assures me that on average, you can see a comet with the naked eye every five or six years.