Flashmob marches on UK parliament
2013-03-19 19:02
London - More than 400 people wearing Chancellor George
Osborne masks marched to parliament in central London on Tuesday, campaigning
for overseas development aid and against tax avoidance.
Ahead of Wednesday's budget - expected to pile on more
austerity pain - the flashmob called on Osborne to keep his promise to ring-fence
foreign aid and to close corporate tax loopholes in Britain and in developing
countries.
International aid, health and schools are the only areas
the government has pledged to exempt from deep public sector spending cuts as
it tries to reduce its budget deficit.
Official Development Assistance spending is on track to
reach 0.7% of Gross National Income from 2013 compared with 0.56% in 2012,
according to last year's autumn statement.
But calls have been growing for overseas aid to face the
same cuts as domestic departments.
The activists all wore dark suits along with the masks
and each carried a replica of the famous red ministerial budget briefcase with
the slogan "Enough Food for Everyone If" written on it.
Braving the morning cold, the crowd formed the word
"IF" on the muddy lawn on parliament square, in support of the Enough
Food IF campaign against global hunger.
The campaign is backed by all major anti-poverty
charities in the UK, including ActionAid, Oxfam and Save the Children.
"We all want to make sure that he [Osborne] doesn't
forget about the promise to enshrine the 0.7% for overseas aid," said
Daniel Collins, who got up at 05:30am to take part in the demonstration.
He added: "We need to make sure that British
companies are transparent when they're working in developing countries and that
they're paying the taxes in these countries that they should."
