Post date: Mar 19, 2013 2:32:22 PM
On the day before Britain's Finance Minister delivers his budget, hundreds of protesters wearing George Osborne masks gather outside parliament to demand the UK does more to tackle tax avoidance and lives up to its promise to increase aid to the world's poorest countries.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (MARCH 19, 2013) (REUTERS) - If Britain's Finance Minister had looked out from his Treasury office window on Tuesday morning (March 19) he would have seen the bizarre sight of hundreds of protesters dressed as him gathering outside parliament.
Wearing George Osborne masks and holding up traditional red budget briefcases, the protesters staged the look-a-like stunt to further their "Enough Food For Everyone IF...." campaign, a day before the Chancellor is due to present his 2013 budget to parliament on Wednesday (March 20).The movement is a coalition of 120 charities, working together for the first time since the "Make Poverty History" campaign eight years ago.
They are calling on Osborne to keep his promise to increase life-saving aid to the world's poorest countries and to use a large proportion of that budget to fight hunger around the world.
The protest movement also demands Osborne turn his tough rhetoric on tax avoidance into reality by cracking down on tax-dodging corporations, especially big businesses who work in poor countries.
"This year the British government is chair of the G8, the eight most powerful nations in the world, and if together they create new global rules on tax and accountancy, that would benefit Britain as it would stop companies like Starbucks avoiding tax. But it would also benefit the poorest countries in the world, because they can use these new international rules to make sure that companies pay tax, so Britain is key to doing that this year with the G8," said Max Lawson, chairman of the IF campaign and Head of Policy at Oxfam.
Lawson said Osborne should not cave in to demands to reduce the international aid budget, in the face of the threat of a third UK recession. He said there was enough money to fund poor children at home as well as in the developing world, if tax avoidance was combatted.
Osborne is set to stick to his guns on austerity in this week's budget, despite calls for a change of course. He now ranks as Britain's least popular Chancellor in almost 20 years.