Edinburgh students corner Darling for impromptu RBS action card hand-in
While collecting action cards to send to Alistair Darling, Edinburgh People & Planet group tracked down the Chancellor who was on their campus and held an impromtu lobby, calling on him to stop RBS using public money to finance fossil fuel extraction.
Alistair Darling is handed a box of newly signed action cards
Image © (c) Veronica Lopes De-Silva
Edinburgh People & Planet members handing action cards to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Image © Veronica Lopes De-Silva
Edinburgh students lobbying Chancellor Alistair Darling as he visits the university
Image © Veronica Lopes De-Silva
When the Edinburgh People & Planet (P&P) group decided to spend the afternoon getting students to sign action cards to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, they didn’t realise quite how soon he would be getting them - in person!
Darling, is that you?
The student group had arranged an action day to collect public support for People & Planet’s campaign to clean up the Royal Bank of Scotland’s dirty investments in fossil fuels. The action cards call on the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, to stop the bailed-out RBS from using public money to fund projects and companies driving climate change and human rights abuses. After a succesful hour or so the P&P group got a phonecall from a friend telling them that the Chancellor himself had been spotted on campus just a couple of minutes walk away.
Action stations
Our ever-resourceful P&Pers grabbed their camera and trusty banner, introduced themselves to the Chancellor and handed over the 150 action cards they had got signed so far. They explained to the Chancellor how important it is that he stops RBS from funding projects and companies responsible for around 3% of global emissions (see this recent report about RBS for details).
The impromptu lobby happened during People & Planet’s annual Go Green Week, in which students up and down the country are getting action cards signed to send to Alistair Darling. People & Planet has been campaigning to shift the UK’s public and private funding away from dirty fossil fuels and into the developing a low-carbon economy and green energy solutions.
Take Action
Send your own message to Alistair Darling today
If your group have signed action cards then please return them to the People & Planet support office before 28th February - unless you happen to bump into the Alistair Darling in the meantime.
