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End the Vulture Culture
Dear friend,
Today has been an extraordinary day in our campaign to End the Vulture Culture.
This morning, the Republic of Liberia was taken to the High Court in London by two Vulture Funds seeking to make large profits on a debt dating back to the 1970s.
Liberia lost, and the two Vulture Funds - both based in offshore tax havens - were awarded over $20 million. Read more about the case, and watch the news coverage over the last two nights, on our website.
Also this morning, a handful of MPs were chosen to bring forward legislation in parliament in the Private Members’ Ballot.
The top 7 of these MPs now have the power to introduce a bill outlawing Vulture Funds before the general election. If one of them chooses to do so, we very much hope they’ll get support from the Government, which failed to put a strong vultures law in the Queen's Speech last week.
It's time to stop vulture activity once and for all.
URGENT ACTION
Campaigners like yourself have helped ensure vulture funds have become a major issue for MPs this year. But now we need your help to persuade one of these MPs to take up the Vulture Funds Bill. Please do the following:
1. Contact AT LEAST ONE of the lucky seven MPs, but preferably all of them, and ask them to adopt the Vulture Funds Bill. Their contact details are below, and there's an example letter for you to personalise as well (especially if you're one of their constituents). Please do it now rather than move on to your other emails!
2. Forward this email on to anyone you know who may be able to help - the more people these MPs hear from the better chance we've got!
Thanks you so much for all your amazing campaigning so far. With your help now we can give ourselves the best chance of making today the last time a Vulture Fund succeeds in a UK court.
Best wishes,
Nick Dearden
Director
Jubilee Debt Campaign
MP CONTACT DETAILS
1. Dr Brian Iddon MP (Labour, Bolton South East): iddonb@parliament.uk
2. David Chaytor MP (Labour, Bury North): chaytord@parliament.uk
3. Andrew Gwynne MP (Labour, Denton and Reddish): gwynnea@parliament.uk
4. Albert Owen MP (Labour, Ynys Môn): owena@parliament.uk
5. Julie Morgan MP (Labour, Cardiff North): morganj@parliament.uk
6. Anthony Steen MP (Conservative, Totnes): steena@parliament.uk
7. Alistair Burt MP (Conservative, North East Bedfordshire): burta@parliament.uk
The address to write to them at is: House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA
DRAFT LETTER TO THE SEVEN MPS
Subject line: Vulture Funds Bill
Dear
Congratulations on your success in the Private Members’ Ballot. I am writing to ask you to take up the ‘Vulture Funds’ Bill.
Vulture Funds are private companies which buy up cheap poor country debts and then sue for huge profits. They are commercial creditors not covered by the debt relief agreed at the Gleneagles G8 in 2005. It is an outrage that money freed up by the Make Poverty History and Jubilee 2000 campaigns for poverty-reduction is being diverted to private companies based in tax havens.
On the very day of the ballot, two Vulture Funds were in the High Court in London trying to claim $20 million from Liberia, one of the poorest countries in the world, from a debt dating back to the 1970s. You can see a Channel 4 News report about this outrageous practice at: http://tinyurl.com/yhcghja
The ‘Vulture Funds’ Bill is crucial as it will introduce a legal safeguard to cap the amount of profit these funds can make from buying up the poorest countries’ debts. This will warn off the profiteers without detering regular investors.
More than 200 MPs signed Early Day Motion 1440 in support of this measure earlier in the year, and many thousands of people have championed it up and down the country all year. While I am not one of your constituents, I'm writing because you have a unique chance to make this legislation happen before the general election.
I very much hope you will take up this Bill.
Yours sincerely,
Contact details
Jubilee Debt Campaign
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Jubilee Debt Campaign, 30/11/2009 |
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