Dear,
We’ve just bought the artful dodger tax ads. On 4 January (the day VAT goes up) our adverts will be splashed across the pages of the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Independent, the i, the Guardian and The Times.
It’s brilliant what we can do when we work together. Thousands of us voted to choose tax dodging as a priority campaign. Then hundreds of us helped come up with the idea of the “artful dodger” ad. And then thousands of us donated whatever we could afford to get the ads in the papers. Between us, we raised over £20,000 in one week!
We’re starting to get tax dodging on the public’s radar. More and more people are starting to talk about it – this week even the Daily Mail ran a story revealing Boots the chemist was dodging tax. [1] Thanks to our ads, tax dodging will be part of the story on the day VAT goes up.
George Osborne would rather not talk about tax dodging. Slowly but surely, we’re making it impossible for him to keep ducking the issue.
In the New Year, we will need to get more of our tax dodger adverts up on bus stops and billboards around the country – particularly in areas where the politicians would rather voters didn’t see them.
Imagine the effect when tax dodger adverts start appearing in the constituencies of Cabinet Ministers! Or in areas where the political parties are fighting hard to win votes in the Scottish, Welsh and local elections next May. We’ll need to raise at least another £10,000 in the New Year to get the ads up on bus stops and billboards so if you’re able to chip in a bit more now, please click here:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/artful-dodger
It’s been a great year for 38 Degrees – together we are proving that people power can work. By pooling our efforts, we’ve held politicians and big business to account.
We have had some real successes – pushing tax dodging up the agenda, getting the new government to pledge a ban on secret lobbying by big business, sounding the alarm about the sell-off of our forests, saving BBC 6 music, stopping money being wasted on new nuclear weapons, and pushing Vince Cable to stand up to Rupert Murdoch. These are just a few of the things we’ve done together!
But it’s also been a year with its disappointments and its worries. We’ve seen yet more politicians break yet more promises. We’ve seen really tough news on the economy, with many of us worried about our jobs, our public services, the future of our children and of the communities we live in. We’ve seen a worrying lack of progress on protecting the environment. And Rupert Murdoch still seems determined to try to grab more power! There’s definitely a lot more to do together in 2011.
Thanks for being part of everything we’ve done together in 2010. We hope you have a great Christmas holiday and are looking forward to working together even more in 2011.
Thanks for everything you do,
David, Hannah, Johnny, Charlotte and the 38 Degrees team
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