All aboard: Christian Aid campaigners with the tour bus

People of faith and conscience are asked to support Christian Aid and Church Action on Poverty, who are joining forces to take the campaign for tax justice on the road.  The tour includes a stop in Buxton on Sunday 23 September.  The red double decker is visiting 50 towns and cities in Britain and Ireland over seven weeks, carrying the simple message:  It’s time to deliver  tax justice for the poorest communities, here and around the world.

A campaign spokesperson said:  ” In an age of austerity and spending cuts, tax avoidance is morally unacceptable: Tax dodging costs lives. It effectively amounts to robbing from the poor – in the UK and in poor countries – of the money that should be spent on education, health and welfare.”

The gap between rich and poor in the UK continues to widen. The UK is more unequal than at any time for at least the last 50 years, the campaign says. The economy generates great wealth, but distributes it unequally. This is “neither just nor sustainable.”

The bus will be outside St Thomas More school in Palace Fields, Buxton  from 11.30am -2pm on Sunday 23 September.  There will be an exhibition and information centre on the bus, with a Christian Aid ‘partner’, Ricardo Barrientos, from Guatemala giving people first hand evidence of life in a poverty-hit region.  Ricardo is an economist, working with the Central American Institute of Fiscal Studies.  There will be a ‘bring and share’ lunch inside the school.  For further information contact: Judi Perry, regional co-ordinator, Christian Aid (East Midlands) Tel. 01509 265 013, eastmidland@christian-aid.org

The big red bus makes two other calls in the region:  on Friday 12 October, it will be in Marple from 11am, and in Manchester ‘s Albert Square on Monday evening, 15 October, for the end of the tour. Further information:  David Hardman on Tel. 01925 582 220, or dhardman@christian-aid.org