Oxfam’s Streatham furniture shop saw a heated debate with Labour MP Keith Hill on Friday night. No, not an argument over the price of a tea set but a mass lobby organised by myself, members of Southwest London World Development Movement, and the shop manager, Karen. Over thirty people come along to put questions and make comments about everything from trams in south London to nuclear energy to carbon off-setting to financing for the developing world.

Over the course of the week, we’d been emailing, postering and ringing around, trying to drum up some publicity. Meanwhile, Karen and her team of volunteers had spent hours getting the shop ready. (A lot of sweat went into shifting wardrobes, drawers and all manner of heavy objects so a big thank you to them is in order. And another round of thanks is due for putting everything back on the Saturday morning!)

At 7pm, we opened the doors and crossed our figures for a decent turnout, and by the time Keith arrived we had a good mix of veteran campaigners and concerned citizens. After a short introduction from me explaining why Oxfam was focusing so heavily on climate change, and by David Johnstone from WDM setting out what campaigners would like to see at Copenhagen, Keith explained the government’s position.

Questions were slow to come at first but once everyone was in the spirit, the debate took off. At times, my limited skills as a chairperson were put to the test - not everything that Keith said was popular with the crowd, to put it mildly. But most people managed to get a point or two across. And the discussion could have continued all evening.

We drew the meeting to a close at 9pm, with a plug for the Wave. And, although no change of heart was evident, we did get to present Keith with a letter signed by those who came along asking him to write to the Prime Minister on our behalf putting some of Oxfam’s and WDM’s proposals.

Now we’ll wait and hope to get some press coverage.

Tags: Keith Hill, Oxfam Streatham, Oxfam Streatham Furniture, Southwest London World Development Movement, Streatham

This entry was posted by Simon Dickason on November 29th, 2009 at 6:19 pm and is filed under Oxfam South East, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.