The patent pool campaign took a huge leap forward last Wednesday when we totalled up the number of action cards we’ve got signed so far and headed off with students from Kings and UCL and representatives from across the Stop AIDS Campaign to Parliament to meet Ivan Lewis MP, the Under-Secretary of State for International Development.

We had a brillaint total of over 14,000 people pushing for the pool and Mr Lewis was delighted to hear from us. Faye from UCL and Katy from the Stop AIDS Campaign outlined why we feel it is so important to secure a patent pool and Mr Lewis responded by reassuring us that the government supports its creation. We were really grateful for this chance to show the governement how much support the campaign has, and to hear confirmation of the government’s belief in patent pools.

This is a great start, but there’s more to be done. Mr Lewis said he was keen to meet with the student network again, and next time lets make sure we have even more names.

We want to use this meeting as a spur to getting even more people supporting the campaign, because it really does make a difference. We’re asking for a big push from all the societies in the lead up to our planned day of action in March. Find some mates, get some action cards and hit the streets!

Have a look at a few more pics of us and Ivan…

Student campaigners get their point across

Faye pushes for the pool backed up by Kings

Serious campaigning

Serious politician, not-so-serious campaigner

Not-so-serious politician, not-so-serious campaigners

Dramatic mood lighting-enahnced campaigning

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Campaign News. 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.