For Immediate Release
19.00 March 5th 2001
CLARE SHORT PIED
Stills and film footage available - see below

Clare Short, Britain's International Development Secretary, has just been custard-pied in recognition of her disservice to the world's poor.

Just Desserts, or Dim ond Cwstard, pied her when she visited Bangor in north-west Wales at 19.00 this evening. She was delivering a lecture on globalisation at the University of Wales, when three local patisseristas presented her with custard pies in Short-crust pastry, made with fair-trade bananas and local organic ingredients. Ms Short is believed to be the first government minister on earth to have received a special Cabinet Pudding.

Baked to a new recipe, the pies have been christened the Short-crust Bananas Turnover, to mark both the minister's political volte-face and the madness of her current globalisation policies. Ms Short was doubtless pleased to note that after the pie-ing there was a marked Trickle-Down Effect, as her clothes were enriched by the same commodities which had been imported into her face.

Clare Short was pied because she promotes a version of globalisation which makes the poor poorer, while enriching big business. For example, a recent World Bank study (Lundberg and Squire) found that forcing developing countries to open their doors to foreign companies further impoverishes the poorest 40%.

The General Agreement on Trade in Services, which the UK government will be supporting at international negotiations later this month, will force the privatisation of health, education and other public sector services all over the world.

The recent foot and mouth outbreak, which could destroy the livelihoods of many Welsh farmers, is a direct result of the kind of globalisation Clare Short supports. The infection is believed to have come from pork imported from South Africa or South East Asia: a crazy and unnecessary trade, when our own pig farmers are going bust.

Agent Cwstard commented, "Clare Short's bananas policies are flying in the face of ministerial promises to help the world's poor and protect the environment. Our alternative flan of action involves policies which stick, while distributing the fruits of the global economy to those who are most deserving."

For still pictures of the pie-ing, please contact: David Hoffman, 0208 981 5041
lib@ hoffmanphotos.com or
 lib@hoffmanphotos.demon.co.uk

For professional film footage, please contact: Zoe Broughton, 07779 268832,
01865 771076,  zoeb@gn.apc.org

For further information, contact:  just_desserts2001@yahoo.com