Attitudes to the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign from this year’s DiA volunteers - Editor

Message board at Make Poverty History rally

“a thousand and one shortfalls – positive in terms of getting things into the public eye, because until they're an election issue nothing happens” - John

“still quite a lack of understanding” - Hannah

“you couldn't not know it was happening” - Joanna

“Creates wider acceptance and knowledge of the issue…Makes protest more acceptable…prompts you to question what you are given…underestimates the intelligence of the general public…simplifying the message kind of makes it seem like it's much easier to do” - Polly

“It's fifteen minutes of fame…a social phenomenon in the West…MPH was consumable…over-simplified everything…you can't make the South change and become like you” - Luke

“the things that we are responsible for – like aid, debt relief, fair trade – are the ones that we should focus on…so in that way I think that the MPH campaign was picking the right things to focus on” – Alice

“Getting people to march again…you've got to beware of the sign value involved…market of ideas…people are both apathetic and disillusioned…by its very nature it can't be radical enough...if it's too radical you end up polarizing everybody” – Jen

“a powerful enough message to get recognized by a hell of a lot of people” - Laura

“prompting a debate about the solution is the main thing” - Joanna