Jun 30 2005
dailyrecord
Stars and readers do write thing
By Karen Bale
STARS joined thousands of Scots to send a ringing message to the G8 leaders yesterday.
Showbiz and sports celebrities and politicians queued up to sign our Live8 List petition.
Among them was Midge Ure, founder of Live8, who urged every Record reader to add their name and put pressure on the G8 - who meet at Gleneagles next week - to end the injustice of Third World debt.
Ure said: 'It is one of the most important things you can do to make poverty history and make Scotland the place where the world was changed for good.'
We have joined forces with entrepreneur Tom Hunter - who has set up petition booths in his USC and D2 stores across Scotland - to gather the names of one million Scots Singer Darius added his name and said: 'It is heartbreaking to think that children are dying every three seconds in Africa.
'I would urge everybody to spare three seconds of their time to write their name.'
Travis singer Fran Healy urged readers to find out how they can support the campaign by logging on to makepovertyhistory.org.
Rangers boss Alex McLeish, former football star Ally McCoist and crime writer Ian Rankin also signed the petition.
Actresses Kathleen McDermott and River City's Libby McArthur added their names, along with former
Big Brother winner Cameron Stout.
And Scotland football coach Walter Smith, Olympic curling gold medallist Rhona Martin and leaders of all the political parties at Holyrood were happy to sign up.
A spokesman for Tom Hunter said: 'I don't know exactly how many signatures we have been able to collect in our stores but it is a huge amount.'