Britain's most remote inhabited island joins lobby marathon

Residents of Fair Isle are making their voice heard in 'Scale up for Trade Justice' by sending postcards to their MP, Alistair Carmichael, by each mailboat from now until the World Trade Organisation meeting in Mexico in September.

Traidcraft fair trader Fiona Mitchell is so passionate about the issue last year she travelled from Britain's most remote inhabited island to Westminster to tell Alistair Carmichael MP all about it - and her crofter neighbours on Fair Isle are so equally committed they helped to pay for the 1600-mile round-trip so Fiona could be among the 12,000 people from around the UK who took part in the Trade Justice Movement mass lobby of Parliament in June 2002.

Fiona said: "Although we are a remote community we share the same concerns as everyone else. Because Fair Isle is a small, unspoiled community, we can empathise with other small communities trying to protect their livelihoods, preserve their way of life and build a better future for themselves and their children. That's why the fair trade and trade justice message is so appealing. We may be remote geographically but we are not indifferent to the same global concerns as everyone else; in fact, in many ways, our understanding of them is sharpened by our physical isolation."

Jimmy Stout and Post Mistress Fiona Mitchell at the Stackhoull Stores 'Scale up for Trade Justice' stall, Fair Isle

"Living somewhere like Fair Isle, I'm very aware that what I do has an impact on my neighbour and on the community as a whole. I want to make the big companies, the corporates and the supermarkets, realise that they share the same responsibility to think about and understand the impact they have on the individuals and communities they deal with. That's why I'm so passionate about trade justice."

* More news