Bush and Blair get punked-up in ActionAid spoof band 'Ruff Trade'

The inboxes of a million students and youngsters are the target of a new viral email, which spoofs NME to show how poor countries are robbed of billions by unfair trade rules.

ActionAid wants students to vote for trade justice ahead of December’s World Trade Organisation meeting in Hong Kong.

The charity is sending the 'Ruff trade' email to 450,000 supporters and NUS members, but hopes it’ll be passed on to double that number.

To hammer home the need for just trade rules, the cover-stars of the spoof music mag are Ruff Trade - Toni Blur, George Tush and Euro Mandy.

The Prime Minister and friends have had a punk makeover, and the band, screams the headline, are on a “third world sell-out tour”.

A click takes readers to a story in which Ruff Trade have outraged fans with their 'lack of new material and overblown posturing' at recent gigs in New York and Edinburgh”.

And now they are taking their aggressive brand of rock on a tour of developing countries in a bid to force open new markets.

It culminates in a 'We’re taking over' (WTO) pre Christmas super-gig in Hong Kong on 13 December.

ActionAid Youth campaigner Brendan O Donnell believes the spoof email will engage youngsters in a way that traditional methods cannot.

"Hopefully the unbelievable sight of Tony Blair and Peter Mandleson looking more new wave than new labour will grab people’s attention. We wanted to make people laugh, but we are also trying to communicate a very serious issue.

"Unfair trade is costing poor countries $45 billion per year. A little more aid and a little more debt relief is just not enough to Make Poverty History. ActionAid is demanding that the government push for genuinely fair trade rules at the World Trade Organisation."