Did you know that the equivalent of 80% of your council tax goes on loan interest? Barclays and RBS sold Newham Council a bet on interest rates using loan deals called LOBOs - and they lost. That means £50 million in interest a year which could be used for: - Surestart centres - Community centres - Schools - Street cleaners - New council housing ...but instead that £50 million in interest is going to greedy banksters. Our legal advisers say that Newham's mayor, Sir Robin Wales, could put a stop to all this by taking the banks to court for mis-selling, just like we can do with PPI. Help us get our money back from the banks by signing this petition!

Veterans’ welfare, armed forces pensions and the handling of casualty notifications are all at risk as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) plans to privatise its shared services organisation – Defence Business Services (DBS). DBS employs over 2,200 people and is responsible for MoD armed forces and civilian pay, pensions and HR, delivering welfare to 900,000 veterans and their dependents, handling casualty notifications and administration 24 hours a day, UK wide security vetting and making payments to all defence suppliers. MoD’s track record with private companies in DBS generates some big concerns. In 2012, Serco and Accenture were brought in as management partners where they were paid for running the organisation but additionally received 40p for every pound saved via ‘efficiency gains’. This led to reckless cuts, asset stripping and manipulating of performance measures in a profit grabbing frenzy. In many areas of DBS, jobs were cut to generate a saving (and profit for Serco and Accenture) but were then reinstated at a later date. When the Serco-Accenture contract was brought to an end this year, it was hoped that common sense had prevailed. Yet now the MoD want to go one step further by fully privatising the running of DBS. The MoD argue that this will bring them savings but history tells another story. Instead, it will result in cuts to services, putting those who rely on DBS, like veterans, MoD staff and army personnel at risk. It could also open the door to offshoring of work and defence sensitive data as companies seek to maximise profits. The alarm bells don’t stop there. A recent National Audit Office report has revealed that privatisations of other shared services across Whitehall has failed to deliver value for money to taxpayers, with long delays and rising costs. DBS is one of the largest and most complex shared services organisations in Europe, carrying out sensitive and critical services to the MoD, its staff, the armed forces and veterans. The MoD should safeguard this by keeping DBS public.

Thousands of employees are facing the loss of their jobs, pension recipients are at risk of having their payment reduced and the taxpayer and/or other pension funds have to step in to prop up the pension protection fund.

EVERY SINGLE PRODUCT SOLD IN THE UK COULD BE PACKAGED WITH 100% RECYCLABLE MATERIALS As the largest UK supermarket chain, Tesco should be the market leader in sustainable packaging. Packaging is important to protect their products, and recycling is important to protect our environment. If ALL products were offered in recyclable packaging, we would dramatically cut the unnecessary filling of further landfill sites each year. WE WANT TO RECYCLE! Households across the UK want to recycle. Year-on-year, recycling figures are increasing. Consumers are increasingly engaged and increasing the levels at which they recycle. It is the responsibility of retailers to ensure they offer their products in recyclable packaging. WHY CAN'T I RECYCLE BLACK PLASTIC?! Black plastic packaging is one of the easiest packaging items that could be swapped for a recyclable alternative. Almost every local council offers a household collection service that recycles clear plastics, a simple alternative to non-recyclable black plastic. Black plastic can't easily be recycled, as there is no efficient way to sort it at a recycling facility. The solution is simple: don't use it in packaging! BE THE LEADER As the market leader, Tesco has an opportunity to set the precedent on sustainable packaging. Starting with black plastic, many other non-recyclable items such as expanded polystyrene should be phased out. In their place, recyclable and/or bio-degradable alternatives should be utilised as standard.

Mike Ashley has made himself a billionaire through illegal and unethical practices. The crimes perpetrated at Sports Direct have been in effect admitted, as widely reported in the national press this week, before a parliamentary select committee. This petition calls upon our director of public prosecutions to hold Mike Ashley to account for these crimes.

A costly procurement process for community health and social care in Bath & N.E. Somerset is currently under way, because all health contracts must now be put out to competitive tender. At the moment, these services are provided by Sirona, which is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company. The procurement process is in its final stages prior to the award of a new seven-year, £70 million per annum contract. Apart from Sirona, the only other organisation now shortlisted for this contract is Virgin Care Ltd. Virgin Care Ltd pays no corporation tax in the UK and should therefore not profit from the UK taxpayer. It is part of a group whose ultimate parent company is based in the British Virgin Islands, which is a tax haven. Virgin Care does not currently record a profit in the UK after administrative expenses, but the company’s structure makes it unlikely to pay any tax in the UK in the foreseeable future(ref.1 below) Despite this, since entering the health market in 2010 Virgin Care has been awarded contracts worth over £1 billion, with several large contracts in community health. (ref. 2) If this contract is awarded to Virgin, it will contribute to the rapidly advancing privatisation of the NHS. A report two years ago by an international panel of experts working for the Commonwealth Fund declared the NHS to be the best healthcare system and rated its care superior to that of countries that spend far more on health. The Commonwealth Fund, a Washington-based foundation, is respected around the world for its analysis of the performance of different countries’ health systems.(ref.3) The NHS should remain a publicly provided, publicly funded health service for the benefit of all UK citizens, not for the benefit of those who wish to make a profit. My partner has had an excellent service from Sirona since being diagnosed last year with Parkinson's Disease . We fear that this provision will be greatly reduced if Virgin are awarded the contract and make cuts in order to provide profits. 1. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/21/ow-lucrative--deals-go-to-firms-that-use-tax-havens 2. http://www.nhsforsale.info/private-providers/private-provider-profiles-2/virgin.html 3. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/17/nhs-health

The Living Wage is a voluntary hourly rate set independently and updated annually. The Living Wage is calculated according to the basic cost of living in the UK. The current UK Living Wage is £8.25 a hour. As a result, this should be the minimum amount people in the UK are paid each hour to ensure that their wages cover the basic costs of living. In light of the above and the fact that the Premier League's television deal will see the 20 clubs in England's top flight share around £8.3 billion between now and 2019, we believe that a percentage of this income could be spent on paying their employees the Living Wage. Therefore, we petition Watford Football Club to use their share in the new television deal to ensure their staff are paid the Living Wage. If you want to get in contact with us, please see the links below. Email: [email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youngwatfordgreens/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/younggreenswd

The bus services in the Borders are vital life lines to may people young and old the removal of the town services in Hawick and Peebles will mean that many older residents in these towns will miss out on links with other parts of the town and the wider borders if these services are removed. The removal of the College bus service from Hawick to Galashiels will mean that young people from Hawick may miss out on training courses at Borders College which would help improve there education and life. The other services that are being cut will mean that those places loose there vital link and their elderly resident loose out too.

The UK has been long used to the system of Garages carrying out MoT testing who then profit from the work gained by fixing faults which only they have decided (subject to VOSA criteria). There is a clear case of a conflict of interest which would never be allowed within other professions. Independent test centres would avoid the "hostage" situation frequently faced by motorists and ensure that garages carried out only the work specified by the independent controller.

When Cheap Costs Too Much Palm Oil has become a too commonly used ingredient in our lives. Used to large brands using this cheap fat in everything from soaps to bread, I've become used to my shopping basket getting increasingly limited. I actually don't mind that aspect but what I do mind the horrific damage done by the growth of this market. What has become particularly insidious is the label of Sustainable Palm Oil, I actually don't believe such a thing can exist. For a start the chances are that the land that any Palm Oil plantations are grown on were once rainforest, with people, orangutans and a whole world of invertebrates and plants that we don't even know about. That also means that it's contributing to increasing C02 levels and, as the peat bogs of South East Asia burn, methane. I see nothing sustainable there. How can such vast plantations ever be called sustainable? Especially as to maintain that plantation for a few years large amounts of chemicals must be employed to keep it going, and then when it runs out of nutrients the plan is to cut down more rainforest and plant that up with Palm Oil? How can this be sustainable? Palm Oil is a cheap and nasty fat, it's bad for health, it's bad for our planet, it's bad for the animals and plants on this planet. I can only see that a ban on Palm Oil in all products is the way forward for a more sustainable future. I call on the Co-operative to ban Palm Oil in all of its products and to actively seek brands that are also proudly Palm Oil free. If you have sustainability as a policy and you use Palm Oil then you fail at the first hurdle. When shops like Lush and brands like Pattersons can declare themselves Palm Oil free I don't see there is any excuse.

Babcock International is a weapon manufacturer operating around the globe. They are also contracted by Devon County Council to monitor and produce reports on school attendance. After ten sessions (five days) of "unauthorised absence" they send this letter threatening a fine of up to £2500 and/or three months in prison. The letter is sent to hundreds of parents each year, causing disproportionate distress for what, in many cases, is a single case of illness or forgetting to inform the school in time. Children become worried that their mum or dad might go to prison. Parents worry their children might be taken into care, that they might lose their jobs, businesses, dignity and freedom. The threat, and potential fine and imprisonment, disproportionately affects single parents and poor people, who are less able to pay a Fixed Penalty Notice within 21 days (after which it doubles). I have personally supported a single mum who was working full time, raising two children, starting a business and having to comfort her children who thought that Mum was going to prison. Babcock's business is in fear, not in children's education.

Fair-trade needs support. Fairtrade needs our support and in order for us to support them we have to be able to buy their stock. If supermarkets do not stock their products then how an earth can we but the products and support Fairtrade? In addition to this, awareness to why supporting Fairtrade cashew nuts is so important needs to be raised. Predominantly in India but also Africa and Brazil, due to the mass demand, the cashew nuts is hand processed in over crowded factories in incredible poor areas. Now when the kernel is extracted from the skin during the ‘deshelling process’ an allergic phenolic resin, anacardiac acid is released. This is a caustic liquid that burns skin known as a ‘Urushiol-induced contact dermatitis’. Because the demand for cashew nuts is so high and the factories are under so much pressure, the factories are packed to the brim with workers who are not provided with adequate skin protection and as a consequence during their de-shelling of up to 50-60kg of nuts a day they are constantly burned. Either the factory owners are not aware of these adverse health risks of cashew nut processing or they simply cannot afford to supply such high numbers of workers protection and workers are forced to tackle their skin protection themselves by bandaging their hands. So not only are these workers working in over crowded, appalling conditions, being paid roughly 30p a day for but suffering from permanent damage from the cashew nut burns. This is not right and people need to be made aware of this. That by purchasing non fair-trade cashew nuts they are indirectly supporting this act of negligence of the basic human right. Fairtrade needs to be pioneered and that’s what I am trying to do. In order for problems such as the appalling working conditions of factory workers in India to be tackled, supermarkets need to stock Fairtrade and people need to start buying! People all around the world need our help and if its simply to buy a packet of cashews a few pounds more than the normal packet so be it! It takes so little to help in such a massive way. People need to start to become active citizens and to stand up and help tackle these worldwide issues. Without people working together, raising awareness and striving for change then problems like this will remain hidden and people will continue to suffer.