Increasing numbers of homeless people are being arrested for begging around the country. In 2013-14, 2771 cases were brought before the courts, a 70% increase on the previous year. Police use an archaic law which deems those found begging to be 'idle and disorderly'. Begging was made a recordable offence in 2003 against the strong criticisms of civil rights groups and homelessness organisations. Those prosecuted can be fined up to £1000 excluding court charges when found with just a few pennies. Those who have 'gathered alms' (that is, accepted money, food or other material goods offered to them) can be prosecuted under this same law with the same consequences. Some people are kept in cells for several nights. Although begging in and of itself is not an imprisonable offence, if the person is already on bail for another case a simple arrest for begging can lead to imprisonment. Those who are fined will inevitably have to beg more to pay off these fines, risking further arrests and fines, a punishment which stands out in its absurdity. Punishing the destitute for trying to survive is both costly and morally abhorrent. It is a waste of tax payers' money which is spent paying police who 'catch people out' in organised undercover operations, as well as on court cases to prosecute them. The minimum cost of bringing one case to the Magistrates' Court is £1000, meaning that in the year 2013-14, bringing begging cases before the courts cost the taxpayer at least £2.777 million. This is money that could be spent helping people rather than punishing them. Police also routinely move homeless people on under part 3 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act (2014) which gives police the power to confiscate property and exclude individuals from a particular area for up to 48 hours, with the officer also able to impose by what manner and route the person must leave. Failure to comply is a criminal offence which can result in a £2500 fine or 3 months in prison. Refusing to surrender your property is punishable by a fine of up to £500. The two conditions needed by officers to issue a dispersal order are firstly, that the constable has 'reasonable grounds to suspect that the behaviour of the person in the locality has contributed or is likely to contribute to (a) members of the public in the locality being harassed, alarmed or distressed, or (b) the occurrence in the locality of crime or disorder, and secondly, that the constable considers that giving a direction to the person is necessary for the purpose of removing or reducing the likelihood of (a) or (b)'. Given that begging is a crime considered 'idle and disorderly', the two laws in tandem essentially give police de facto power to exclude any homeless person from any area simply because they think it is likely that the person, being homeless, might beg there. The highly subjective definition of 'anti-social behaviour' as that which contributes or is likely to contribute to members of the public in the locality being harassed, alarmed or distressed reinforces this and even with the decriminalisation of begging, would still give police the power to move on any homeless person from any area simply because they believe doing so is necessary for the purpose of removing or reducing the likelihood of members of the public being distressed by seeing them. Seeing people forced to live on the streets is distressing to much of the public for good reason, but this compassionate distress means that under this definition a homeless person is considered to be exhibiting anti-social behaviour simply by existing visibly. The anti-social behaviour that causes the public distress is not caused by the homeless person however, but by the authorities' failure to provide people with shelter in a country that has 600,000 empty homes. As described by someone living on the street, being asked to move on when you have nowhere to go is like being asked to walk into a brick wall. These laws and their enforcement victimize vulnerable people who are already suffering the daily struggle of life on the streets or in insecure and unstable temporary accommodation. We believe that kicking someone for limping when it is you who cut off their leg is shameless and cruel. We believe that the government should be providing homes for the homeless, not handcuffs. We therefore call on parliament to repeal without replacement section 3 of the Vagrancy Act (1824), to amend part 3 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act (2014) to safeguard homeless people from its discriminatory use, and for an ultimate end to the criminalisation of homelessness by any and all other laws that may be newly concocted or dug up for this purpose. If you have an MP who may be sympathetic, get in touch with them to push this issue to parliament. We launched this petition at our demo at Brighton Magistrate's court on the 20th January.

Government have announced the closure of 86 courts and tribunals in England and Wales. If this closure programme goes ahead 38.5% of courts and tribunals will have closed since 2010. These closures will restrict access to courts and tribunals for many court users and will add unnecessary stress for victims and witnesses. The plans that were subject to consultation over the summer contained a series of errors including underestimates of journey times to alternative courts and a lack of detailed cost benefit analysis with many of the proposed closures making no financial sense. Many courts set for closure have better facilities for court users than the ones they are being proposed to be moved to. The Government case for the closures is driven solely by cost and is underpinned by digital processes in the early stages of implementation with the usual associated problems. This decision leaves a justice system in real danger of becoming so divorced from the people who need access to it that it can no longer be considered to be true justice and will undermine public confidence.

I have seen more and more so called reporters think they can throw out any type of fabricated story... even if its racist and has no real truth to the people of great britain without first thinking about the british public and the impact of how the global community will see how the british media are behaving in the war to warp the minds and hearts of the day to day british citizen, through racist propaganda. i am now sick and tired of seeing good decent british men / women and families having to be branded a nation of racist bigots by what i call ''fascist dictator reporters'' . To demonize a people ( west papuans ) who as you all read this are being quietly murdered in a planed genocide , no thanks to the lack of intervention from the e.u. and u.s. would like you all to sign this petition to collectively as a strong british nation, eject nick parker out of his job and to give a real true investigative reporter the chance to make the global community see how great britain still is great... and not just a nation of racist ignorant fools that eat any type of racist propaganda and redress the balance of proper reporting. As a shining example of a true great nation that is fair and balanced in our reports on other nations. Please sign this petition and help me put the great back in british journalism / reporting

An innocent man should have the right to return to work. Any company acting the way Bauer has done deserves all there sponsors to find there products being boycott by he general public.

At the moment the justice system is skewed in favour of the wealthiest citizens. The poorest are effectively priced out of it. Legal aid is designed to aid those on low income but it is widely abused by the legal profession for its own ends. The ends of justice are not served by a system that leaves the granting of legal aid in the hands of the legal profession. The Scottish government trumpets justice but it needs to demonstrate that commitment by ensuring that everyone has equal access to the services of solicitors and the Courts of law. The present system is flawed, costly, and overdue for reform and reconstruction.

No parent should have to hold their children and comfort them as they die, or be told that their child has been harmed by someone who is supposed to love them. But that’s exactly what I had to experience 10 years ago when my sons Jack and Paul were killed by their father after a family court judge granted him unsupervised contact with them, despite my warnings. For the past nine years, I’ve been campaigning with Women’s Aid to ensure children are at the heart of every decision made in the family courts and their voices, wishes and feelings are heard. I’ve been to Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament to help get key changes through in the Domestic Abuse Act.  In 2017, we saw new guidance published for judges making decisions about child contact in cases of domestic abuse. And in 2020, the Government committed to make the family courts safer for adult and child survivors. But years later, we’re still waiting for true reform to keep children safe now and for generations to come.  That’s why I’m calling on the new Labour Government and family courts to ensure, once and for all, that decisions made about parental contact do not allow known abusers to have unsafe contact with children that puts their lives at risk.

We The TAXPAYERS Need to Change UK Banking Culture and STOP Product Mis-selling, Dodgy Loans, LIBOR Rigging and Huge Bonuses. Jail Crooked ‘Fat Cat’ Bankers Don’t Reward Them! The Government’s Financial Conduct Authority has dropped a major investigation into bank pay, promotion, bonuses and other incentives. Osborne said he knew nothing about this - so SIGN this petition to ask him to reverse this decision! USA & Iceland jail crooked Bankers Vietnam shoots crooked Bankers The UK rewards crooked and inept Bankers! UK banks brought our country to it’s knees with a £1.3 TRILLION debt, and we, the taxpayer, bailed them out. It’s time for a change. We need to make banking accountable, responsible, fair and honest, AND, once more, COMPETITIVE. Dodgy and irresponsible bank lending and too much bank leverage led to the 2008 financial crash! How many times does the taxpayer/uk population have to be kicked? Had the Bankers not brought the country to its knees in 2008 what state would the NHS and other public services be in right now? - Better funded for sure. How deep would the cut's need to be, had it not been for the 10's of billions to keep Banks afloat due to fat cat greed and arrogance. The Bankers have stolen your money, robbed your pensions, over-stated their profits, manipulated their share prices and raised new capital under false pretences: Accusations any normal businessman would have been sent to prison for. From 2001 to 2013 - 100,000 small UK businesses were mis-sold hundreds of billions of dodgy loans by Clydesdale/Yorkshire Bank, RBS, Barclays Lloyds & HSBC related to a rigged/ non-existent Libor rate! These mis-sold loans loaded with massive hidden charges have destroyed many thousands of these businesses, and continue to do so. Some of the banks have washed their hands by offloading these loans to American vulture funds to break up these businesses. PPI Mis-selling affected many millions of us, but still the banks get away with it with new scandals continually surfacing. Banks were being brought to book for PPI, but the Government has now decided to water down/cancel it’s own investigation into banking culture. Sign this petition which asks George Osborne to restart the Financial Conduct Authority investigation into banking culture.

Children and young people in custody are effectively being cared for by the state. They are among the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in the country. Their treatment by private contactors such as G4S has been, and continues to be, disgraceful. The latest allegations about Medway STC, backed by video evidence, are just the latest in a sorry line of serious incidents. Children have died in custody at the hands of staff members and many more have taken their own lives after ill treatment. It is nothing short of a national scandal that despite this, contracts continue to be awarded to G4S, who have such a poor record of providing public services. Does money matter more than children’s lives to the government?

This is important because a young newly married couple are scared they will be split but what is the upmost importance of this is that a two year old boy is threatened with the loss of his mother and his little family being torn apart due to the Home office

Members of the public find it difficult to support a political party 100%. Our system is out of date, our MPs out of touch, the public go unheard. We agree with points made by the Lib Dems, the Conservatives, Labour, the Green Party, the SNP etc and sometimes we disagree with them all. Either way we can't communicate with the government effectively. The system needs to work for us all but instead it's dusty, nobody really understands it or cares to sort it out with any long term vision. We need to start again. Simplify. Direct questions, direct answers. If regular referendums were to take place, the public are truly part of the process, allowing us to demonstrate what we care about, that we're united and want to invest in the future of this land and it's people. Less moaning and more doing, having a proactive and fair say, feeling satisfied that the decisions are being made and supported by the majority of the UK. Let the UK public vote for their future. This Kingdom can then begin to feel proud and respected, and most importantly, united.

We would like to show solidarity and support to the victim(s) and their family/friends who have been affected by this awful crime. Our Government need to be doing more to support women who are victims of rape & violence. We need clear and accessible support systems in place. It feels to us as if those who are wealthy are given preferential treatment. We are all humans, everyone should be treated with the same respect & conditions. By allowing Ehsan Abdulaziz to be acquitted of these charges, more women have been put at risk. Please stand up and support all victims of rape & violence and petition Southwark Council to investigate with a view to re-opening the case. More information on the details of the case can be found here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/millionaire-ehsan-abdulaziz-who-said-he-accidentally-tripped-and-penetrated-teen-is-cleared-of-rape-a6774946.html

Several UK national and international newspapers have reported allegations by the Guantanamo Bay prison survivor that the UK Prime Minister at the time - Tony Blair - personally accompanied UK secret service officials on a visit to Bagram airbase, Afghanistan, during which Aamer claims that these officials were present at his interrogation and torture. Shaker Aamer was afterwards held at Guantanamo Bay detention center until 2015, despite the USA authorities deciding in 2007 not to press charges against him. If Tony Blair was aware that anyone was being, or was likely to be, tortured at Bagram during his visit, and failed to act against this, he committed Grave Breaches of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions. Such breaches constitute a War Crime in international law, and would legally render Blair a War Criminal, subject to obligatory arrest and trial wherever he goes. In times of peace as well as war it is crucially important that issues related to torture should not be ignored or left ambiguous, however powerful or influential the alleged perpetrators may be. Peoples' perception of the behaviour of war-endorsing governments during this period is already tarnished around the world. The failure to properly address such issues promotes further conflict, and to ignore them, while the alleged perpetrators freely travel the globe, mocks the very values to which all nations and states claim to aspire.