A small British jam manufacturer (husband & wife team) recently introduced the first ever British apple-based jams onto the U.K. high street. However, the U.K. government has stated these products cannot legally be called jam because they don't contain enough sugar!!! Standard jams have a sugar content exceeding 60%; however, these apple-based jams have a sugar content of 52-53%. Unfortunately, between 51-59% sugar content there is no clear legal definition as to what these British apple-based products should be called. It's a jam 'no-mans land'! Jam Law across the EU is meant to be harmonised. However, France, Germany and Denmark have all recently used an 'escape clause' in the legislation to permit jams with sugar content below 60%. The U.K. government now needs to use this 'escape clause' to account for British apple-based jams. After 12 months of battling for the issue to be addressed, the U.K. government has finally agreed to consult on making changes to the Law (see http://www.defra.gov.uk/files/jam-consult-statement.pdf). However, there is no guarantee that the Law will be changed and it wouldn’t occur until the end of 2013. We therefore need to keep pressure on the U.K. government to ensure the ridiculous Jam Laws are changed. During these recessionary times, it is vital that the U.K. government supports British business, British innovation and British-specific traditions, i.e. Bramley apple growing. With obesity rates increasing, we should also be encouraging the general public to consume jams with more fruit and less added sugar.

This area is vital to the local community. We have a shortage of sports pitches and community open space on the Western side of the town The Council should be putting the local community before profit.

These teachers and pupils have worked hard to succeed. This government is not supporting children, especially children in the state sector and especially children who do not come from priveleged backgrounds. All children are our future.

The British Pub is being extinguished by the fact it so much cheaper to buy beer in supermarkets and drink it at home. If my idea was adopted I do not believe the Government would lose much income because of the companion sales of wines and spirits to the companions of draught beer drinkers. The pub is much more than a drinking den, it is where people meet and interact, play games and socialise.

It has long been suspected that the Christian churches in this country ( and, no doubt, elsewhere) appear to be in thrall to the Big Money powers, as represented by the City, for example. The remaining influence which some churchmen still have could be turned to the good of working (i.e., not speculating) people, since a massive movement of church money to the ethical banks would be both a positive move and a slap on the wrists of the mega-greedy. The churches should, finally, for their own credibility, be seen to be on the side of the less-rich.

This site belches out foul smelling odours which choke the local communities and give rise to serious health concerns

Qualified teachers have completed a rigorous training programme which ensures they hold appropriate prerequisite qualifications and that they are prepared for and have met national standards to teach. Following the Michael Gove's change, there are now no safe guards in place to ensure children have appropriately trained and qualified teachers. This flies in the face of international research and best practice which shows the best education systems have teachers who have completed lengthy and rigorous pedagological training.

Wandsworth Borough Council is pushing through, at breakneck speed, a proposal to sell 46% of the playing fields at Elliott School in Putney (15,070m² / 3.72 acres / 41% of the total site including buildings) for private redevelopment despite the school being a Grade II-listed building and despite a public consultation which showed 96% of respondents to be against any land sale. Lord Hill of Oareford, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools, has just given consent for these playing fields to be sold during the Olympics, despite the spirit of the law which protects them, despite their Grade II listing and irrespective of public opinion and statutory stakeholders. Unless challenged in the strongest terms, a devastating precedent is about to be set which will legitimise sale of public land in other boroughs and counties across the UK. THIS IS THE THIN END OF THE WEDGE: all schools and all public land are seriously threatened by the lack of opposition to such proposals. This is an opportunity to make a stand for green space, education, architecture and national heritage, public health, democracy, accountability, and, ultimately, sound stewardship of public assets and public income. A full briefing pack is available on the campaign's website: http://saveelliottschool.tumblr.com/ An e-petition to the Government to force debate in Parliament is here: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/34446 If you have signed THIS petition, PLEASE SIGN THE GOVT. E-PETITION TOO! Questions welcome at [email protected]

I am one of those unfortunate people who - through no direct fault of their own - have 'lost their home'. For over 'fourteen years' (following on from buying our house/10 years) we have rented 'four' different houses. All of them - particularly the first 'three' came with a bizarre range of difficulties and problems culminating with us having to up- sticks and move on to somewhere less troubled! Our problems included immense noise problems, drug busts by the police to our immediate neighbours, racist remarks, drunkenness, barking dogs, failure of landlord to hold to the Tenancy agreement, theft, anti social behaviour: and blatant promises (by Estate Agents) of improvements that never materialised and so on. (I have detailed documentation on most of these difficulties). I often feel that renting tenants (particularly 'private' tenants) are 'used' primarily to pay the mortgage on the landlords second, third (etc) house but with 'nothing' in return beside broken promises and a very 'poor' service all round! The TV channels are currently running repetitive adverts on 'landlords insurance' but nothing is seen about the much needed 'tenants insurance'; this insurance should be included as a part of the rental agreement. I have often been made to feel like a second class citizen with little or no rights on many occasions. Surely, even if only to attempt to bridge the increasing gap (chasm) between the haves and the have-nots'- their should be made available a strict set of rules for 'landlords'. Rules which would protect tenants, provide us with a fair say on renting issues without the fear of reprisals or evictions, and to discontinue the poor practise of 'money for nothing' for bad landlords.

The employees of Remploy are mainly disabled and their work there provides them with a high degree of independance, self esteem and the benefits of working with other people. closing these factories, especialy in the current economic climate is likely to throw them on the mercy of the benefits system.

The law is a discriminatory one which relies on an individual police officer's judgement and, as such, is open to abuse. The police officer is open to criticism for misuse of the order and under 16 year old's are vulnerable to overzealous application and miss-accusations. The discriminatory nature of the order encourages the hatred and fear of young people and allows some to feel justified in discriminatory attitudes toward them. It encourages those who have suffered at the hands of badly behaved youths to believe that they are all like that and to become more afraid. It will only serve to alienate young people and make them feel that the police are there simply to control them but not to protect them. Already young people in Bangor are avoiding going out to the cinema and to after school clubs for fear of being caught in the curfew or of being beaten up by the marauding gangs that this order implies are on the loose in the city center. Bangor is a lovely historic place with much to offer young and old alike. It suffers from very little anti-social behavior apart from a very few people in limited areas and the usual after pub and club problems present in all cities. It is suffering in the downturn from an empty high street (the longest in the country) but there was no rioting in Bangor last year, the out of town JJB sports, PC World etc were not ransacked as was seen in other towns and cities across the UK, so why Bangor? There was no consultation with the public or even their elected representatives on the City Council. This is despite the ACPO guidance that there should be consultation with the effected community and a Rowntree report, which concludes that these laws have only been effective where consultation and involvement had taken place. This law is badly worded, heavy handed, discriminatory and draconian and it should be stopped now!

The Channel Island of Sark has just 600 inhabitants. They lead a peaceful and historic way of life that has remained largely unchanged for hundreds of years. The islanders get around on bikes or by horse and cart - there are no cars or tarmac roads on the island. It is a unique and beautiful place, a rare piece of tranquillity in a chaotic modern world. But now the billionaire owners of The Telegraph newspaper, the Barclay brothers, are threatening that way of life. Twenty years ago, they bought the tiny neighbouring island of Brecqhou and built a huge mock gothic castle that looms over Sark. Ever since, they have been buying up every hotel, small business and piece of land they can get their hands on. The islands status as a tax haven means the brothers have to pay no tax on their fortune back to the UK. The Sarkees have been doing everything they can to resist their power over the island. In 2008, the Barclays tried to flood the island's first democratically elected government with their allies. When the islanders emphatically rejected them in favour of their own representatives, the brothers retaliated by firing everyone who worked in any of the businesses they had bought out - that amounted to a sixth of Sark's population losing their jobs. It doesn't end there. Those who speak out against the brothers' stranglehold on the island are publicly dragged through the dirt in the Sark Newsletter - a weekly propaganda piece written by the Barclays' lieutenant, Kevin Delaney. The islanders recently told the Guardian and BBC that they live in fear in a "culture of bullying and intimidation." The Barclay brothers company Sark Estate Management (SEM) has turned much of their good quality agricultural land over to vineyards, land that was traditionally used by the islanders for centuries for growing crops and grazing livestock. In November 2012 a peaceful protest at the Sark Mill vineyards against the spread of vines resulted in 120 Sark residents signing a petition asking the Barclays to reconsider their vineyard project but this was ignored. SEM continue to spray the vineyards with chemicals and residents fear for the health of Sark's pristine ecosystem and their fresh water supplies which come from under the ground. Sark is a dependency of the Crown but, so far, our government has left the islanders to fend for themselves. The Department of Justice has admitted that it has an "ultimate responsibility to ensure good governance" of Sark. They are aware of what's going on - former Justice Minister Lord McNally has already been to visit the island. It's time Lord Faulks, the new Justice Minister and Chris Grayling, the Secretary of State for Justice, lived up to that responsibility. You can find out more about the situation in Sark in this recent Panorama show: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01px74c/Panorama_The_Tax_Haven_Twins/ Or this earlier Today programme piece: http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9709000/9709518.stm