When you're at a time where you're mentally distressed, to the point you need to be in hospital, knowing where you are plays a bigger role than you'd think. If you know you're up the road from your house, or a short bus ride away, it gives you peace of mind. You know you're family and friends will be able to visit you, and bring you things you might need. It also means you can have effective home leave before being discharged. Now imagine, you're being sent 100miles away from your home, to a place where you probably don't know anyone. What if no one in your family drives? You become alone and isolated, at a time where being around people who love you matters more than anything; but you're all alone instead. There are kids being sent far away! Some as young as 12. If you're far away, and you are in a unit where you can't use your mobile, how are you meant to stay in contact with friends? What if you're in that hospital for months? Having no familiarity makes you sink even lower. It is essential that more is done to improve the current bed crisis.

The IMF, the Bank for International Settlements, and many financial experts are warning of a new global financial crash far worse than 2008, caused by the same forces: the unbridled speculation in derivatives, and outright criminal activity, of City of London and Wall Street megabanks. Under current policy and legislation, government bailouts and “bail-ins” (the confiscation of assets and even individual bank deposits to prop up failing banks) will be used to attempt to save the financial system yet again. The City of London and Wall Street Too-Big-To-Fail (TBTF) banks have received US$19 trillion in bailouts since 2008, even as brutal austerity has been applied in the UK, USA and other nations. The TBTF banks are now 40% larger than in 2008. They remain heavily invested in derivatives, the world trading centre for which is London. Derivatives, such as the infamous mortgage-backed securities at the heart of the 2008 crash, now total US$1.2 quadrillion, compared with a global GDP of only US$50 trillion. While not lending to the real economy, the London/Wall Street banks have engaged in drug money laundering, financing terrorism, tax evasion, mortgage fraud and outright theft from their customers, for which they have been fined tens of billions of dollars. The UK’s National Crime Agency reported in May 2015, “We assess that hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars almost certainly continue to be laundered through UK banks, including their subsidiaries, each year.” Late 2016 stress tests conducted by the Bank of England showed that the major UK banks are woefully undercapitalised. Their derivatives holdings, aptly termed by Business Insider “unexploded nuclear bombs nestling deep in the financial system”, dwarf their assets (lending) and deposits. In the inevitable next crisis, major banks would likely collapse, triggering a meltdown of the trans-Atlantic financial system. The UK Parliament passed the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013. It, however, merely provided for “ring-fencing”—separating “investment” and commercial banking within each bank, but, unlike Glass-Steagall, allowing them to remain under the same roof and be done by the same company. This “solution” was denounced by knowledgeable members of both the House of Commons and Lords as simply window dressing which would allow the present, wildly speculative practices of the TBTF to continue. Why full Glass-Steagall separation? The USA’s 1933 Glass-Steagall Act strictly separated deposit-taking commercial banks from the “investment” banks whose wild speculation had caused the Great Depression. Glass-Steagall operated for 66 years and made systemic banking crises impossible. But the City of London’s 1986 “Big Bang” financial deregulation, followed by the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999, which both London and Wall Street had demanded, led to the 2008 crash. Support for full-scale Glass-Steagall is non-partisan: In the USA, both the Democratic and Republican Parties adopted it in their 2016 platforms, and the AFL-CIO (the central labour federation) has endorsed it. In the UK, 445 MPs and Lords from all parties voted for it in 2013, many of them warning that ring-fencing would not work. The late Labour MP and former cabinet member Michael Meacher said, “It must be obvious to everyone that this device [ring-fencing] will be breached in no time by regulatory arbitrage in the City of London where all the big banks employ armies of lawyers and accountants for just this purpose.” Conservative MP Sir Peter Tapsell, a former member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet and “Father of the House of Commons” until he retired in 2015, said, “What I mean by a complete return to Glass-Steagall is that we should have none of this nonsense of ring-fencing, which used to be called Chinese walls. It never works. Chinese walls turned out to be papier-mâché. I worked in the City for 40 years and I promise Members that it is impossible to make that work.” He was echoed by Lord Nigel Lawson, who as Chancellor of the Exchequer had supervised the “Big Bang”, but in the 2013 debate and ever since has acknowledged that the repeal of Glass-Steagall was a dreadful mistake. In the Guardian of 11 August 2015, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell wrote that “the Corbyn campaign is advocating a fundamental reform of our economic system”, to “include the introduction of an effective regulatory regime for our banks and financial sector”, and “a full-blown Glass-Steagall system to separate day-to-day and investment banking” (emphasis added). Only an aroused, mobilised population can ensure that Glass-Steagall is adopted now, before the TBTF banks crash.

Whitstable job centre reduced its hours to 2 hours a day and is now threatened with closure. Herne Bay job centre that offered a full 5 day a week, 9-5 service is also now threatened with closure. Whitstable and Herne Bay Job seekers would be forced to travel to Canterbury to sign on and get help finding a job. Job seekers face loss of benefits if they are late.The cost of bus travel is wasteful, and disabled job seekers are particularly hard hit. for more details see public consultation https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/proposal-for-the-future-of-whitstable-and-herne-bay-jobcentres This consultation sought views on the proposed closure of Whitstable and Herne Bay jobcentres.

The anxiety caused by worrying that benefits will be cut can make a range of conditions worse by increasing stress and anxiety. making work related activities voluntary for people in the support may help them feel more comfortable and encouraged and give them better success in getting off benefits. the added anxiety will prevent people accessing the support the green paper aims to offer. those with mental illnesses will be affected very badly as the additional stress and anxiety could exasperate the problem however encouragement to voluntarily get involved in work related activities could help some people to gain the confidence to get back into work and come off benefits.

FutureTech is an excellent provision for the children of Warrington who believed in and chose a completely different approach to learning. It's unique selling point was small numbers, small class sizes and work experience. Numbers for the school may be low but the grass roots difference that it is and has made to those attending is imperative for our town. Plus the intake number was originally set at 200 (changed to 300) and currently has 187 students. Some (NOT ALL) of the children there did not engage in the schools that they have left, for a myriad of reasons but under FutureTechs tuition and guidance have engage with education again and gained confidence and self worth beyond measure. These kids will now be left to find new school placements (often to places that will not offer the subjects they are taking now) and will be disrupted right in the middle of their preparation for their GCSE's.

Cuts and closures aren’t the only option. If the government gave the NHS the money it needs, it’d mean decisions could be made with patients in mind.

As the North East is one of the most unemployed areas in the country, an additional loss of around 400 jobs, on top of the jobs lost last year from steel works closures, would be a massive loss to the area and would also see a number of families left without an income.

I am a disabled UK tax payer that had nothing to do with the state of the UKs finances and myself and every over disabled person in the UK can't be punished anymore.

The kids love it and with the weather warming up it will be truly be missed! A lot of hard work went into the building of it and is loved by all of the local families.

Trowbridge Birthing Centre offers crucial services for mothers and families in the area. I had two of my children at the unit, and the centre offered me a very personalised service. It is essential that women have the choice to give birth locally, and this unit is a respected and well-loved option. Trowbridge Birthing Centre also offers much needed antenatal and postnatal services for local women and babies.

Why should it be the hard working people who always have to stump up? Let Government stump up for a welcome change!!!

If the plans go ahead, treasured spaces to play will be lost. Children’s play is a right not a privilege: the loss of local playgrounds would be to the detriment of our children’s health, safety and their happiness. These spaces are also used by parents and grandparents. You can read about the Council's plans to close the playgrounds here: Hertfordshire Mercury: Plans to axe North Hertfordshire play areas criticised: https://link.38degrees.org.uk/plans5e32