• Full rights for EU nationals in Britain now
    Theresa May has begun the process of Britain leaving the European Union. This raises the question of the rights of EU nationals presently living in Britain, who make a huge contribution to our society. The government has refused to guarantee these rights, saying it will wait until there is a deal involving British nationals who live in the rest of Europe. But people are not bargaining chips. The government’s attitude means terrible insecurity for EU nationals and their families. EU nationals who have come to live or work or study in Britain should have their rights guaranteed now —full rights, indefinitely. Anything else means that at least some people will be forcibly removed from Britain, families torn apart, valuable workers lost and there will be even more restrictions on those who are allowed to stay. Already any EU national applying for proof of residency must now show they have been living and working in Britain for the past five years. They are required to provide documents for every occasion they have left Britain in that period. Those who have not been working must reportedly show they took out comprehensive health insurance—a requirement that was little known until recently. The government’s refusal to grant workers’ rights is already hitting key services. Only 96 nurses joined the NHS from other European nations in December 2016 – a drop from 1,304 in July that year. This comes at a time when there are 24,000 nurse vacancies unfilled and the government’s withdrawal of bursaries for trainee nurses is making matters worse. The government must guarantee EU nationals full rights now. Initial signatories: Lord Peter Hain, David Lammy MP, Claude Moraes MEP, Julie Ward MEP, Ulrike Schmidt, Waltham Forest Amnesty Group, Dr Tommy Tomescu Alliance Against Romanian and Bulgarian discrimination, Weyman Bennett Stand Up To Racism Sabby Dhalu Stand Up To Racism, Salma Yacoob, anti-war activist Kevin Courtney NUT Gen Sec, Dave Ward CWU Gen Sec, Len McCluskey Unite, Roger Mckenzie Unison ass Gen Sec, Mick Cash RMT Gen Sec, Ronnie Draper BFAWU Gen Sec, Ian Hodson BFAWU Nat President, Rabbi Lee Wax, Dr Shazad Amin CEO MEND, Dr Lucia Pradella Freedom of Movement Campaign This statement is featured in today's Independent online and 30 March daily edition http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/article-50-brexit-eu-nationals-rights-protected-guaranteed-letters-a7655796.html Like the Stand Up to Racism facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/events/400307423679253/ EU nationals are being used by the government as bargaining chips in "Brexit" negotiations, leaving them with an uncertain future. The government must confirm their right to stay in the UK with guaranteed rights now.
    756 of 800 Signatures
    Created by Stand Up To Racism
  • Protect the name “co-operative” now!
    1. We owe it to the members of the thousands of genuine co-operatives in the United Kingdom, to make sure that the integrity of the word "co-operative” is maintained. 2. The exists a deperate need for a real 'challenger bank', which needs to be cutomer led and co-operatively ownwed.
    236 of 300 Signatures
    Created by Edgar Parnell
  • Do not force the self employed to submit quarterly tax returns!!
    Self employed people generally work over 50 hours a week - many work considerably longer hours. They get no job security or holiday allowance. Their salary is not paid if they are sick and yet they contribute hugely to the nation's wealth. Many self employed people manage all aspects of their business from the PR, to office admin, to ensuring that they keep up to date with H&S, keeping accounts etc as well as delivering the core nature of their business. A three monthly submission process of tax return would create an unacceptably huge administrative burden on self employed people. It would stifle our collective ability to deliver our core business. It would discourage entrepreneurialism. In terms of the arts and third sector self-employment - it would add further administrative duress to an already ailing and underfunded landscape.
    19,292 of 20,000 Signatures
    Created by Tania Holland Williams
  • Break up The City’s mega-banks: pass Glass-Steagall!
    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.
    362 of 400 Signatures
    Created by Steve Merriman
  • Save Warrington FutureTech
    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.
    810 of 1,000 Signatures
    Created by Carrissa Price
  • Keep Walkers at Peterlee open
    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.
    2,067 of 3,000 Signatures
    Created by Darren Meadows
  • Save the Viking Hoard for Galloway
    The magnificent Galloway Viking Hoard, buried in the region’s soil 1,000 years ago for safekeeping, should have its home in Kirkcudbright’s new art gallery. We are calling on Fiona Hyslop to help make sure this happens and The National Museum of Scotland to agree. This would be good for tourism and the economy in a region that has suffered greatly in recent years and would make Scotland’s 2017 Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology something to celebrate.
    5,238 of 6,000 Signatures
    Created by Cathy Agnew Picture
  • Save Our Camp
    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.
    1,061 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Shannen Gale
  • challenge proposals to permit companies to end index linking pensions
    Millions of retired people rely on their pension payments keeping pace with inflation.A leading firm of actuaries has calculated that this would result in a 30% drop in income over the average period these payments are paid. Apart from anything else this would dramatically reduce the spending power of the retired, badly effecting the economy, and create a "pensions apartheid". It is totally unacceptable for people to be denied what they are legally entitled too under the terms of their employment/retirement.
    2 of 100 Signatures
    Created by steven hope
  • National Maximum Wage
    Fairness in Society.
    4 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Dave Mole
  • Scrap the 2017 Business Rates Revaluation
    Small businesses are already struggling. Many are seeing their rateable value triple. This will cause thousands of small businesses to fail.
    46 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Rob Edwards
  • Everyday business, banking & taxes
    Most children that leave school do not know how to approach & open a everyday bank account... Or put together a business idea and cash flow forecast.
    1 of 100 Signatures
    Created by John Barrett