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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fairness in Society.

Small businesses are already struggling. Many are seeing their rateable value triple. This will cause thousands of small businesses to fail.

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.

There is only a limited amount of money available now and it should be maximised to attract as many visitors as possible in the long term.

Blueberry Hill is a small family business, the last independent shoe retailer based in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire. We have been established for more than 55 years and for 30 years we have been selling Dr Martens. Begining of January 2017 Airwair International closed our trade account, the reason been "we are repositioning our brand" and we weren't spending enough with them. Our livelyhood is based around the sale of Dr Martens, without them we may have to close down after 50 years of service. We don't want this to happen. So we want to change their minds with you help.

The nuclear option for electricity is dirty and dangerous. On Anglesey lets focus on renewable to generate more jobs and a sustainable future without the risk to the locality and the planet, with no radioactive waste. Talk to the people of Trawsfynydd, they thought it was safe now look at all the families devastated by cancer, a radioactive lake and an eyesore there for a thousand years.