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Stop Referring to Migrants as 'Illegal'It has been almost forty years since the UN recognised that referring to migrants as 'illegal' is dehumanising, discriminatory, and above all, incorrect. Since 1975, the UN has used either 'undocumented' or 'irregular' to refer to migrants that 'do not fulfil the requirements established by the country of destination to enter, stay, or exercise an economic activity'. As Editor-in-Chief of the BBC Tony Hall has the mandate to implement this change and correct inaccurate reporting. The BBC continues to use the term 'illegal' with no justification. A headline as recent as 15 May 2014 reads: 'Illegal migration to EU rises by nearly half'. As a public service broadcaster and influential media organisation the BBC ought to abide by its own clear editorial guidlines that say: 'We...are committed to achieving due accuracy in all our output...Impartiality lies at the core of the BBC's commitment to its audiences'. Unfounded discrimination against migrants is a clear breach of these standards. Human Rights Watch recently observed, 'The term “illegal”...reinforces prejudices about nationals of a particular country or persons of a particular race.' The term incorrectly suggests that migrants are criminals and encourages prejudiced views about those individuals. Cecilia Malmström, European Commisioner for Home Affairs clarified the issue in 2010. She said, 'Let me be clear about my vocabulary...illegal migrants do not exist. People may come to the EU and might be required to use irregular ways...but no human being is illegal'. This petition supports the use of the word 'undocumented' instead of 'irregular' as 'irregular' retains connotations of otherness and deviation from a perceived norm, marking individuals as abnormal and continuing to estrange migrants. For more information see: http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/24/dispatches-why-we-should-outlaw-illegal http://picum.org/picum.org/uploads/file_/TerminologyLeaflet_reprint_FINAL.pdf http://www.un.org/esa/population/migration/index.html14 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Matthew Bevington
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NO charges for contacting the PoliceThe charging of citizens for contacting the Police for non emergency calls is counterproductive as it deters people from reporting suspicious activity. It is also grossly unfair and unjust to ask people to pay twice for a service that should be available for everyone to use. Charges for non emergency calls are listed here: https://www.gov.uk/call-charges18 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Robert Riley
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BUS FLOOR TO ROOF HEIGHT INAPPROPRIATEThe current floor to roof height is low and a passenger is not going to always realise that the height of the vehicle is low that they will bend over and duck their heads to sit in the rear of the bus, especially as all buses other than this newly introduced bus have relatively ample head height when accessing all bus seats. A passenger made a complaint that they literally hurt themselves experiencing neck and head pains approximately 3 days after the incident, that they felt the need to make a complaint after stepping up on a step to access a rear seat they hit themselves firmly on the head on the low floor panel of the bus. Contrary, to the findings of the Automotive Engineer - Defects Investigation, Andrew M Tudor, in his letter dated 4 August 2014, who feels "VSB accepts that the head room at the rear of the vehicle is restrictive, however, this should be clear to occupants, as the roof panel remains level, the floor level raises as it progresses down the bus with a number of steps in it and the view clearly shows that the amount of head room for the rear seats is restrictive." Obviously, this statement that VSB accepts is not the case for all passengers travelling on the bus that choose to make their way to sit in the rear seats for any reason, which in the case of the person that made the complaint was to sit in one of the only available seats on a crowded bus.58 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Andrea Lanning
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SUPPORT YOUR FIRE-FIGHTERS PENSIONS ,OUR FIRE SERVICE AND FIREFIGHTERS ARE PRECIOUS , THERE IS TALK OF PRIVATISE THE FIRE BRIGDE .27 of 100 SignaturesCreated by NICOLA BOWE
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STOP THE POLICE INVESTIGATING THEMSELVES!As we have seen in recent exposures regarding racism, just 1% of these complaints were upheld, can we really believe that 99% of those complaints were untrue? This is also reflected in many other complaints. Very few appeals, when made, are also upheld. it is common sense not to allow public bodies to investigate themselves. Let us have truly independent complaint investigations for everyone who feels they have a complaint regarding the police, that is only fair for those people who have suffered unfair treatment at the hands of the Police. Even the IPCC itself has been critical of local police forces investigating themselves stating:'Police forces are still failing to respond to far too many of the public’s complaints despite improvements made to the complaints system in 2004 and additional guidance issued by us to forces back in May last year'. They also criticised the time it takes for complaint to be dealt with, which is on average 6 months! Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075045/Police-failing-investigate-thousands-complaints-officers-6-10-appeals-upheld.html64 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Kathy Owen
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We want ethical care for our elderly & disabled people in North SomersetWe believe that elderly and disabled people in our community deserve the best possible level of homecare to help them live independently and with dignity. In order to make this happen homecare workers need to be treated fairly and decently so they can do their jobs to the best of their ability. UNISON are therefore calling for this by asking North Somerset Council to adopt our ethical care charter. Across the country too many people who need care and too many care workers are not treated with the dignity they deserve. A number of other councils such as Islington and Reading have already done the right thing and adopted UNISON’s Ethical Care Charter. Please add your name and ask that North Somerset Council take responsibility for ensuring better care for our elderly and disabled people and for better treatment of our homecare workers. We are all going to need care at some point in our lifetimes, it is only right that the people who need it and the workers who provide it are treated with dignity and fairness. For updates visit www.northsomersetunison.blogspot.co.uk & follow @nsunison on twitter or North Somerset UNISON on facebook.92 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Helen Thornton
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Save Strood's Bryant Road LibraryBecause The Library here is quiet and 302 people petitioned against the move and The Council took no notice of 5000 signed signitures We had tones of meeting with them still no notice was taken We have to stop them David Cameron would not interveen with the Medway Council our Facebook page get ignored so what next please61 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Daren Terry
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EPSRC, do you still cover up academic fraud in the UK?EPSRC is a branch of Research Council UK, the largest public funding agency in your country. It supplies hundreds of millions of pounds in funding every year. See www.epsrc.ac.uk. The pretense is that this money is given to Research Organizations with adequate procedures to tackle scientific fraud. This is not so. In fact, fraud in publicly funded research has promoted the careers of incompetent people at British Universities. I know most of you won't know much chemistry, but there is Wikipaedia to check up simple scientific facts: what would you think, after checking that aluminum sulphate is Al2(SO4)3 and phenol an acid, I told you that two academics at two of the top five Universities in the UK wrote a research paper where they gave phenol as an alkali and aluminum sulphate as AlSO4? (Pst! Now that you are at the Wikipaedia site you could make a donation... ;-) ) And remember, corruption only spreads...It is therefore in your interest that public funding is not abused. Also, by claiming that organisations funded by EPSRC have procedures to deal efficiently with fraud lends legitimacy to such institutions when dealing with people they have damaged. For example, I want to confront EPSRC with a range of allegations which includes those made in this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2umhkGxHbasY241U3huLUZQTzA/edit?usp=sharing in an example case which still affects me.7 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Federico Talens Alesson
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Open an inquiry into the sale of Royal Mail by the UK GovernmentThis is a public service, created by the hard working people of the UK in past generations, which has been sold off to make money for the government - but sold at a low price to ensure the certain people and agencies made money on the sale of the shares after going private. This is illegal, against the wish of the people, and a complete sham from a government who are supposed to represent and work for the will and welfare of the people. A full investigation should be held, and those who are found to have made money by insider knowledge held accountable.85 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Simon Zielonka
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Reduce threshold for qualifying petitionsA recent petition against the closure of Sure Start children's centres containing 6,000 signatures was insufficient to trigger a debate in full Council. This stifled debate and thus undermined democracy. 1500 signatures should be sufficient evidence of widespread public feeling on any given issue and therefore should be enough to trigger a debate in full Council.85 of 100 SignaturesCreated by robin symonds
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Fair Pay For Nurses and other NHS StaffLets get nurses and other hardworking grassroots NHS staff the pay rise they deserve. MPs have had a 10% pay rise in the last year, cost of living is said to have gone up by 13% in the past year or so, yet nurses have been refused a 1% pay rise. Some hardworking nurses are having to visit food banks to get by, is this right ?33 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Luke Hipkins
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Say no to Amazon taking over Tube station ticket officesAmazon has avoided tax in the tens of billions of pounds and it is inappropriate for them to be given such high profile locations to promote themselves and sell to the public whilst starving the public purse of much needed tax revenue and taking advantage of job losses at TFL with the closure of ticket offices.42 of 100 SignaturesCreated by chris smith
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