Babcock International is a weapon manufacturer operating around the globe. They are also contracted by Devon County Council to monitor and produce reports on school attendance. After ten sessions (five days) of "unauthorised absence" they send this letter threatening a fine of up to £2500 and/or three months in prison. The letter is sent to hundreds of parents each year, causing disproportionate distress for what, in many cases, is a single case of illness or forgetting to inform the school in time. Children become worried that their mum or dad might go to prison. Parents worry their children might be taken into care, that they might lose their jobs, businesses, dignity and freedom. The threat, and potential fine and imprisonment, disproportionately affects single parents and poor people, who are less able to pay a Fixed Penalty Notice within 21 days (after which it doubles). I have personally supported a single mum who was working full time, raising two children, starting a business and having to comfort her children who thought that Mum was going to prison. Babcock's business is in fear, not in children's education.

The people of Ledbury have lost confidence in their Town Council. They are sickened by the infighting and injustice which has dominated Council life in recent years. Ledbury needs a skilled town council which can demonstrate good governance and is able to seize future opportunities for the town. The Town Council is not fit for purpose as it stands. Councillors are often ill-informed and prejudiced. Democratic reform would include: - Decisions always being made on evidence - Councillors routinely receiving training and specialist advice - The Council using experts from the community to inform its decisions - Reports and proceedings documented in appropriate detail - Providing a responsive service to questions and correspondence from the public. Other award-winning town councils like Frome, Oswestry and Milton Keynes (Campbell Park) have shown the potential rewards that come from active citizen participation in charting an inspiring future for their towns. Ledbury Town Council should aspire to these models of excellence and commit to the Nolan Principles: Selflessness, Integrity, Objectivity, Accountability, Openness, Honesty, Leadership.

This is a fantastic resources for everyone interested in food, healthy eating and cooking. It helps counter the advertising and power of the food industry and encourages millions to cook and eat healthily

People in small towns and villages need internet just as much as people in big towns and cities. An adequate broadband connection is essential for everything from paying bills to running businesses such as my own. But for some places in the UK, the internet speed is either painfully slow or non-existent. Here in Upper Rissington for example, despite 300 plus new homes now largely occupied, broadband speed is worse than 96% of the UK. (checked 16/05/2016 using http://www.dslreports.com/) It's time the government stepped up and fulfilled it's promise of decent broadband for everyone. I suggest this should mean a speed of c.5 megabit/sec download and c. 0.75 megabit/sec upload, ie roughly the median rates for the UK. That's asking for 5 times faster download and 1 to 2 times faster upload than we have in my part of the Cotswolds. Please Sign Up! Fraser Morphew.

BBC is supposed to be impartial and to choose not to broadcast this part of Eurovision, which covers refugees is highly questionable, could be seen as politically motivated or even worse censorship.

People in small towns and villages need internet just as much as people in big towns and cities. Decent broadband connection is essential for everything from paying bills to running businesses. Not forgetting of course that school children and college students need broadband access to do their homework. But for some places in the UK, the internet speed is either painfully slow or non-existent. It's time the government stepped up and fulfilled it's promise of decent broadband for everyone.

This is the biggest attack on the NHS you've never heard of. For the last few years the news has been full of winter and summer crisis in the NHS, with A&E's closing their doors and ambulances unable to discharge their patients.(1) In late 2015 the Chief Executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens, created a plan to solve this by CLOSING more A&Es. He thinks if you close hospitals people will stop using them. (2) Called Sustainability and Transformation Plans he has split England into 44 areas - called 'footprints'. Each 'footprint' was told in late December in 2015 that they must have a plan by 30th June 2016 to completely change the way the NHS works. To work they had to be able to prove they could clear their massive debts within a year. To do that they have to close services and sell land and hospitals. Has a hospital closed near you? Is it under threat? Simon Stevens says that to make the NHS affordable we, the public, must get used to no longer having a major hospital within easy reach. This was planned in 2013, but shelved until after the 2015 election as being 'politically sensitive'. It looks like the STP has taken that off the shelf and that is very bad news. In 2013 there were 140 full A&E hospitals in England. We could be be left with between 40-70 A&Es. Closing A&Es is very bad for your health. (3)   There was a link to TTIP. Jeremy Hunt hired Simon Stevens to take over NHS England in 2014. Before that he was President of global operations for United Health of America where he was a lobbyist for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. He didn't oppose it. He fought to open up public health services like our NHS to US private health corporations. We know TTIP and the NHS are top campaigns for 38 degrees members. (4) Now he's in charge of our NHS! He is driving through a change which will eradicate our NHS and replace it with a US style health service. These new organisations could even be run by US corporations, holding the budgets and deciding what care will be provide and who can get it. This is what the Sustainability and Transformation Plans are doing to our NHS. See blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/08/05 and Updates, below. TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE THIS A MILLION SIGNATURES FOR THE NHS! We think this is the last big battle to save our NHS. If you want it to be there for your children and grandchildren in their time of need then fight now. (6)   BECAUSE WHEN IT’S GONE, IT’S GONE https://youtu.be/0HyL-riKqqc (1)  http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2015-01-07/hospital-alerts-whats-the-state-of-your-local-hospital/ (2) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/simon-stevens-nhs-will-be-unaffordable-without-radical-reforms-10099433.html (3) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2200339/NHS-Cuts--Savage-consequences-revealed-pensioner-waits-6-hours-ambulance.html (4) http://healthcare-competitiveness.com/wp-content/uploads/Medtronic-UnitedHealth-Group-want-to-export-U.S.-health-care.pdf (5) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/nov/11/uk.publicservices (6)https://youtu.be/GHkzmCL-uNE Also:- https://opendemocracy.net/ournhs/deborah-harrington-madeleine-dickens-and-caroline-molloy/hunt-and-stevens-leaving-their-dirty Another dreadful week for Jeremy Hunt: https://opendemocracy.net/ournhs/caroline-molloy/you-don-t-have-to-be-brain-surgeon-to-know-hunt-is-wrong-this-week-everyone-d I've also grouped them together on a page here: http://bit.ly/NHSfootprints Find out which 'Footprint' you are in by scrolling down to the map here:- https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/stp-footprints-march-2016.pdf http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/08/05/tory-plans-for-nhs-privatisation-released-during-parliamentary-recess/

All too often we hear stories about failing care systems. A lot of the time the workers have been blamed for inadequate care.... What you don't hear of, is how little support these workers have. Also, just how little investment goes into training! if any at all. These workers endure incredibly unsociable working hours. Providing high quality care is not easy under this pressure. Higher pay would enable these workers to "share the load". Having teams able to work more manageable hours and still be able to afford to live. Local authorities and care agencies MUST be made accountable for ensuring ALL staff are properly trained regularly. They make massive profits and don't seem to invest in the workforce. This will have a knock on effect to the quality of care people receive. Overworked staff cannot provide the best quality care. I myself am a working private personal assistant. 12 years experience. NVQ 3 qualified. I work within a team which is crumbling because people cannot cope with the unsociable hours or cannot get enough hours to make a decent amount of money. All the while this is going on, the care or a vulnerable, elderly and frail lady has to be maintained. Meaning I work throughout the day until 11pm and start again at 8am. Not easy 7 days a week and juggling a family too! There is a clear link between low pay of care workers and poor quality care. The simple answer to raise standards of care from my experience is to increase workers pay. It is a demanding job role and it should be recognised as such.

The state of these roads costs the drivers a fortune in car repair and is a danger to the public and vehicles.

The BBC has never been under such threat. It's being wound down with a view to the private market taking over areas that previously the BBC was responsible for. It always was a bastion of impartiality but that has been undermined by the Government choosing who is on the BBC Trust board! As such it's become nothing more than the official state broadcaster but under the guise of an independent organisation! This is dishonest broadcasting and it must stop!

Our A&E and Maternity units at Poole Hospital are essential for local people. The road networks between Poole and Bournemouth are dismal and travel times are very unpredictable, particularly during the summer season. This means that the proposal for closure of these essential departments is extremely worrying. Local A&E staff, paramedics, doctors, midwives and police all have deep concerns about these departments being closed or relocated since longer journey times can put lives at risk. Poole Maternity unit currently caters for mums from a wide geographical area and travelling to the proposed new site in Bournemouth would be time consuming for pregnant women and their families which could potentially result in delays in treatment and care. Poole Hospital needs to keep its successful maternity service so it can continue to provide safe and effective care to the community. Other departments within Poole Hospital will also be put at risk if the A&E unit closes including Paediatric and Neo-Natal care - this is appalling for local people. A&E and Maternity units are vital services for patients - why should people in Poole be put at risk by poorly thought through and misguided cost-cutting like this? PLEASE STOP THIS MADNESS.

Everything is online nowadays. We are expected to run our affairs this way, pay bills etc yet there are areas in Orkney, Shetland, the Western Isles and many other rural areas throughout the UK that have no broadband service. We are told to buy into a satellite service as a means of solving this shortfall, yet no subsidy exists to aid in this process. Satellite broadband is costly and is beyond many pockets to fund. It needs to be the case that providers are forced to install the cables even if its a loss leader for them. They have so far avoided their responsibility and have broken promise after promise. Successive governments have failed in the same way. WHY? Today a report was published that seems to be a "WASHING OF THE HANDS" WHEN IT COMES TO RURAL BROADBAND PROMISES. When will we actually get the service we have been promised for the last decade?