• Jeremy Hunt, take part in a live TV debate with current Doctors and representatives of the NHS.
    The future of NHS is a source of worry for a great swathe of the population. A huge majority of Doctors, experts and professionals linked with the NHS, see Jeremy Hunt's plans as a destructive force for a public service we all hold so dear. Many of his stats (such as the 20% increased likelihood of dying from a stroke at the weekend) have been called out as incorrect by those within the industry. As well as false media claims that those involved are quaffing champagne, whilst one doctor's payslip recently proved that it is possible to be paid as little as £2.61 an hour currently. The NHS is an important part of British culture and seen by many as one of the proudest achievements of Western democracy. The fact that it has currently been dragged into a slagging match at a national level, isn't the correct way to deal with such an issue. As it is a public service, and one that the public not only relies on but also holds in such high regard, the facts should be made public, with both sides allowed a say. Mr Hunt should show he holds the NHS is the same high regard as the public, by treating this situation with the respect it deserves and having an open public debate about these important issues.
    61 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Kev Mud
  • Boycot Bauer Media Sponsors
    An innocent man should have the right to return to work. Any company acting the way Bauer has done deserves all there sponsors to find there products being boycott by he general public.
    9 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Eric Wiltsher
  • Improve Rural Mobile Phone Coverage
    With all the mobile networks claiming 99% population coverage for mobile phone signal why is only 63% of the UK land mass covered by signal. Over 4500 miles of UK roads have no mobile phone coverage at all. This is not only dangerous but it is stifling development in rural areas and holding back local businesses. The government have an arrangement with the 4 main UK networks to spend £5bn by the end of 2017 to improve this but they have already come up against issues themselves with planning permission, un-co-operative landlords, site access and power to the sites. If we can make enough noise to make them realise how important this is to our communities then they will make the necessary changes needed to push through these plans. If we don't? We can see the 2017 deadline come and go and very little will change apart from 4g coverage in cities getting faster and faster.
    18 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Scott Dennistoun Picture
  • Understanding the benefits of getting disabled people into work
    During Channel 4’s leaders’ debate, a member of the audience asked what the Conservatives plan to do to get more disabled people into work. David Cameron replied that the culture of employers needs to change. I could not agree more. I am a visually impaired qualified business administrator who has also studied business studies seeking a new job in the administrative or marketing profession. I have been asked questions during interviews that would never be asked of a non-disabled candidate – such as how I use the telephone – despite evidence of my competencies and ability to do the job. According to the Labour Force Survey, disabled people remain significantly less likely to be in employment than non-disabled people. It is not enough to comply with disability discrimination legislation or to offer “guaranteed interviews” to disabled applicants. Employers fear that disabled employees will be a burden and so reject these candidates – on grounds such as lack of experience in an area of work not essential for the job – even when they perform well at interview. This is important to me as I am a disabled young individual who is desperate to find work, but to barriers which employers put I place, cannot get a job. This is very frustrating for me, as I want to give something back to the community as wellraising awareness that disabled people can work and are just as qualified as able bodied people
    7 of 100 Signatures
    Created by isobel calladine
  • What the Frack! Regular referendums. Let the UK public vote for their future.
    Members of the public find it difficult to support a political party 100%. Our system is out of date, our MPs out of touch, the public go unheard. We agree with points made by the Lib Dems, the Conservatives, Labour, the Green Party, the SNP etc and sometimes we disagree with them all. Either way we can't communicate with the government effectively. The system needs to work for us all but instead it's dusty, nobody really understands it or cares to sort it out with any long term vision. We need to start again. Simplify. Direct questions, direct answers. If regular referendums were to take place, the public are truly part of the process, allowing us to demonstrate what we care about, that we're united and want to invest in the future of this land and it's people. Less moaning and more doing, having a proactive and fair say, feeling satisfied that the decisions are being made and supported by the majority of the UK. Let the UK public vote for their future. This Kingdom can then begin to feel proud and respected, and most importantly, united.
    27 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Tezia Perret
  • Shrewsbury 24 - Time for the truth
    24 builders who fought for better, safer working conditions by coordinating successful strike action were later convicted on trumped up charges of violent picketing and intimidating workers. There is strong evidence of interference from the government of the time. The truth needs to be told on behalf of the men wrongly convicted who are still living including Ricky Tomlinson. The government needs to stop hiding behind national security as a reason for withholding these papers. What possible issues of national security could there be from an event that occurred over 40 years ago. We all need to help them fight for justice.
    6 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Ian Steele
  • Stop HMRC wasting money by posting out 'Annual Tax Statements'
    You have cut back on staff and made your service hopeless for those who need to query you - from personal experience those on low income and having to take agency or multiple jobs in a short space of time are assumed to be tax dodgers and put on emergency rate when they are those who can least afford it, yet you neither investigate or prosecute those who are dodging thousands of pounds in tax. Use money to provide a better service not a pointless additional information exercise.
    4 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Michael Hirst
  • Stop the misleading use of the term "National Living Wage"
    The National Minimum Wage is currently set at £6.70 per hour for anyone over 21, which will go up to £7.20 (for over 25s) in 2016. This is calculated by the Low Pay Commission and is the lowest amount any UK employee can legally be paid per hour. The Living Wage is a term defined and set by the Living Wage Foundation and is calculated according to the real cost of living, including food, fuel, childcare and more. This amount is determined by independent academics. The UK Living Wage is currently set at £8.25 per hour nationally and £9.40 per hour in London. (in recognition of the fact that the cost of living is higher in London). Across the UK, one in five working people currently earns less than the Living Wage. While the introduction of the National Minimum Wage has been almost universally acknowledged as a significant step forward for the lowest paid in society, it still falls way short of the amount people actually need to live on. The chancellor has announced that the National Minimum Wage is due to rise to £7.20 per hour for over 25s in 2016, while at the same time, in a deceitful sleight of hand, he is attempting to rebrand this as the "National Living Wage". While that 50p per hour increase over the current National Minimum Wage will be welcomed by the several million people who are currently paid the National Minimum Wage, it will still be £1.05 per hour less than the UK Living Wage and £2.20 per hour less than the London Living Wage. If the Government were proposing to increase the National Minimum Wage to the amounts the Living Wage Foundation have deemed to be what people actually need to live on, then they would be entitled to re-name it as a "National Living Wage", but if not, then they have no right to hijack the term Living Wage and it should instead be referred to as what it actually is - an increased National Minimum Wage. It seems they are attempting to deliberately muddy the waters and steal the clothes of the true Living Wage, in order to deceive the public into thinking the increased National Minimum Wage will be an amount people can live on, when that is not the case. This petition urges the heads of news at BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky, as well as the editors of national newspapers, to recognise their responsibility to the British public to communicate accurately and transparently and so to only use the term "increased National Minimum Wage", as that is what it is. We also expect news presenters, correspondents and columnists to challenge any attempts to use the misleading term "National Living Wage" and to explain to viewers and readers why that term is inaccurate and misleading and to explain what the true UK Living Wage and London Living Wage are and to make it clear that they are set by the Living Wage Foundation, as opposed to the National Minimum Wage, which is set by the Low Pay Commission. But why does it matter what it is called? It matters because Britain remains an extremely unequal society, in which there are millions of people in fuel poverty and an increasing number reliant upon food banks for basic necessities. However an increasing number of these people are in work, yet they are not paid enough to sustain their basic needs. A growing number of employers are voluntarily opting to pay all their staff at least the true UK Living Wage and this is to be commended - as they really are ensuring their employees are paid enough to live on and they should be recognised for doing so. It may well seem like a semantic and technical argument, but the widespread mis-use of the term "National Living Wage" is intentionally misleading and is giving people the false impression that once it is introduced, every employee will be paid an amount they can live on, when in reality there will still be several million of the lowest paid people who will welcome the 50p per hour pay rise, but who will be receiving an increased National Minimum Wage, not a National Living Wage. The more people sign this petition, the more difficult news organisations will find it to ignore this issue and the more likely it will be that we can stop the misleading misuse of an important and meaningful term, which affects millions of the lowest paid workers in Britain. Thank you for your support and please forward this to people you know.
    44 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Chris Henson
  • Stop the Trade Unions Bill
    Yesterday, our MPs debated the Trade Union Bill again. And the Government won. The Bill passed with 305 votes for, and 271 against. This is devastating news - but the fight goes on. As the debate moves to the House of Lords, we need to highlight the attack on democracy that is contained in the Bill. The Conservative party want to be in power for a generation, and are fixing the system to make that happen. They’re making it harder to register to vote, and are redrawing the Parliamentary map in a way that benefits them. The Bill is seeking to impose limits on minimum returns and vote percentages of total membership, for those seeking to take industrial action. This reeks of rank hypocrisy from a Government who only polled just less than 25% of the electorate, yet they deem that a clear mandate to continue with their ever more punitive and regressive policy making But that’s not all. Hidden in the Trade Union Bill is a clause that is deliberately designed to restrict trade unions supporting the Labour Party financially - while doing nothing to limit the hedge funds and millionaires that support the Tories. Another clear case of "Do as we say, Not as we do!"
    60 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Lee Ball
  • 3Cosas Campaign at Royal College of Music
    Like many other higher education institutions in Great Britain, the Royal College of Music (RCM) outsources its cleaning services. The outsourced employees are faced with inadequate employment terms and the institution refuses responsibility for their conditions, unlike those employed by the college directly. The cleaners at RCM, employed by Ocean Integrated Services, receive no occupational sick pay, the statutory minimum holiday as well as meagre employer pension contributions. Our new campaign season sets out to build upon the successes last year’s successful 3 Cosas Campaign at the central University of London and to bring further its demands for reasonable sick pay, holidays and pensions to outsourced workers at the Royal College of Music .
    7 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Independent Workers Union of Great Britain IWGB Picture
  • Employment Rights 2 yrs is too long
    Currently to be entitled to employment rights (tribunals etc) you need to be employed by the same company for 2 yrs. This means that if for whatever reason you are unfairly dismissed within those first 2 yrs of service you are not entitled to employment rights, including tribunals, which in essence means the company has no consequences for unfair dismissals etc Often people are losing their jobs just before their 2 yrs is up, meaning they have nothing to fight back with (even with a union!) and companies get away with it.
    9 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Zoë Day
  • Stop the Tories hijacking the living wage
    It is important for people to not confuse the UK's minimum wage with the LIVING WAGE. The minimum wage SHOULD be a living wage.. but it is not. The 'National Minimum Wage' will still be far lower than the LIVING WAGE when it is raised by the government in 2016, yet it is being re-branded as though it is a living wage. The living wage has been researched for many years and exists to highlight what people actually need to be paid in order to have a better standard of living. The Proposed 'National Living Wage' is not a living wage! Especially when working people will face tax credit cuts next year.
    29 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Stephen Mclaren