Every child has the right to grow up in a loving family environment. Without family support refugee children risk being exploited and possibly trafficked. So Angus MacNeil MP has brought forward a Private Members’ Bill which would give refugee children the right to be safely reunited with their family in the UK. Refugee children are often fleeing danger, war and political unrest – and laws in our country are only adding to this suffering. The Refugee Family Reunion Bill would help put an end to this – and provide three key things to grant children the right to a happier future. - Give unaccompanied refugee children in the UK the right to sponsor their parents to join them - Extend the age from 18 to 25 for parents to sponsor their children to come to the UK - Reinstate legal aid for refugee family reunion cases This Bill seeks to improve the lot for people who have found themselves in the worst situation possible having fled their homeland as refugees. It has support from members from seven parties – Government and opposition. It is not party political it is a humanitarian issue and would bring the UK into line with a majority of European countries if passed. https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/public38/images/mp.gif

Maryama fled war in Somalia in 2004 and claimed asylum in Dublin. After being refused asylum she travelled to Belfast in 2011 from where she has been deported to London and Dublin many times. She cannot return to Somalia as it is personally too dangerous for her. She has been cruelly separated from her nine children for the past fourteen years. It is essential that she stay in the UK as Belfast is her home. We call on the British government to end the inhumane treatment of Maryama.

The police continually insist they value dialogue with campaigners who oppose plans to drill for oil and gas in local communities. It doesn’t feel that way, however, to people who are taking part in protests against these activities. Instead, they have condemned the way their human rights have been repeatedly trampled on by the police, how concerns raised with senior officers about aggressive policing are ignored and how formal complaints are hurriedly dismissed. Campaigners say officers have pushed them into hedges, violently dragged older people across roads, shoved others into speeding traffic and persistently made arbitrary and incomprehensible arrests.  For eighteen months, the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) has kept promising to review the direction it gives local forces on the policing of these protests and at last, this now seems imminent. Despite pressure from Netpol, however, the senior officer leading the review has been extremely reluctant to consult directly with campaigners, despite their invaluable first-hand experiences of the way policing operations are conducted. We say: meaningful dialogue and genuine accountability means listening to critical voices. We want Lancashire Assistant Chief Constable Terry Woods - the NPCC Lead on Shale Gas and Oil Exploration - to take consultation seriously and formally invite members of the public to submit their testimony on the policing of local anti-fracking protests. The NPCC then needs to brief all the participants in the consultation on how its national guidance has subsequently been updated and improved.

It is inhumane to imprison people indefinitely, without being convicted of a crime, often with no legal representation. As one of the detainees has said "We want the Home Office to listen to us and stop the injustice of indefinite detention..It is the uncertainty that is most difficult, I can deal with imprisonment if I know my sentence. But here, there’s no criminal record, and no clarity about what's going to happen to me. It's a pain that we all bear on a daily basis." (Al Jazeera 28.2.18 - https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/women-detained-yarl-wood-hunger-strike-180228195926024.html)

Introducing anti-homeless benches is not going to solve homelessness in Southampton. The council have a responsibility to support people living on the streets by providing shelters. Instead they are making it harder for those without a roof over there head to get by. Benches can provide a place to sleep that is off the ground and dryer than the floor, and sleeping in the town centre is often safer for people sleeping rough, due to CCTV. Hiding societies problems does not solve them. We want Southampton council to act now!

Detention is an inhumane and unfair system that tears families and communities apart. Right now, people can be held indefinitely with no release date and can wait for months or even years for a decision. It destroys people's lives - people are forced to put their lives on hold, and the uncertainty of when they might get out makes it incredibly tough to get through each day. This is part of the government's attempts to create a "hostile environment" for undocumented people, refugees and immigrants in the UK. So people in Yarl's Wood are on hunger (and labour) strike to push for their demands.

At Yarl's Wood IRC in Bedfordshire 120 inmates are currently on hunger strike on these issues and others. The poor care at Brook House IRC has been exposed on Panorama. Detainees in IRCs are among the most vulnerable people in Britain. They require our support.

If this erroneous decision is not rescinded then it would create a two tier urgent care system that would exclude, workers, visitors and those that participate in the full range of sporting fixtures that happen in the area from accessing and using the urgent care centre: putting untold pressure on KGH A&E and the East Midlands Ambulance Service.

The Home Office quietly announced, without debate in Parliament, that West Yorkshire Police will be rolling out on-the-spot fingerprint scanning on 10th Feb 2018. The checks will include UK Border Agency and Criminal Records databases. Over 30yrs ago I was fined for a minor offence and my fingerprints were recorded at the time. If I were to encounter a stop-and-scan check whilst with my boss or an important customer, they would be able to tell instantly that I had a criminal record, and even if I wasn't fired I'd be looked at unfairly for promotion. Worse still, with UK Border Agency database checks, we know that the Police will disproportionately target ethnic minorities. We have seen how incompetent the UKBA are at dealing with EU applications for permanent residency, and you can be sure that many legal EU citizens will be falsely arrested during these stops. PACE (the Police and Criminal Evidence Act) s61 currently states that the Police can only take your fingerprints without consent after you've been arrested or you're caught red-handed. However, by virtue of having these scanners the Police will intimidate people into giving consent. Please sign the petition to stop this unfair system, which hasn't even been agreed to by Parliament. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/police-trial-new-home-office-mobile-fingerprint-technology https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/section/61

We were all disgusted when Gloucester City Council put up these posters in Gloucester suggesting people should not give to those sleeping rough on the streets and suggesting they have accommodation. The posters were clearly a 'prelude' to the introduction of Public Space Protection Orders in Gloucester (PSPO's). In other parts of the country, these are being used to 'socially cleanse' cities and towns of rough sleepers so that they are essentially 'banned' from certain areas. Rough sleepers can also face fines if found in these areas. PSPO's give councils the power to remove people for non criminal behavior and the latest Home office advice (December 2017) states that PSPO's should not be used to target rough sleepers. This is a cruel and ill thought out approach to solving homelessness in Gloucester . In Gloucester many vulnerable people have no accommodation and due to 'ideological' cuts to funding, they have little, if any support when they're on the streets. By introducing PSPO's, the council will only move the problem, but not solve it. What's more, the most obvious solution would be for Gloucester City Council to open more shelters and open buildings that they already own for the homeless as there is nowhere near enough accommodation available in Gloucester.

Personally, I often forget to donate to food banks until I see the crate at the exit of the supermarket, and by then I'm all packed up and ready to go home. Of course, I could be more aware, and work on making it become a habit, but at the moment, I'm not very tuned in, although I'd love to be! Anyway, when I do my online grocery shop, which I am now trying to do on a more regular basis, I thought there was a significant change that could be made which would allow me to donate to food banks whilst doing the shop. For example, when I get my two tins of tuna for a discounted price, I could add one of those tins of tuna into a separate 'food bank' list. Rather than delivering these items to me, they could go straight into a food bank deposit system. Obviously it would need to be a simple user interface that doesn't get mixed up and confuse people and suddenly you receive the items you were trying to donate and the food bank receives the full order... So it could be quite difficult to do (I've got no idea, I don't work in systems!). Anyway, this is just an idea that I believe could work really well and could result in some valuable relationships between supermarkets and those in need.

Big businesses need to take responsibility, and stop harming our climate. Throughout the world more and more wildfires, heatwaves, and floods show that we must take urgent action to achieve a safe and healthy climate. HSBC Unlike some other banks, HSBC invests much less in solar or wind energy, which are now good value. You can switch to a less harmful bank. RWE (Npower) Energy generator and supplier Npower is mostly owned by the huge multination RWE, which uses an awful lot of coal. You can switch to another company which uses clean energy. Danone Danone’s brands – including Evian and Volvic – sell bottles made of unrecycled plastic. Once they shape up and commit to making these changes, we'll target other irresponsible companies – and you can suggest some. By signing and sharing this petition you’re telling businesses they must stop harming our climate NOW. Find out more about CLIMATE SERIOUS and how you can get involved: www.climateserious.org #climateserious