On March 18, the Gurgaon sessions Court in Haryana, India, sentenced 13 Maruti-Suzuki auto workers to life imprisonment. The convicted are all members of the union  movement that began organising in 2011. The conviction of these workers is a shameful example of how judicial systems around the world are playing to the tunes of corporate interests. The 13 workers convicted for ‘murder’ are all – unsurprisingly – leaders of the union.   In 2011, workers at Maruti Suzuki ‘s Manesar plant formed an independent union and demanded recognition for it. Gurgaon-Manesar is an industrial belt, where employers fear that the organising of an independent trade union, even in one factory, might  embolden workers in other factories to follow suit.  On July 18 2012, Maruti workers gathered outside the factory gate heard that their representatives who had been invited for talks inside the factory, were being subjected to physical assaults by thugs employed by the management. Union members entered the factory in a mass action to rescue their comrades. Soon after, a fire broke out in which a human resources manager tragically lost his life. Immediately after, workers and union leaders were accused of conspiring to murder him. The prosecution witnesses in the Maruti case named 89 of the accused workers in alphabetical order. Defence lawyers established that the workers had been arrested on the basis of a list provided by the Maruti management and witness statements were then fabricated to fit the list. Labour law violations are an everyday occurrence across the entire belt. Indian labour laws recognise the right of workers to form unions, but attempts to do so are met with both intimidation and victimisation. The Indian government welcomes multinational corporations to ‘Make In India’, promising them a docile labour environment and cheap and good quality labour. The Indian judicial system is seeking to criminalise unions. But the attempted suppression and criminalisation of trade unionists has seen India’s workers uniting to fight for workers rights.

The new government policies that came into force yesterday have been assessed as pushing an extra 200,000 children into poverty. One of the changes effectively punishes the 3rd child and treats them differently to their older siblings. It also places unbearable pressure on the mother to put in an official form whether she has been raped or not. Given that most rapes go unreported, or do not reach court due to the high attrition rates for sexual offences, how exactly are women in this position supposed to be able to prove their rape? How many women will choose not apply rather than relive the trauma of the assault? This new approach also penalises parents who already have a 3rd child, and who may need state support in the future due to their circumstances changing. Only their first 2 children are eligible for financial support, again effectively discriminating against the 3rd child. This is blatantly unfair, and against the rights of the child and the mother. It's crucial that this change is challenged and if necessary taken through the courts and all the way to the ECHR- for the sake of children and families. This needs to be challenged by all political parties to send a strong signal to the Government that it cannot get away with treating its citizens in this cruel and inhuman way.

We all hear many times about the necessity of war to bring peace in Syria; in fact nobody is speaking about the necessity of saving thousands of families from the breakout. The will of people is now very straightforward: it's time to stop destroying the life of innocent ones. We all agree to not be involved in any decisions of war. We all want you to finally speak for real peace. We know well that, during the wars in Iraq and Libya, western powers did not bring peace but instability, actually encouraging the rise of extremisms. They also led to massive immigration's flows towards the "doors" of Europe, such as Sicily, where the G7 will take place. Now it's our will to stop any military action in Syria and to be represented by you: please start promoting peace, be our voice during the imminent G7 and any other international meeting. We know how it is to live normal lives as normal people, then we think the safety of normal people and families in Syria should be a priority. Help us to bring them the only thing they really need: the cessation of further bombardments.

We need to know so we can stop so called peacemakers selling chemical weapons to Dictators who are killing innocent People. According to the BBC in 2014 "Britain sold chemicals and components to Syria that ended up being used in the manufacture of the deadly nerve agent sarin. A leaked Foreign Office document says they were supplied in the mid-1980s.Foreign Secretary William Hague said UK firms provided the materials and that Syria has admitted they played a role in its chemical weapons programme." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28212724

With the nhs crumbling around us and the number of people on the streets with nowhere to live...... it's stupidity of the highest order to spend 500 million on cosmetically redesigning a passport which works fine as it is

We saw the governments refusal to budge on the earning threshold for British Citizens bringing a non-UK/EU partner to live with them. Now, even if someone can afford to bring their partner to live with them, they may never be able to afford to become a British Citizen, meaning they will live with a constant threat of having to leave because of expired visas. The government has now approved its decision to increase the cost of settlement by up to 22.5%. This could increase a single applicant's costs to over £2000. More when you have a family. The government need to stop "selling" citizenship. They need to stop penalising people just because they want to become citizens of this great nation. Surely people's commitment and desire to be a functioning member of society should be of higher importance than the size of your wallet. I have heard first hand, story after story of British Citizens leaving the UK because they cannot afford to bring their partner to live with them. Families get torn apart because it is unaffordable. In addition, there are people who have committed 5 to 10 years to living and working in the UK to building a life here with the hope of become a British Citizen. Not because they want benefits (on the contrary, these are people who have not been allowed access to public funds), in fact, these are people who have only paid in to the system. They want to make a formal commitment to a place they have come to call home. But the government want to charge them extortionate fees to do this. It is time for the government's targeting of hard working people to meet their outrageous and unattainable migration targets to end! Stop penalising or not penalising people based on where in the world they come from. Stop selling British Citizenship to the highest earners! Work for the good of families and people who love this country and focus your efforts against the abusers of the system.

The practice is essential to the community and over inflating running costs without justification is detrimental to the people that it serves.

My wife has just had to 'voluntarily ' return to the Philippines after being in the UK for 3 yrs. She was a victim of typhoon Yolanda in 2013 and we have been married for almost 8 years. Due to red tape she was detained with no warning and held in an immigration removal centre for several weeks in a very distressed state. She was not allowed to be released temporarily in order to pack and prepare etc even though we had 2 bail guarantors. She has committed no crime other than being regarded as a ' visa overstayer ' and has been treated in a disgraceful manner. We have been fighting this matter for the last 3 years in a proper manner through an immigration lawyer. I have just recently discovered that our lawyer is not in fact a qualified lawyer but an ' Immigration advisor ' She is now banned from re entering the UK for a minimum of 12 months. She departed the Philippines homeless and in a traumatised condition and has returned homeless and traumatised . Her state of mind has always been dismissed and she has never been shown an ounce of compassion. We have built a home together in the UK and now we have been forced apart. I am very concerned for her wellbeing as I am for my own.

Family reunion. We have been living together 6 years and got engaged in November 2013. We need him in our family home, our community and church are supporting us. We would like to sent out petition. All his extended family are living in the UK and all settled as British citizenship. His mother lives in the UK and his dad is deceased. Will you please help us!

It's diabolical that legal aid has been removed from family law. Parents all over the country are not getting a fair hearing and through lack of knowledge and unfair rules they are having to be litigants in person.

It is abhorrent that in a country as wealthy as ours, a man has been allowed to die on the streets of Glasgow because he had nowhere to go. Glasgow City Council website states that: “As a minimum, the council will arrange for you to receive: Advice and Information Temporary Accommodation” We demand that Glasgow City Council acts immediately to fulfil it's duty to the people of Glasgow. Everyone who presents themselves at a Council facility as homeless, should immediately be provided with somewhere safe and warm to stay, until such times as they are able to find permanent accommodation. Furthermore, we demand an end to the policy of abandoning our friends who are deemed to have made themselves intentionally homeless. This unfairly punishes people unfamiliar with the law or who are victims of bullying by rogue landlords.

We need to get the homeless off the streets and into permanant shelters.this would give them an address. Which would enable them to turn their lives around.without an address they have no access to a lot of facilities.