Advantages: Would reduce... north/south divide City influence SE housing pressure SE transport congestion & need for new runway The need for HS2? Housing benefits/high London rents and make parliament physically less distant, more accessible boost the economy outside London Drawbacks? cost (probably neutral) reduce SE housing price bubbles upheaval for MP's and civil servants London no longer the capital (but still tourist attraction)

Privatised energy has failed citizens. For evidence please see: www.weownit.org.uk/evidence/energy Meanwhile, the Referendum on Independence has created an inspiring re-engagement in politics across Scotland and some brilliant ideas about what sort of society we should work together to create. Now that all the drama is finally over, it is essential we keep the pressure up and utilise the 'new powers' to make these ideas a reality. New books such as 'Common Weal' (2014) and 'Yes: The Radical Case for Scottish Independence' (2014) both foreground the need for the Democratic Public Ownership of our essential services and infrastructure, in order to move towards a green economy and a more just society. Therefore, this petition has been created alongside another to the Minister for Transport demanding the Public Ownership of Scotland’s Railway. Please sign both and share the links below to help spread the word: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/publicrailwayscotland https://you.38degrees.org.uk/p/publicenergyscotland This petition is supported by: http://www.bringbackbritishrail.org/images/pftp_supporters.png To add your organisation to this list, please use the 'Contact User' button above.

Approximately 4,000 new cases of cancer in children and young adults are diagnosed in the UK each year. Be Child Cancer Aware, a parent led and run charity has already sent out millions of signs and symptoms awareness cards with the result that a number of families have received an early diagnosis. Ben's diagnosis is featured on their website. We ask the UK government to officially support this campaign to empower parents with the knowledge that might save the life of a child they know or love. The charity Be Child Cancer Aware introduced and has been successfully leading this awareness campaign for over 4 years without any official support. They now look to the government to recognise the importance of knowing the main signs and symptoms of all childhood cancers.

The right of self-determination is an essential part of british society and is important for the longetivity of peace and prosperity. It also furthers british values of fairness, equality, reasonability and justice.

We are better together and diminished apart

The Hunting Act is in urgent need of strengthening, to enable the authorities to clamp down on illegal hunting. At present, hunts can escape prosecution – and nearly always do - by cynically claiming their pursuit and killing of a hunted animal was “unintentional”. This nonsense is enabling hunts to carry on as if there were no ban at all. Over 80% of the British public support the ban, but hunters appear to believe they are above the law. 50,000 hunters signed a Declaration before the ban came into force stating they would defy it, and continue to hunt as before, thus displaying their total contempt for democracy. REIN IN THE HUNTERS – STRENGTHEN THE HUNTING ACT

At Fineshade Woods in Northamptonshire, Forest Holidays are planning to erect 70 deluxe timber lodges with ancillary accommodation, plus a new road, within the woods against the wishes of all the local Parish Councils and with over 200 objections raised. Authoritative organisations such as the Wildlife Trust the Council’s advisors, RSPB, badger groups, bat groups, butterfly organisations and ecologists of many hues have all objected but their views appear to be being ignored by the local planning authority. Requests for at least an Environmental Impact Assessment have been rejected out of hand with statements that there will be no significant environmental damage when 40+ hectares of semi ancient woodland on a Local Wildlife Site that is subject of an application to be considered as a potential SSSI are subject to development. At nine other Forests in the UK and with at least two further planning applications in the pipeline as well planning applications for additional chalets in existing projects, Forest Holidays appear to be being given Carte Blanche to take possession of public Forests and convert them into a private business; they are supported by Lloyds Development Capital and the Forestry Commission. In Feb 2011 the “save our forests” campaign was considered to be over when the Government said the forests would not be privatised. The Forestry Commission and Directors of Forest Holidays and their financial backers appear to have reversed this policy by taking possession of public forests on 125 year leases and using that natural resource for their personal gain. This must be against the stated policy of the current Government and against the wishes of the 700,000 people who voted supporting the original save our Forest campaign.

The secret negotiations for CETA (official name: Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) between Canada and the European Union have already been concluded, without consulting any of us! - Even though Canada and the EU have been negotiating this so-called “next generation free trade and investment pact" behind closed doors since May 2009. But CETA is better understood as another corporate power grab. If signed, CETA will give multinational corporations the right to sue countries for loss of profits in secret courts of arbitration if those countries seek, for example, to pass laws to prevent fracking, to regulate prices, or to raise the minimum wage. Also (like TTIP), CETA will enable the multinationals to pressurise communities to privatise basic public services like water systems, transport and energy - and much more. As the social justice organisation the Council of Canadians points out: "The secret negotiating process, as well as the overall corporate agenda behind next generation deals are an affront to democracy on both sides of the Atlantic." If all this sounds horribly familiar, it's because CETA would have exactly the same adverse effects on our society and economy as TTIP - the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership planned between the USA and Europe (for further info on TTIP, see the 38 degrees campaign and petition to stop TTIP). Here are some examples of current cases arising from other, very similar "free trade agreements" that are already in force. Tobacco giant Philip Morris is suing Australia for billions of dollars in lost profits because the Australian government took action to reduce teenage smoking by stipulating plain packaging for cigarettes. Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is suing Canada for $400 million because Canada has introduced laws to keep essential medications affordable. Worst of all, those proceedings are being held in secret international courts to which only corporations have access, in accordance with "investor-state dispute settlement rules" which also apply to CETA (and to TTIIP). This basically gives greedy corporations power over our social values, our legislative procedures and our trading standards. That's why CETA must be stopped now! To quote the corporation-loving TheCityUK website: "Canadian and the EU officials have agreed a complete CETA text, to be initialled at the EU-Canada Summit in Ottawa on 25 September 2014."... (That's only weeks away!)... "The gains to be had from the EU-Canada CETA are potentially very large." ...(Yes, you can bet they are - but only for big business!)... "The agreement – all 1,500 pages of it - now needs to be translated into all EU languages and reviewed by lawyers. Once approved by the EU’s 28 member-states and Canada’s ten provinces it will then be formally signed (probably in 2015). It is expected to be ratified by the EU's 28 member states and the Canadian provinces in the course of 2016." So big business is very confident that this undemocratic deal is going to go through, to the huge benefit of its profits. But if enough of us raise our voices and raise awareness about CETA, we can still force our politicians to think again about selling us out to big business. Please sign the petition to stop CETA.

this is extremely important this is Scotland's future we are talking about . its our oppertunity to start a fresh . the BBC is a definitive no supporter and this is clearly showing by the coverage and and lack of support for yes Scotland . theirs more publicity for better together the more they peddle the media and it has to.stop theirs less than 3 weeks before we vote

There are hundreds of thousands of British Ex-pats around the world that have worked all of their lives in the UK and then retired abroad. They have paid their taxes in the UK for all of their working lives, many still paying today and should not now be penalised if they choose to emigrate. I also believe that it is 'uneuropean' in as much as it impedes the freedom of movement within member states by the population of the UK by effectively taxing them to leave. This policy punishes mainly those ex-pats that have served their country in the armed forces, police, NHS, fire brigade and civil service and shows that the UK government has no loyalty to it's most deserving of citizens.

Based on data from the ‘Crime Survey for England and Wales’ around 473,000 adults were victims of sexual offences (around 404,000 females and 72,000 males) on average per year from 2009-2012 (Sexual Offending in England and Wales, 2013). 90% of victims of the most serious sexual offences reported they knew the perpetrator, yet only 15 per cent of victims of such offences said that they had reported it to the police. Stating that it was ‘embarrassing’, they ‘didn’t think the police could do much to help’, that the incident was ‘too trivial or not worth reporting’, or that they saw it as a ‘private/family matter and not police business’. We must learn from the tragic case of Frances Andrade, who tragically died at her home in Guildford, Surrey in January 2013, just a week after giving evidence in court about historical sexual abuse by her former choirmaster. Her husband, Levine Andrade, 59, found his wife, known as Fran, dead at 8am on 24 January last year. He said, "Apart from the trial bringing it all back up she felt the defence barrister seemed to be attacking her personally. "It got her completely down and she felt completely defenceless. I think she felt she was not prepared enough for the trial. She was not expecting to be attacked personally and have to answer so many direct questions in public. Much more needs to be done to provide and promote professional high-quality support services to help victims move on with their lives. Only when victims have sufficient support can they make the choice to go through the criminal justice system. More importantly victims must have sufficient professional support to endure the often lengthy and protracted court process. In the policy 'Ending violence against women and girls in the UK' it stated that the government would part-fund 87 independent sexual violence advisers and pledging £1.2 million for 3 years from 2012 to improve services. The problem is this funding will end in 2015 and 87 part-funded ISVA's are far from adequate for the number of victims we have in the UK. We need to put this on the public and government agenda before the next elections.

Closing schools on Thursdays causes maximum difficulties for child care, disrupts education if an extra day is not put into the term time.