A succession of MPs and Lords have abused their positions to peddle influence for money and exploit expenses. Here are some highlights. November 2002: Elizabeth Filkin resigns as Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. She was forced out after launching scores of inquiries into sleaze or corruption by ministers and MPs of all political parties. Martin Bell, an independent MP elected on an anti-sleaze ticket said, "She is an outstanding public servant and should have been offered another term of office with her resources increased and her mandate unchanged… I was aware of a whispering campaign which did indeed start within weeks of her taking office and it was done by friends of people in high places.” February 2010: Cameron attacks the lobbying industry. “It is the next big scandal waiting to happen. It’s an issue that crosses party lines and has tainted our politics for too long, an issue that exposes the far-too-cosy relationship between politics, government, business and money.” March 2010: Twenty politicians were approached by undercover reporters posing as people seeking to buy influence. Fifteen agreed to meet, ten arranged meetings, and nine secretly filmed. Labour MP Stephen Byers claimed to have influenced government policy in the past for money. Conservative MP Sir John Butterfill offered to lobby to benefit the fictitious company and use his political connections for a payment of £35000 a year. May 2011: Liberal MP Mark Oaten took a £2,000 taxpayer-funded trip to Athens for a meeting of a body that was being abolished despite no longer being an MP. Politicians can remain as delegation members for six months after an election unless they replaced. December 2012: -Then Culture Secretary, Maria Miller, shown to have claimed more than £90,000 for a second home where her parents lived. Although the Parliamentary Committee on Standards found that she had over-claimed mortgage expenses by £5,800, it did not uphold the key allegation – that she used public funds for her parents’ benefit – because she was already caring for them. However, she was forced to apologise for her “attitude” to the inquiry. May 2014: Conservative MP, Patrick Mercer, exposed after tabling a series of questions on behalf of a fictitious group lobbying for Fiji to be readmitted to the Commonwealth. He had been paid £4,000 as part of a contract he believed would earn him £24,000 a year. The Parliamentary Committee on Standards recommended he pay the money to charity but admitted “We have no powers in this matter”. September 2014: Long after the expenses scandal outraged the public, The Parliamentary Committee on Standards recommended no further action again Peter Bone, Conservative MP and accountant, for expense claims made while living temporarily in Essex. Although it was against the rules at the time – as the house was neither in his constituency or Westminster – the committee decided he had been “new and inexperienced” and did not know this. November 2014: Mike Hancock MP represented the UK at a three-day meeting of the political affairs committee in New York City in November last year two months after he quit the Liberal Democrats over a relationship with a vulnerable constituent. His travel came to £4,356 and hotel and subsistence £1,096. January 2015: Peter Lilley, Conservative MP, accused of failing to declare his directorship in an oil firm during a debate on energy prices and climate change laws. The Parliamentary Committee on Standards decided the rules had not been clear at the time and that it would “not be fair” to find him in breach. July 2015: FOI request reveals that MP and Speaker John Bercow claimed £367 for going to Luton to talk about the expenses scandal. His car to Lady Thatcher’s funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral, less than two miles from the Commons, cost £158. An official car to Canterbury for Archbishop Justin Welby's enthronement had cost of £524. September 2014: Sixty MPs spent £70,000 on new iPads, iPhones and laptops before the general election, prompting the expenses watchdog to express concern. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) wrote to MPs involved to seek assurances that they were using the equipment exclusively for parliamentary duties. Some of the MPs wrote back saying they took exception to the request. September 2015: Parliamentary Committee on Standards clears Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind despite the public being appalled by what these men were filmed saying. Rifkind had denied he was paid an MP’s salary. “You’d be surprised how much free time I have. I spend a lot of time reading, I spend a lot of time walking. I’m self-employed. So nobody pays me a salary.” And Straw boasted of his covert influence in changing EU rules for a company that pays him £60,000-a-year. "...the best way of dealing with these things (lobbying) is under the radar.”

David Cameron announced we’ll welcome 20,000 more Syrian refugees. But there’s a catch. This will take 5 years, leaving thousands of refugees in limbo. It’s now up to us to show that in cities, towns and villages all across the country we’re ready to welcome people now. Aylan, the toddler who drowned fleeing Syria, was just three years old. His town was under attack by Isis. His five year old brother and his mum also died trying to reach safety.We don't want Britain to be the kind of country that turns its back as people drown in their desperation to flee places like Syria. So let's stand up for Britain's long tradition of helping refugees fleeing war. Let's show the Prime Minister that we, the people of the UK, are proud to do our part and provide refuge to people in their hour of need. Please sign and share, or start your own petition for your town or city here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/efforts/refugees-welcome

I believe this issue is important because we have to whatever we can to save the lives of those that have embarked on these journeys. These children have had to flee their homes in search for a better life and we need to provide some sort of comfort for them. A few Syrian kids were asked What makes you happy? Moiad,8, from Dara'a, Syria said "There is no war here. Reading and playing. Helping my mum." Briksam,9,from Homs, Syria."I like going to school,studying and taking tests.Being with my family." Najam,6,from Homs, Syria. "Toys.When my older brother, Ahmed, comes to visit." These Children only want one thing , to live their lives as normal children and this is something they should be able to experience in a free world and not caught in the middle of war. We must remember that although their homes have been taken , we need to ensure their futures are not taken away from them. To find out more go to www.unicef.org.uk

TTIP is a free trade agreement between the US and EU. With the difference in laws in these countries, this deal threatens multiple areas of our lives. Our online safety, our food safety (The US use chlorine to preserve chicken), our cosmetics, our right to protest, the building blocks of democracy, our environment and our free health services. For more information pop into a local LUSH store between the 18th September and the 2nd October or watch the video below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVs0aGCGEAk

Because the monarchy is archaic and we are paying for their royalties and it's costing us millions in tax payers money that could go to for example... the NHS. Also we could build more houses on their former land.

The total destruction of the vital environment and large swathes of animal life on earth, caused by the insatiable drives of capitalism threatens the entire bio-diversity of the planet in the long term and the foundations of human civilisation in the short term. Now, that wouldn't be very nice, would it?

David Cameron announced we’ll welcome 20,000 more Syrian refugees. But there’s a catch. This will take 5 years, leaving thousands of refugees in limbo. It’s now up to us to show that in cities, towns and villages all across the country we’re ready to welcome people now. Aylan, the toddler who drowned fleeing Syria, was just three years old. His town was under attack by Isis. His five year old brother and his mum also died trying to reach safety.We don't want Britain to be the kind of country that turns its back as people drown in their desperation to flee places like Syria. So let's stand up for Britain's long tradition of helping refugees fleeing war. Let's show the Prime Minister that we, the people of the UK, are proud to do our part and provide refuge to people in their hour of need. Please sign and share, or start your own petition for your town or city here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/efforts/refugees-welcome

David Cameron announced we’ll welcome 20,000 more Syrian refugees. But there’s a catch. This will take 5 years, leaving thousands of refugees in limbo. It’s now up to us to show that in cities, towns and villages all across the country we’re ready to welcome people now. Aylan, the toddler who drowned fleeing Syria, was just three years old. His town was under attack by Isis. His five year old brother and his mum also died trying to reach safety.We don't want Britain to be the kind of country that turns its back as people drown in their desperation to flee places like Syria. So let's stand up for Britain's long tradition of helping refugees fleeing war. Let's show the Prime Minister that we, the people of the UK, are proud to do our part and provide refuge to people in their hour of need. Please sign and share, or start your own petition for your town or city here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/efforts/refugees-welcome

David Cameron announced we’ll welcome 20,000 more Syrian refugees. But there’s a catch. This will take 5 years, leaving thousands of refugees in limbo. It’s now up to us to show that in cities, towns and villages all across the country we’re ready to welcome people now. Aylan, the toddler who drowned fleeing Syria, was just three years old. His town was under attack by Isis. His five year old brother and his mum also died trying to reach safety.We don't want Britain to be the kind of country that turns its back as people drown in their desperation to flee places like Syria. So let's stand up for Britain's long tradition of helping refugees fleeing war. Let's show the Prime Minister that we, the people of the UK, are proud to do our part and provide refuge to people in their hour of need. Please sign and share, or start your own petition for your town or city here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/efforts/refugees-welcome

The Chancellor’s claim that school budgets are protected is false. Schools are facing a real terms cut to their budgets of at least 3%. This is having a serious impact on schools, as they struggle to cover the costs for basic things they are expected to provide. The expenditure faced by schools is increasing year on year. Budgets are not keeping pace with increases to National Insurance contributions, pension contributions, pay increments for support staff and some teachers, rising costs of heating and maintaining premises, nor the enormous costs related to examinations. Schools are being forced to make redundancies and cut corners on important resources. Our children and school staff are already suffering as a direct result of these savage budget cuts. If we want to maintain an outstanding Education system, we must act now!

This October we urge women and men to join us in removing the pink ribbon blindfold and in asking Breast Cancer Charities to do the same. Why, despite all the money raised, are more and more of us are getting this disease? Is it possible that we’re not being given the full picture on the breast cancer epidemic that has taken us from 1 in 12 chance of a woman getting the disease in her lifetime in 1995 to a 1 in 8 chance today? Why are Breast Cancer Charities refusing to acknowledge the environmental and occupational risk factors for breast cancer, when the evidence is already out there? ALL women need and deserve a full understanding of ALL potential risk factors for the disease that threatens women’s lives and health. Now is the time to question why Breast Cancer Charities continue to focus solely on ‘lifestyle’ risk factors such as diet and exercise, while ignoring the potential 60% of breast cancer cases for which they have no explanation. What about the role of chemical, environmental and occupational exposures in this? Why, when the World Health Organisation states that prevention (which is not the same as early detection) offers the most cost-effective long-term strategy for the control of cancer, do we not see this reflected in our cancer plans and strategies? Why is primary prevention (stopping the disease before it starts) not equally addressed along with better treatment and care? Why are those with the power to influence decisions on breast cancer policy not acting on what we already know? Join us this October in removing the pink ribbon blindfold and asking the Breast Cancer Charities the Big Question: WHY they persist in refusing to acknowledge the role of environmental and occupational toxins by ignoring decades of evidence up to the present day on the link between our lifelong (womb to grave) exposures to toxins and the escalating incidence of breast cancer? Actions: There are various actions you can take: 1. Join us in removing the pink ribbon blindfold on the 1st of October for the social media launch of our campaign. Do your own action in a group or individually - take a photo removing the blindfold and share on your Facebook page or via social media twitter - @pink_prevention Instagram - pink_to_prevention Flickr group - From Pink to Prevention. 2. Sign our petition, and share widely. 3. Get your organisation to sign up to our statement - www.frompinktoprevention.org 4. Write to your Breast Cancer Charity to ask them the big question. Please send us a copy of their response. See a sample letter on our website. www.frompinktoprevention.org 5. Visit our Facebook page for poster to share: https://www.facebook.com/FromPinktoPrevention 6. World Health Organisation Asturias Declaration: http://www.who.int/phe/news/events/international_conference/Call_for_action_en.pdf 7. For more information on the evidence linking breast cancer and environmental and occupational risk factors: http://www.frompinktoprevention.org/resources/scientific-evidence/ 8. Pink Ribbon Blindfold picture Copyright to Mark Chilvers, thank you to Unison for the use of the picture. Concept by Helen Lynn.

Aylan, the toddler who drowned fleeing Syria, was just three years old. His town was under attack by Isis. His five year old brother and his mum also died trying to reach safety.We don't want Britain to be the kind of country that turns its back as people drown in their desperation to flee places like Syria. So let's stand up for Britain's long tradition of helping refugees fleeing war. Let's show the Prime Minister that we, the people of the UK, are proud to do our part and provide refuge to people in their hour of need. Please sign and share, or start your own petition for your town or city here: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/efforts/refugees-welcome