The importance is that it would rule out conflict of interest by MPs and MEPs and make sure that all MPs and MEPs are fully serving the greater good of the UK Population. Evidence: http://www.buzzfeed.com/solomonhughes/nhs-contract-stoke https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/mps-to-have-no-role-outside-of-politics

The UK public purse loses tax that can be used to fund much needed public services 25% is too low for the new tax rules. Organisations that have little or no investment in the UK and earn large sums for example: Google made £3.3 billion they paid tax of £20.4 million small compared to if they were taxed 50 % through the new scheme: The public purse would have gained £1.65 billion that could have went to the NHS, Schools, Fire Services, Legal Aid. The consultation closes on the 4th February 2015. Evidence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d5FZU64Bnw&x-yt-ts=1422503916&x-yt-cl=85027636

The Government Penalty Notices Regulations 2013 requires schools to keep a register of young people attending school and where unauthorised absences result in a pupil’s attendance falling below 90%, then Penalty Notices may (in all but exceptional circumstances) be issued requiring parents to pay £60 within 21 days rising to £120 within 22-28 days of the notice. The justification for the Penalty Notices Legislation is for pupils to benefit from education and achieve their full potential through regular attendance. We believe that the issue of regular attendance is not restricted purely to children who we believe can only genuinely learn the value of attendance if those requiring improvements in absenteeism also adhere to the same standards in their own attendance. This petition calls upon the politicians and elected officials in central, devolved and local government to demonstrate an equal commitment and achievement of at least 90% attendance throughout the year for all meetings, committees, sub-committees and other duties required of them in their public role. The purpose of this is to help politicians achieve their full potential within their role as required of them by the British public and demonstrate meaningful commitment to the seven principles of public life - in particular to Integrity, Accountability and Leadership. Data on politicians’ attendance at committees and official duties is already collected and reported at all levels. Penalty Notices should be levied at the same rates and timescales as those issued to parents whose children fail to meet attendance requirements. This demonstrates equity and integrity.

This will save the average consumer around £180 to £200 per year as many (myself included) only have a fixed phone line service into my house because I have to in order to make it possible for broadband to be delivered. In many cases, the phone service is more expensive than the broadband. There is absolutely no technical reason why this service could not be turned off and as long as there is a copper pair into the property, the broadband will still work as well as it does now. We are effectively being held to ransom by telcos if we want fixed line broadband. This also affects most domestic, so called "fibre optic" broadband as this service is still delivered to the property over the copper wires. Whilst we cannot realistically expect that the provision and maintenance of the copper network can be carried out for free, Ofcom should look at what is fair pricing for the provision of a "naked" copper pair with only broadband provided over it and the removal of the obligation to have a fixed landline telephone service to the home as a large percentage would prefer to remove this option if they were given the choice.

In 1978 I like millions of others were told we would retire at 65 if we signed up to the 1978 Pensions Reform Act. Indeed the UK Government forced every Company offering pensions to prove their scheme was equal to, or exceeded the Pension offered by the State. I like millions of others were told we would retire at 65 now the UK Government has arbitrarily renaged on that undertaking and is making people born after 1955 retire later and later, despite giving an undertaking in 1978 that we would retire when we reached 65

Because you can't allow 90,000 children to be homeless in one of the richest countries in the world. It's disgraceful.

For too long politicians from all the major parties have publically stated they would not sell or privatise areas of public spending on the run up to elections, only to then do so once they are in office. They clearly cannot be trusted. If any area of PUBLIC spending is going to be privatised, then it should be THE PUBLIC who decide, not politicians. It should be the public who have the last say on the matter. If it is the PUBLIC's money that is going to spent, then it should be the PUBLIC who decides how it should be spent.

This proposal has been leaked by the Guardian in its article ‘EU plans to scrap laws on clean air and waste recycling’ (Guardian, 11/12/14) @ http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/11/eu-plans-to-scrap-clean-air-and-waste-recycling-laws These are quotes from the article: "...Another victim of the legislative cull is a flagship clean air directive intended to prevent 58,000 premature deaths – and many more respiratory illnesses – as well as saving hundreds of thousands of kilometres of forests, wildlife reserves and ecosystems from nitrogen pollution and acidification. “The EU should be cutting red tape, not cutting life expectancy,” said the Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder. “Thousands of people in die prematurely each year from diseases caused by air pollution. To withdraw this proposal would send a message that the new commission puts the interests of big business ahead of the health of European citizens....”

Brazil's democratic government is investigating the torture and disappearances which took place under its previous military dictatorship, but so far the British government has ignored their request for access to British government paperwork. The Brazilian government has implicated the British government which trained them in the so-called "English system" which had been used on Irish prisoners. Ex-colonel Paulo Malhaes is quoted in their report as saying "psychological torture was best, and England was the best place to learn it”. At a time when there is rightful revulsion at further revelations of torture in the US the British government must stop the cover-up and come clean about its involvement in torture by the former Brazilian dictatorship. For more details see http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/10/brazil-president-weeps-report-military-dictatorship-abuses

Elections and Referendums should be held in a way that leaves the public with 100% confidence in the outcome. At the moment the system leaves worrying areas of uncertainty, areas in which Electoral fraud may be possible. Under the current system, once votes are made, ballot boxes are commonly transported at the "Discretion of the counting officer" they are often then unsupervised and/or by un-vetted transporters. They are often transported in ballot boxes that have not been fully sealed in a 100% fraud proof way. Often these boxes will be transported with only one single identifiable tag on that unfortunately does not stop the ballot box from being opened and closed. We advise transportation of ballot boxes should no longer take place. To remedy this situation we are now petitioning you to change the way in which the ballots are held which removes any requirement for ballot boxes to be transported. All Votes should be placed and counted in the same hall. The ballot boxes should be supervised 100% of the time and they should be sealed and closed in a way that they can not be opened in anyway whatsoever. The votes should then be counted in the same hall under constant supervision. Thus removing any chance of transportation fraud. The other key area that is open to Fraud is that every ballot paper should be numbered or marked in a unique way so that they are identified as genuine ballot papers. Currently this is only a guideline and not Law. It was reported during the Scottish referendum blank ballot papers were issued and accepted by the counting officers. When the Electoral commission was contacted about this they advised that the votes will have been accepted. Use of unique identification numbers or water marks on ballot papers should be backed up by law. No ballot paper whatsoever should be accepted if it does not have the UIN or watermark. This cannot be left to the discretion of the counting officer. This should be put in place as if there was ever a case of fraud or an accident involving ballot boxes there is currently no way of identifying ballot papers as being genuine or not. We hope that you will look into this as it is a matter of upmost importance. It is very important that the UK can have as transparent and fair and democratic voting system as possible that can ensure the outcome of future ballots can be trusted to be reliable and 100% fraud free. The public should not be in ANY doubt about the reliability of Elections or Referendums.

Austerity what Austerity? £265.000 on Champers for the Lords! Disgusting, we're paying through our noses for utilities,Petrol,Food and the Commons and Lords are on a Subsidised Jolly.

Councillor Willie Young has now used twitter twice to send hateful twitters to people, both of which have used the theme of disabilities against the individual. The use of using these actions goes against the disabilities act as it falls as harassment and makes derogatory remarks of a disabled nature.