Mark Spencer MP recently received a free game bird shooting weekend courtesy of lobbying group British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC). We are, in turn, asking our MP to stop accepting gifts from shooting lobbyists and from now on support a ban on the damaging practice of driven grouse shooting. There are many very good reasons for banning driven grouse shooting: -Government subsidies support this practice (at a time when everywhere else is feeling the brunt of cuts: why aren't millionaire landowners?); -the illegal killing of grouse predators (especially the hen harrier, which is now almost extinct in England due to persecution on grouse moors); -grouse moors are extensively 'managed' in such a way that causes far higher flood risks downriver; -increased water pollution (which inflates our water bills- there is evidence that bills would be cheaper if the rich man's driven grouse shooting was banned); -increased greenhouse gas emissions due to the practice of burning the moors to keep a habitat that boosts grouse numbers; -millions of birds are killed each year.

This is incredibly important, the level of animal cruelty has become unbearable, these animals have no voice and nobody to represent them politically in the world of law making. In 2016 how can we say that we live in a civilized society with the amount of animal abuse, when vegans and veggies are openly laughed at as being loonies just because they respect the animal kingdom and an animals right to life, the animals desperately need a voice and we want that voice to be the labour party.

KEEP BACKING THE BILL! KEEP SIGNING THE PETITION! KEEP WRITING TO YOUR MP! ** UPDATE 15/03/2017** The postponed 2nd Reading of the NHS Bill is scheduled for 24th March 2017. It is so far down the list that it is unlikely to be debated. The NHS deserves more than this. Please email/tweet/facebook your MP asking them to support the NHS Bill. We are in this campaign for the long haul.** ** UPDATE 31/10/2016** The NHS Bill has been published in full on the parliament site. We need MPs to support it on 4th November in the House of Commons. Keep our NHS Public are organising a rally of support outside parliament from 11am-1pm - all welcome. It is unlikely the Bill will proceed further on this day, but the campaign - and the pressure on MPs - will continue. **UPDATE 30/7/2016** On 13th July 2016, the NHS Reinstatement Bill was successfully presented in the House of Commons, by Margaret Greenwood, Labour MP for Wirral West. Although opposed by Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, he did not call for a vote and so it was introduced by acclamation. The debate was well attended by Labour MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn. We think it’s positive the Bill wasn’t voted down, was presented by a Labour MP and has the support of the Labour front bench. But it needs to be published in full before its second reading on 4th November 2016, so we'll be keeping a close watch. **UPDATE 12/3/2016** We have been amazed at the number of people who have signed this petition, even since the debate closed. Fantastic. Please don't be put off signing as every signature helps to show and build support for the Bill.** **UPDATE 11/3/2016**The petition was formally handed over on 11 March 2016, on the day the Bill was discussed in Parliament. The Bill was filibustered by Conservative MPs who spent 4.5 hours talking about their Bill, so only 17 minutes was left for the NHS Bill. However, there is a huge groundswell of support for the NHS Bill, and we will be looking at ways to reintroduce the NHS Bill to Parliament. But we need to build more support from MPs, especially those in the Labour party. So PLEASE do write to your MP asking them to back it. The campaign continues.** The NHS in England is being dismantled. NHS services - including acute and emergency, children’s, elderly and maternity care - have been deliberately underfunded since 2010. The comprehensive care we’ve come to expect continues to be cut back. Many services have been handed to private companies such as Virgin, Serco and US giant United Health, hiding behind the NHS logo. Valuable NHS buildings and land are being sold off to property developers, often as a result of the exorbitant costs of paying for new hospitals built under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). These are our services and our assets. We the public own them. And polls repeatedly show that most of us want to keep our NHS. Privatised services cost the NHS and tax payer far more than when provided by our publicly owned and publicly run NHS. That is because public health systems don’t seek profits. They don’t need to pay dividends to shareholders. They don’t have the added costs of private sector loans. And they don't have to pay the management fees that private companies charge. A public NHS also doesn't have privatisation’s heavy marketing and contract administration costs of extra lawyers, accountants and management - at least £4.5 billion annually on one estimate and rising. Just cutting them, not NHS services, would go a long way to cover the shortfall between government underfunding and the NHS' needs over the next 5 years. These huge commercial costs and the chaos caused by the ongoing NHS fragmentation are the direct result of privatisation. This is endangering the quality and safety of our public healthcare. Privatisation isn’t just bad for the tax-payer. It's bad for our health. The Bill was presented to Parliament in July 2015 by Caroline Lucas MP with the cross-party support of 77 MPs. It is backed by the Green Party and the SNP, as well as by Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and other Labour MPs, one Plaid Cymru and one Liberal Democrat MP. Please sign the Petition to show MPs that we, the public, want them to reinstate the NHS as a public service. It is their responsibility to do so. And please write to your MP - whatever party she/he belongs to - stating your wish and urging him/her to back the Bill to bring back our NHS in England. You can find out who your MP is, how to write your letter and get more information on the NHS Reinstatement Bill Group’s website: http://www.nhsbill2015.org/ And join in the conversation on Twitter: @nhsbillnow and #NHSBillNow. Launched on 11th February 2016 this Petition originates from the NHS Reinstatement Bill Group, which includes the Bill’s co-authors Professor Allyson Pollock and lawyer Peter Roderick. Backing for the Bill continues to come from NHS personnel across the spectrum, from paramedics, nurses and Junior Doctors to senior consultants and managers. Over 300, including well-known names (Alan Bennett, Keira Knightley, Melvyn Bragg, Damian Lewis, Helena Kennedy, Stephen Frears, Alexei Sayle, Darcey Bussell) signed a letter of support published in The Guardian on 4th March 2016: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/04/why-we-support-the-cross-party-nhs-bill

TTIP is a threat to our NHS, jobs, environment and hard fought for rights that we enjoy as workers and citizens. It is a secretive deal that will allow for the interests of wealthy corporations to be put before those of citizens and the elected governments that represent them. It will allow multi national companies to sue elected governments in secret courts for policies that they deem to be harmful to their profit making ability. These courts have been used to sue governments for bringing in a minimum wage, placing health warnings on cigarette packages and halting fracking due to environmental concerns to name but a few. TTIP is an undemocratic corporate power grab that will displace jobs and open up our public services to increased privatisation. We want no part of this deal, make North Lincolnshire a TTIP-Free zone! Join the Facebook group here - https://www.facebook.com/groups/northlincsagainstttip/ More information on the TTIP-free zone campaign can be found here - http://action.globaljustice.org.uk/ea-campaign/action.retrievestaticpage.do?ea_static_page_id=4189

We are being asked to vote on something which will possibly change the future of Britain and haven't been given the facts from which to make a choice.

In May the government will block charities, who receive a government grant, from being able to lobby and campaign against government policies. A clause inserted into new and renewed grant agreements  will state that Charities can't take part in "activity intended to influence - or attempt to influence - Parliament, government or political parties". Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, said the new rules were "draconian". "This is tantamount to making charities take a vow of silence and goes against the spirit of open policy-making that this Government has hitherto championed." Meanwhile big business, who receive government grants can carry on spending over £2.5bn a year on lobbying Westminster.

Despite attempts to persuade him privately, Iain McNicol, General Secretary of the Labour Party, is refusing to budge on the cost of Youth Conference. Labour are already charging elected delegates £40 for their conference pass (seven times the national minimum wage for most young members), this is without provision for accommodation or travel, meaning in reality the cost of Youth Conference will come to £200 or more for most delegates. This is the first Youth Conference in two years and the first youth elections conference in three years. Delegates have been elected by the entire youth membership regionally to represent them at #YL16, the lack of funding to get delegates there is pricing young members out of democracy and only the Party can resolve this issue. Unless this issue is resolved, Young Labour's democracy runs the risk of looking like that of pre-universal suffrage Britain, in which only those with wealth will have the right (or ability) to vote; the Chartists, whose struggle led to the creation of the Labour Party, would not be impressed.

This government have made pledge after pledge , promise after promise to repair the damage from this disaster and to ensure that it never happens again, yet they have kept none of their promises . There is substantial evidence to show that logging has been a major cause of flooding in the region and yet the priority isn't to restore the road for local people but use it to recommence the very activity that caused the problem in the first place. This government has no concern for the environment or local interest but only for profit. It continues to make the same mistakes for its own greed. "The A591 repairs are a blag,it is in working order apart from the GAP which they are not working on,they seem to be concentrating their efforts on forestry operations! Something must be done!!! I saw lots of heavy forestry machinery using the road which is strange as we are being told it is undermined and I saw no evidence of the whole mountain moving!!!" 30 January 2016

This is a smoke screen to avoid public accountability. It is supposed to be a time when serious questions are asked and serious questions are answered. MP's represent the public and the public have both the right to be heard and answered. MP's when ridiculed, held to scorn and derision, are standing in the place of the Public and should behave and be treated accordingly. PMQ's has become a Circus.

Current draft guidance from Ofcom (which would affect the coverage of private broadcasters such a STV) categorises four of the five parties currently represented in Holyrood as 'major parties', the Scottish Labour Party, SNP, Scottish Conservatives, & Scottish Liberal Democrats. The fifth party in parliament, the Scottish Greens, fall under the 'minor parties' category alongside UKIP. This is despite UKIP having no representation at Holyrood at any point in it's history. Since the parliament's inception five parties have been continuously represented, the five represented currently. To treat one of these parties as being in a tier below the rest, particularly given the Greens' strong polling over the last two years, would create an unfair and unbalanced broadcasting environment for the election.

Parliament has to be renovated. It's crumbling and the roof is leaking. To renovate with MPs in situ would cost £2.2bn more than if they moved out and take up to 29 years longer according to a BBC report. MPs might not like it, but moving out permanently to another part of the country is a no brainer. In any case no other western democracy has the political, financial, sporting, tourism and cultural centres in one city. The UK does. Its crippling the country. It causes immense congestion in London and massive distortion to the economy as a whole and as a result makes it more difficult for the UK to compete. So why do our MPs not want you to read this? It is surprising. Permanently moving Parliament and providing on-site residential accommodation would give our MPs the opportunity to prove that they are not the self seeking, greedy individuals, loathed by many as a result of the expenses scandal. How? Well they would no longer own second homes that had their mortgages paid for by the public purse, but which they could sell at a vast profit when they left Parliament. There would be no profit for them if they lived in purpose built, publicly owned accommodation in the South West, North East or West Midlands for instance. They would be doing something that was in the public interest but not in their own. That they won't do it without there is a huge public outcry is a given and even then they will fight and rubbish this suggestion. The region that gets the new Parliament would see huge investment and employment opportunities open up. Civil with massive savings in unemployment benefits and big increases in income tax revenues. This money could be invested elsewhere in the UK, thus ensuring all regions benefit. The investment would be No region would suffer. Londoners would see price pressure on homes reduce, but tourism related jobs increase. House inflation would be controlled and not ripple out to the rest of the country in the way it does now, thus helping to keep the cost of living stable. And the boost the poorest region got by hosting Parliament would reduce dependency and mean there could be lower taxes or increased spending for all regions. So this hurts no region and benefits all. Please help push our MPs into taking this action by signing this petition and then requesting your MP to give their support. They will have to vote at some point in this Parliament and it is important they get this decision right.

It is important that all disabled veterans are supported by the government as it is the same government that placed them in areas of conflict that has resulted in them requiring financial supports as a result of the injuries they received while serving their country this including loss of mobility, loss of their ability to maintain their basic personal care, ie such as washing dressing, nutrition. Please support this petition to ensure that those U.K veterans who have been left permanently disabled do not also find themselves financially disadvantaged due to the these changes. Ian Duncan Smith needs to remove this process, provide a fair system and be forced to support disabled veterans and not just on Poppy Day. It will only take a few minutes of your time, but a life time of difference to improve the quality of life for disabled veterans.