• Lock the Gate on Drigg -No More Nuclear Waste
    To describe the UKs nuclear waste site as a “Repository” is putting a spin on the UKs main nuclear dump for "low level" waste. There is "controlled discharge direct to the Irish Sea" not to mention run off to the Drigg Stream and River Irt. Discharges to the air of radioactive gases are ongoing. According to the British Geological Society the Drigg site is above a regional aquifer. It is also "likely to be destroyed by coastal erosion" in 500 to 5000 years (computer modelling can be wrong either way) . Much of the waste is long lived and high risk. Below are a few of the reasons why it is important that Cumbria County Council Lock the Gate on Drigg: Planning Application PL\1508\05 (4/15/9012):The phased construction of additional vaults, higher stacking of containers..capping.. 1. Drigg Low Level Waste Repository (the word nuclear was dropped so as not to scare the horses) would continue to accept nuclear waste for decades to come. "Capping" is misleading. To cap” a nuclear dump is akin to putting a cap on a fizzy lemonade bottle while there are holes in the bottom of the bottle. The site will continue to leach aqueous emissions to groundwater and gaseous emissions to air. 2. LOW LEVEL: This suggests that the waste at Drigg is low risk and short lived. Neither is true. As the University of Reading has pointed out: “The Drigg site uses two disposal systems: 1) An original system operated from 1959 to 1988 comprising a series of parallel trenches excavated into glacial clays, back filled with LLW and covered with an interim water resistant cap. 2) Current disposal of compacted waste placed in steel ISO-freight containers, with void space filled with highly fluid cement based grout. These containers are then disposed of in a series of open concrete vaults. Radionuclides with highest activities in the inventory include 3H, 241Pu, 137Cs, 234U and 90Sr, 238U and 232Th. http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/16608/1/mrspaper.pdf 3. RADIOACTIVE FLY TIPPING: The chemical and nuclear dump site has moved on from the years 1940 to 1988 when chemical and radioactive waste was tumble tipped into trenches. Now the waste is compacted into steel shipping containers filled with cement. Incredibly the containers are stacked high. In 2013 the LLW management wrote: “in containers at the tops of stacks, the external capping grout has 
undergone extensive physical degradation and settlement; the lids are not full of grout, and the grout is generally heavily cracked. The state of the capping grout in underlying layers is better; most containers only show sparse cracking and typical settlement in the lid is approximately 15 mm. Standing water, sometimes contaminated with low levels of radioactivity, is present in approximately half of the containers at the tops of stacks. ..In containers at the tops of stacks, organic matter has accumulated beneath many open grout ports, with vegetation growing from some grout ports. ..Corrosion, sometimes fully penetrating, is present in some container lids at the tops of stacks…” http://llwrsite.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/30-RP-LLWRGR-PROJ-0139-Vault-8-Container-Issues-Project-MAS.pdf 4. FLOODWATER AND SEA INUNDATION: “The Environment Agency has given a formal view that “the potential for disruption of the site is an acceptable risk” By “disruption of the site” they mean inundation by sea and flood. This is a far cry from the Environment Agency's previous criticism in 2005: "BNFL (Now the NDA) has not yet demonstrated that the wider benefits to the UK from continued LLW disposal on this site outweigh the potential future impacts" We would hope that Cumbria County Council agree with the Environment Agency's 2005 findings that that the real and present threat of inundation of the Drigg site by flood or by sea is not an acceptable risk to the people of Cumbria or to our international neighbours. 5. THE COLLAPSE in 1985 of the largest black-headed gull breeding colony in Europe on the Drigg dunes has never been satisfactorily explained. The official explanation is that a fox did it! https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2015/12/29/disappearing-trick-birds-and-nuclear-waste/ 6. CHILDHOOD LEUKEMIA is officially blamed on "population mixing" due to the influx of workers firstly to the 1940 explosives factory (Royal Ordnance Factory) at Drigg and then the ROF at Sellafield. The irony of this incredible argument is that the plan for 3 new nuclear reactors at ' Moorside' a few miles from Drigg ('Moorside' is at the village of Beckermet) would involve a boom and bust influx of thousands of workers along with a further tsunami of nuclear wastes and ever more Driggs. https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-moorside-biggest-nuclear-development-in-europe Many of the Councillors expressed serious concerns at the meeting and yet the vote was unanimously in favour which, to campaigners and the wider public, smacks of something very fishy indeed. To rely on the testament of the Environment Agency who merely look at the information provided to them by the industry is reckless. All projections and computer modelling are based on information provided by the operators. Much of the Drigg site is already unable to be accessed for monitoring due to the stacking of containers. At the planning meeting on 15th July 2016 There was no discussion of a. the increased possibility of criticality with an ever increasing radiological burden. The words criticality “will not occur” cannot be applied to Drigg's LLWR : https://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2016/08/02/drigg-decision-we-are-caught-in-a-trap-no-way-out-because-we-love-nuclear-waste-too-much/ b. the ethics of denying future generations the right to protect themselves, c. whether to warn future generations not to dig or distrurb the poisonous chalice beneath the land. d. the ethics of adding to an already intolerable radioactive burden on this vulnerable coastal site.
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    Created by Marianne Birkby
  • Improve mental health in East Yorkshire
    No more life's should be lost and our sons/daughters other family members should still be here now , we miss them and don't want no more family's losing loved ones bless the forever young
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    Created by Rosie Bailey
  • Call for the dissolution of parliament
    The policies of your government are causing, the deaths, homelessness, increased poverty and child poverty, among your subjects, with people taking their own lives because they can no longer cope with the way they are being treated by your government, due to welfare cuts,and unfair sanctions, and the spare room subsidy (bedroom tax) increased risk of flooding due to cuts in funding to flood relief. All being done in the name of austerity. But with all the money the cuts are saving them why is this country getting further and further into debt.Where is all the money from these cuts going.your subjects are suffering and dying needlessly as most financial experts agree that austerity doesn't work. This government needs to be stopped before more people die or are made homeless needlessly. This government needs to be stopped before this country has been destroyed beyond repair, they are selling off one of our greatest institutions the NHS, do you really want to be the queen of a country that sees the return of workhorses for the poor because they have completely dismantled the welfare state, a country where the poorest and most vulnerable, and the disabled, can not afford healthcare, because they have sold of the NHS, This was once a great country but it is fast becoming a laughing stock around the world, when a rich country like ours is being investigated by the UN for the treatment of disabled and for child poverty. Please help to defend your subjects from the excesses of your government.
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    Created by Raymond Beale
  • Please Don't Close All Swindon's Childrens Centres
    Swindon Council plan to Decommission the following five children’s centres currently provided by 4Children service to achieve a reduction in the budget for this service  Drove  Moredon  Gorse Hill  Pinehurst & Penhill  Parks & Walcot East Instead, create a new family support service running from Penhill Sure Start Centre offering targeted help for families with vulnerable children Utilise the remaining four children’s centre buildings for early years’ education and wider community-based services The two family centres at Butterflies in Abbey Meads and West Swindon Family Centre are not affected by these proposals and continue to be funded in 2016/17 as part of the two year funding commitment made in 2015. This will also apply to the Ladybird Centre, Highworth Please also complete the consultation www.swindon.gov.uk/childrenscentres
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    Created by Fay Howard
  • Save Channel 4
    The government is drawing up plans to sell off Channel 4, even though the Channels is fully self-funding and profitable. In September, a government official was photographed entering Downing Street with a document setting out options for a sell-off. Since then, the government has refused to rule it out. Channel 4 is a public-service broadcaster quite distinct from the BBC. It offers an award-winning news programme which has shown itself to be impartial and well informed. In January of 2015 the Channel was nominated for the Responsible Media of the Year award at the British Muslim Awards. Given the misinformation and hatred peddled by some media outlets, we need responsible media more than ever. If Channel 4 is sold off, an important, independent voice in our news will be silenced. The government will make money, while the British public will be the loser. For more information visit: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/11/04/jon-snow-david-cameron-channel-4-privatisation_n_8474610.html
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    Created by Katrina MacGregor
  • Don't exclude the Greens
    The EU referendum is already going to be dominated by the voices of fear and big business that dominate our media. By giving UKIP a further platform to espouse their divisive rhetoric the situation is only going to get worse. The EU is a very flawed institution, it is undemocratic and overly bureaucratic and needs serious reform; but it also enshrines fundamental protection for people at work and the environment (among many other benefits). These are areas the Conservative are already attacking with their draconian Trade Union bill and their shameful attack renewable subsidies and the extension of fracking. By once again excluding the Green Party and ignoring our rising support the BBC is not only acting undemocratically, but is excluding progressive voices and setting the frames of reference for the EU debate in an increasingly negative way. This debate is going to be crucial to the future of society and needs to be as open, inclusive and democratic as possible. We need to ensure all views are heard, and stop them crowding out the viewpoints that care about the interests of ordinary people and our environment.
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    Created by William Quick
  • Leave the Lord's veto as it is
    This is important because without The Lords good common sense the country would be a poorer and unhappier place to live. There is more political experience in the House of Lords than than has been seen for many years. Their intervention in the Tax Credit cuts saved this government from political suicide and The Lord's veto is so rarely used that when is then it should prove a sobering notice to The Government that they are mistaken in their agenda.
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    Created by Georgina Fletcher
  • Relation Education for schools
    As a nineteen year old there have been many things that I have experienced so far in my life. We all in someway have gone though a lot that we unfortunately had no help with or anyone there to to comfort us and tell us that its going to be okay. You have the good memories that we cling to so dearly, and then there are those which are not so great. Events that should have never even taken place, especially for those so young and vulnerable. The bad memories where you think I wish I would have known ‘this’ or ‘that’ then maybe I would have not been so lost and helpless in that situation. If that were the case you could have been somewhere else today. A lot of our youth nowadays are susceptible to making very life-changing decisions or mistakes that they were not warned or aware of as they were growing up. Our education system is so set on Sex Education being improved constantly and carrying out classes to younger and younger ages each year. In doing so each generation is thinking more about sex in contrast to accomplishing a fully content life with healthy relationships amongst friends, families and significant others. Instead we end up with unsatisfied young men and women who seek happiness in the wrong things and places, they take their loved ones for granted, push their family away and allow the road to anti-social behaviour and depression to creep in where it seems almost impossible for the individual to ever be happy with anything or anyone. My aim for this petition is to launch the start of Relationship Education classes for young people. Where we can teach children the values of trust, respect, loyalty, communication, love, and integrity in the right way. From being raised in a single parent family I saw my mother in the most damaging ways as a child. I saw her beaten by men and women, I saw her heartbroken numerous times, she was also very angry with the world. But the one thing I would see in her for the most part compared to everything else was of course disappointment. She would always weep and wonder why she never saw certain things coming or how she wishes she would have done things differently or maybe to have not done anything at all. Relationship classes should have been put in place a long time ago, God knows so many of us would have benefited highly from them. Classes where we can help guide our youth, pave out the road to success and point them in the right direction is something that should be encouraged not thrown to the side. Good relationships with others should hold far more importance than Sex Education which I do still believe is essential to be taught but definitely not more significant than building a happy community with one another. I believe these classes will help our schools to see a dramatic drop in bullying, absences and insecurities. Through this scheme we will teach mutual respect, the correct manner to communicate with one another and to avoid unkind comments or gestures that would hurt your peer in any way. In addition to this procedure we will have gained a large increase in sociable engagement with other peers, good attendance, confident individuals, an expansion on creativity and most of all a happy class. Not only will this benefit children during school time but the life skills they will attain will be practiced in the comfort of their own home, with family and friends, through college, university, in the workplace and so on.
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    Created by Saira Kaur Picture
  • Save North Tyneside Nurseries
    Parents should continue to have the freedom to choose from a variety of local childcare providers: council, schools and private. Closing all the council-run nurseries will deny parents this choice. Some nurseries which are run by local schools do not open during the school holidays so this might not be a viable option for many parents, who would then be forced to move their children to privately-run nurseries. Furthermore, the council's current proposals will cause a significant amount of disruption, confusion and anxiety for a lot of pre-school children. UPDATE (18.12.15): (1) If you have already signed our paper petition, please don't sign this online petition as well! (2) North Tyneside Council will only accept petition signatures from people who live, work or study in the borough. If you don't have a North Tyneside postcode for one of these activities, please don't sign this petition. (3) Thank you for your support! There is more information about this campaign on the Facebook page "Save North Tyneside Children's Centre Nursery".
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    Created by Tony Fuller
  • Call them 'daesh'!
    Language is about communication and every time we use a term that links the terrorists to Islam we are reinforcing that connection. What they are doing has nothing to do with Islam. The danger is that ordinary moderate Muslims get tarred with the same brush. How would we react if this was a 'so called Christian group'? The words we use have a subtle but profound subliminal effect. Lets use the correct word. They are daesh!
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    Created by Susan Brown
  • Ask David Cameron if he believes he upholds the 7 Principles of Public Office.
    By the Government's own definition (31st May 1995, Committee on Standards in Public Life) the 7 Principles of Public Office are "the basis of the ethical standards expected of public office holders". By this we take to mean that all politicians in Her Majesty's Government are expected to abide by the ethical standards set out in this document; and are therefore accountable both to the public and to the members of parliament if they can be seen to have failed in doing so. In the light of large bodies of evidence which can be presented to highlight the fact that the Prime Minister has failed to uphold the 7 Principles of Public Office, I would like the the Leader of the Opposition to personally raise the issue with him, in parliament, in order to hear his response.
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    Created by Anthony Saggers
  • E. U. Relief funding for Cumbrian Flooding
    It is essential that people's lives recover speedily,lessons learnt and infrastructure updated.
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    Created by Jonathan Miller