These musicians are the future of our orchestras, pop band ensembles, film/tv soundtrack session musicians, pit players for ballet, opera and musical theatre shows and your childrens' future teachers and mentors. The great majority of classical musicians flourished from training orchestras such as these! Closing the orchestra down is ignorant and shameful. -- "EU has just cut every Euro of funding to the young musicians of the Orchestra (backdated to last October), without so much as an advance whisper? The consequences of this decision are incalculable: the destruction of one of the world’s greatest training orchestras, generations of young musicians denied unique opportunities, and the loss of 40 years of patient tradition, and one of the EU’s greatest arts organisations. This funding decision is simply the consequence of a change in the EU’s cultural funding policy. Two years ago it was decided by the EU that there was to be no more cultural funding for any single organisation. Instead, €1.45bn of cultural support over seven years (a 7% increase on the previous programme) was only allowed to be used on projects with a highly complicated partnership structure. The new Creative Europe programme has wonderful objectives. But it is project funding to encourage national organisations to get together to become more European, not core funding for what is the original pan-European organisation. This “one size fits all”-approach to cultural funding doesn’t work for an EU orchestra with members from 28 countries, and that we were being forced into the wrong funding box. “The European Union Youth Orchestra remains one of our most distinguished ambassadors … a potent symbol of our European Union.” (Jean-Claude Juncker, EU Commission President). “I was moved not simply by the beauty of the music they produced, but also by what they stand for: the EUYO perfectly embodies the power of being united in diversity,” (Juncker’s colleague Martin Schulz, European Parliament President). And here is Tibor Navracsics, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. “The EUYO is remarkable - both for the outstanding quality of its performances and for its exemplary function … it inspires us”. And finally, the EU’s number one foreign policy politician Federica Mogherini: “This is Europe at its best … In hard times like the ones we are living, the EUYO sends a powerful message to all the young people of our continent: your time is now.” " >source: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/13/marshall-marcus-the-european-union-youth-orchestra-cannot-be-strangled See them perform: European Union Youth Orchestra - EUYO - Flashmob - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam - 23.08.2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOs72u5FjCE EUYO Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6, 'Pathétique', Movt I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lft2isVp0kk SHOSTAKOVICH 4th Symphony mov-1 (part 1/3) Vladimir Ashkenazi (BBC Proms 2006) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YVGZy2nsWA ---- Email: [email protected] Or send a letter or postcard to: Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, European Commission, Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200, 1049 1049 Brussels, Belgium

Waltham Forest Council recently had written on their website that they are planning to perform road closures in the Chingford area to reduce movement across Chingford/Highams Park areas. A linear closure at the junction of Endlebury Road and The Ridgeway, is inappropriate considering Endlebury Road used to have two entrances from The Ridgeway, now only one, with traffic calming measures put in place along Endlebury Road. And to now decide to completely permanently remove access at this end of Endlebury Road is inconvenient, unnecessary and unsuitable. Residents and commuters would have to travel along the Ridgeway through The Green, Kings Road and Larkshall Road creating a build up of traffic in these already high traffic flow areas. To shorten this route Warren Road would be used as a cut through, which would be unsafe as it is a small residential road. The road closure would make the Ridgeway less accessible to residents in Endlebury Road and neighbouring Roads such as Goldsborough Crescent. Endlebury Road is a safe road and there is no need to cause further inconvenience to the residents of nearby roads and commuters in the Chingford area. It will not benefit to residents but instead will cause a new problem to deal with. If there is an emergency such as a fire, emergency services will unable to access the Ridgeway end of Endlebury Road as fast as they could now, putting lives at risk for a closure that residents do not want. It would also be a possibility that the land gained from the closure could be built upon e.g. Flats, Residential houses MORE PROPOSED CLOSURES: 1. Linear closure in Heathcote Grove at the junction with Chingford Avenue 2. A diagonal closure at Ainslie Wood Road junction with Underwood Road and Inks Green 3. A linear closure at the junction of Beresford Road and Rangers Road Thank you www.walthamforest.gov.uk

Since the 1966 World Cup final, Bobby Moore has never been out of the football news. He was graceful on and off the pitch when he was alive, and his reputation has only been enhanced since his death. This is a special year, 50 years on from the 1966 Final plus the Queens 90th birthday - what a great year to award Bobby a posthumous Knighthood, and put a smile on British faces..... a lovely man, a great Captain of England, and a Knight of the realm!! Great.

Starbucks have never paid full tax - in case you hadn't noticed, tax-dodging is losing our economy over £8 billion a year in lost revenue. Our infrastructure including hospitals, police force & schools are at breaking point following drastic cuts to their funding by our Conservative government. We, the residents of Hythe do not want another tax-dodging big business to do business in our town, taking custom from the owners of our unique independent (tax paying) cafes. Hythe is sought after place to live BECAUSE it has a unique high street. Uglyfying our high street will also effect local property businesses as it will become a less attractive place to live. We do not want to become a bog standard, ugly high town with generic, plasticky shops like every other. Where is it all going to stop?

The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share our community with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. If you don't live in this area, click here to start a campaign for your city: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-pesticide-campaign

So today as a family we were informed that our rent is increasing in line with current market value. Basically the estate agent's want to make more money and our landlord wants more return from his investment. We have no choice but to accept or we'll have no where to live and we've made this our home. We are not able to have a voice, we are at the mercy of powerful letting agents and landlords. Is this all really fair without any consultation? How do they expect families to find money when cost of living is constantly rising? Do you not think this is ludicrous considering we aren't well off enough to buy a house but our rent is more than a mortgage. Regulations need to be introduced to stop letting agents charging over the odds and pushing families further into poverty. I think it is really unfair and they need to be stopped. If he increases it further we just will not be able to afford to live here. This issue isn't just having an affect on us but on friends and family of ours who also rent and have been forced to submit to rent increases. We have no choice as we don't want to be out on the streets but is it fair to pray on the vulnerable for financial gain? There's a shortage of social housing as it is but more people will be in need of it is we're pushed out of rental properties as we can't meet the high rents. Please help me take this forward to prevent this happening to other families. We won't be able to fight our rent increase this time as we need a roof over our head, even if it means our quality of life is reduced but we will be out on the streets if this happens again. We want the government to: 1. Bring rents under control: Introduce rent controls that ensure rents are set at affordable levels, and that increases don't force tenants into poverty. Rents should be determined by the quality, size, location and facilities of the home. Rent controls are the norm in most of Europe and were used in the UK until the 1980's.

Kenny Bailey suffers from severe memory loss problems and is paralysed down one side of his body, he has suffered a stroke, the result of this meant that he lost the right side of his head, following a DWP fit for work assessment the DWP told him he is fit for work. His benefits have now been cut and he loses £156 per fortnight. DWP have told him he must now seek work, this guy can not work or play with his family, DWP failed him by stating that he can walk 200 yards unaided and is able to get up from the chair. For this guy to attend appointments he needs to write every appointment down or he would forget where and when his appoints are. Therefore the DWP should re-instate the full entitlement of benefits to Kenny Bailey and offer him a full apology following the misjudgement of a DWP medical.

Connolly & Callaghan (owner of popular Stokes Croft complex Hamilton House) are the leading provider of homeless accommodation in Bristol. When Bristol City Council accepts a legal duty to provide housing for someone in need there is a strong possibility that it will be a Connolly & Callaghan property they are housed in. An ACORN member who wishes to remain anonymous has discovered that Connolly & Callaghan have been buying up property in our city and evicting the existing tenants in order to create more homeless accommodation. These former tenants are then forced to look for somewhere else and some made homeless. More homeless people means more ‘customers’ for Connolly & Callaghan - whose rent is paid for by Bristol City Council. And these are no ordinary rents, often charging £250-£350 per week, Connolly & Callaghan are raking in a tidy profit. In a recent letter evicting tenants from Carpenters Place in Knowle, General Manager Phil Callaghan wrote “All private tenants are being asked kindly to leave Carpenters Place and find alternative accommodation so that the company can continue with helping the ever growing need of homelessness...In order to make the transition period as easy as possible we will allow you to terminate your tenancy with us without a notice period…” As if this wasn’t enough, there have been reports of terrible conditions in the hostels ran by Connolly & Callaghan, with cockroaches, rats and raw sewage in one in Bedminster. It is unacceptable that Bristol City Council pay extortionate amounts to a private company that is cynically profiteering from the housing crisis by evicting tenants and providing substandard living conditions. We need decent and dignified homeless accommodation at a fair price and we need the Council to take the lead in making this happen. Please sign and share and don't forget to tick the box to stay in touch with us! UPDATE: Independent media organisation The Bristol Cable have covered this story in detail. For full information read the article here. https://thebristolcable.org/2016/05/bristol-firm-profiting-from-housing-homeless-by-kicking-other-tenants-out/

The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share our community with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. Often being sprayed in day time hours in windy conditions around the general public, or children and pets are left to play in sprayed areas with no warning. Many other effective alternatives exist, as PAN-UK point out, and are already in use in other European and UK cities. Indeed there are many hundreds of examples from around the world of towns and cities, both larger and smaller than Cardiff, which have effective, sustainable, economic, non-chemical weed and pest control regimes in place. Pesticide-free is possible! The Cardiff Council is currently using Darka pro to spay verges, parks and alleyways which contains the controversial glyphosate. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. If you don't live in this area, click here to start a campaign for your city: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-pesticide-campaign

This is the biggest attack on the NHS you've never heard of. For the last few years the news has been full of winter and summer crisis in the NHS, with A&E's closing their doors and ambulances unable to discharge their patients.(1) In late 2015 the Chief Executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens, created a plan to solve this by CLOSING more A&Es. He thinks if you close hospitals people will stop using them. (2) Called Sustainability and Transformation Plans he has split England into 44 areas - called 'footprints'. Each 'footprint' was told in late December in 2015 that they must have a plan by 30th June 2016 to completely change the way the NHS works. To work they had to be able to prove they could clear their massive debts within a year. To do that they have to close services and sell land and hospitals. Has a hospital closed near you? Is it under threat? Simon Stevens says that to make the NHS affordable we, the public, must get used to no longer having a major hospital within easy reach. This was planned in 2013, but shelved until after the 2015 election as being 'politically sensitive'. It looks like the STP has taken that off the shelf and that is very bad news. In 2013 there were 140 full A&E hospitals in England. We could be be left with between 40-70 A&Es. Closing A&Es is very bad for your health. (3)   There was a link to TTIP. Jeremy Hunt hired Simon Stevens to take over NHS England in 2014. Before that he was President of global operations for United Health of America where he was a lobbyist for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. He didn't oppose it. He fought to open up public health services like our NHS to US private health corporations. We know TTIP and the NHS are top campaigns for 38 degrees members. (4) Now he's in charge of our NHS! He is driving through a change which will eradicate our NHS and replace it with a US style health service. These new organisations could even be run by US corporations, holding the budgets and deciding what care will be provide and who can get it. This is what the Sustainability and Transformation Plans are doing to our NHS. See blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/08/05 and Updates, below. TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE THIS A MILLION SIGNATURES FOR THE NHS! We think this is the last big battle to save our NHS. If you want it to be there for your children and grandchildren in their time of need then fight now. (6)   BECAUSE WHEN IT’S GONE, IT’S GONE https://youtu.be/0HyL-riKqqc (1)  http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2015-01-07/hospital-alerts-whats-the-state-of-your-local-hospital/ (2) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/simon-stevens-nhs-will-be-unaffordable-without-radical-reforms-10099433.html (3) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2200339/NHS-Cuts--Savage-consequences-revealed-pensioner-waits-6-hours-ambulance.html (4) http://healthcare-competitiveness.com/wp-content/uploads/Medtronic-UnitedHealth-Group-want-to-export-U.S.-health-care.pdf (5) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/nov/11/uk.publicservices (6)https://youtu.be/GHkzmCL-uNE Also:- https://opendemocracy.net/ournhs/deborah-harrington-madeleine-dickens-and-caroline-molloy/hunt-and-stevens-leaving-their-dirty Another dreadful week for Jeremy Hunt: https://opendemocracy.net/ournhs/caroline-molloy/you-don-t-have-to-be-brain-surgeon-to-know-hunt-is-wrong-this-week-everyone-d I've also grouped them together on a page here: http://bit.ly/NHSfootprints Find out which 'Footprint' you are in by scrolling down to the map here:- https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/stp-footprints-march-2016.pdf http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/08/05/tory-plans-for-nhs-privatisation-released-during-parliamentary-recess/

His work has been life changing for so manyof our unsung heroes and he, and the continuing work he has instigated deserves the countries recognition.

The BBC, like the NHS, is loved by the British public, Following the new White Paper published on 12 May 2016, We need to be ensure that the BBC strategy is shaped by people who care about public service values, are trusted by the public and have a track record of champioing diversity and inclusivness. Sir Lenny Henry fits all of these criteria and should be invited to join the new Unitary Board.