Kevin Donovan of Defend the NHS says the following: You may have read in the press or online (or more likely may not have heard) about the major health data collection exercise which the government has initiated. Under changes to legislation, your GP can now be required to upload personal and identifiable information from the medical record of every patient in England to central computer servers at the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Once this information leaves your GP practice, your doctor will no longer be in control of what data is passed on or to whom. And private companies will be able to buy your information for just £1 (ONE pound!). This information will include diagnoses, investigations, treatments and referrals as well as other things you may have shared with your doctor including your weight, alcohol consumption, smoking and family history. Each piece of information will made identifiable by uploading it along with your NHS number, date of birth, post code, gender and ethnicity. Health data has always been collected* but this time it’s different. NHS England – the body now in charge of commissioning primary care services across England – will manage and use the information extracted by the Health and Social Care Information Centre for a range of purposes, none of which are to do with your direct medical care. These ‘secondary uses’ include patient-level tracking and monitoring, audit, business planning and contract management. Why should we worry? It seems clear that one hidden purpose of this exercise is to lubricate the galloping ‘marketisation’ of our health service, for example to allow health insurance companies to make huge profits from cherry-picking low risk patients for health cover. Over time, and as in the USA, if we can’t afford a health insurance premium (which is very likely if we are poorer and/or have any condition which may be expensive to treat) we won’t get free access at the point of need to medical care. It’s a nightmare! GPs’ hands are tied. They have been told it’s an offence not to provide the data. But patients can choose not to do so. How? Read these articles. In paragraph 4 you can download an opt-out letter for you to complete and use (template opt out letters for patients to use). http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-practice/practice-topics/it/eight-weeks-to-inform-patients-their-data-is-going-to-be-harvested-gps-warned/20004562.article#.UlF8er5wbmR http://medconfidential.org/how-to-opt-out/ http://opendemocracy.net/ournhs/phil-booth/your-medical-data-on-sale-for-pound http://medconfidential.org/2013/nhs-9-who-gets-to-see-your-information/ We doubt that many people know what’s happening – especially older patients and/or those without Internet access – so please distribute this information widely to your contacts and urge them to take action NOW. It’s OUR NHS not the government’s to sell off to their friends in the City. Thanks

We believe that the actions of the current Government to implement very significant changes to the funding of schools by undermining and cutting out Local Authorities are leading to a centralisation of power, an undermining of democratic accountability and will greatly increase the costs of running schools through the lack of economies of scale and the pool of expertise which these Authorities provided. Far from being 'free' from Local Authority control schools are, in reality, in danger of losing Local Authority support - their expertise in finances, HR, legal issues, etc represents support delivered in a cost effective way and timely way. We deplore the Governments ideological approach to the question of education and its attitude towards professionals within the educational field. Above all we denounce the failure of the Secretary of State to listen to the opinions of senior educators, Trade Unions and parents. The Secretary of State for Education fails at every count to listen to others and we deplore the vision he has for education as outdated, undesirable and unworkable. His arrogant attitude has led to the tearing up of a Primary Curriculum agreed by the teaching professions, Government, Locals Authorities and parents and the proposal of a new secondary national curriculum opposed by his own advisers which then had to be completely revised. Furthermore changes mean that some 'state' schools now require a uniform costing over £200 and his proposals regarding free school meals will prejudice some small schools. These concerns are echoed by expert opinions such as those which follow below: The freedoms he claims are available only to free schools actually apply to state schools. But since he hardly ever visits ‘bog standard’ schools, he wouldn’t know that many of them buzz with innovation. The one freedom available to free schools, which no sane school leader would want, is the right to employ unqualified teachers ………It’s time Mr Gove came clean about his real agenda. One he does know is that free schools are ripe for takeover by global businesses seeking to make a profit from education.” (Dr Mary Bousted General Secretary, Assoc. of Teachers and Lecturers) “Gove wants us to believe that he is driven by a desire to get more children “to succeed academically.” I have never met a teacher who did not want children to succeed academically, but teachers know that there is a lot more to education than narrow academic success. The secretary of state has ridden roughshod over the views of parents, the concerns of teachers and the advice of academics.” (Brian Boyd. Emeritus Prof. Of Education) “If free schools are doing well (except for some!) because they are free from local authority control and can decide things for themselves, does that mean that Gove will now introduce a bill bringing the national curriculum to an end, instead of extending it, as he currently proposes, even including pressure on how to teach phonics ? The National Curriculum does not have to be taught in free schools or academies, anyway, so why impose it on local authority schools?” (Prof. Norman Thomas, St Albans)

Men who have been given Abiraterone and have had the expectation of receiving Enzalutamide after Abiraterone failure, are now denied this potentially life saving treatment. They are now going to die!

The Banking Reform Bill re-treads the well-worn ground of ring-fencing banks’ risky investment operations from consumers’ money with Osborne threatening‘complete separation’ of banks’ different arms should they flout the new rules. He warned that there will be no more ‘too big to fail’ and that no government would ever again bail-out an entire bank. ‘When the RBS failed, my predecessor Alastair Darling felt he had no option but to bail the entire thing out. Not just RBS on the high street, but the trading positions in Asia, the mortgage books in sub-prime America, the property punts in Dubai,’ said Osborne. ‘I want to make sure that the next time a chancellor faces that decision they have a choice: to keep the bank branches going, the cash machines operating, while lettering the investment arm fail.’ LET USE KEEP OUR MONEY NOT THE RICH PEOPLE OUR COUNTRYS THEN MYBE WE CAN CUT TAX

Global warming petition Global warming is causing extreme weather events around the world, costing an increasing number of lives each year. And unless drastic action is taken, at a local, national and international level, it is going to get a whole lot worse. Michael Gove has been forced by public outcry to keep climate change on the National Curriculum. But we need to keep the pressure on. The Global Warming song includes specific actions, such as “Stop oil, gas and coal being mined”. By promoting the song in schools, the Government could show that it is serious about taking constructive action, rather than just being full of greenwash. You are invited to sign the following petition, to keep the pressure on: “We call upon the Department for Education to promote the singing of the Global Warming song (see link and words below) in primary and secondary schools as a way of showing that the Government is serious about shrinking the national carbon footprint” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9g_Ucr4twQ&feature=youtu.be Global Warming Song (to the tune of ‘What can we do with the drunken sailor?’) Chorus: What can we do about global warming? What can we do about global warming? What can we do about global warming? Shrink our carbon footprint! 1. Walk, cycle, bus and train Car share, avoid the plane Holiday at home, learn to love the rain Shrink our carbon footprint! 2. Insulate homes and get them lined Stop oil, gas and coal being mined Use tidal, solar, wind and find we’ll Shrink our carbon footprint! Chorus: What can we do about global warming? What can we do about global warming? What can we do about global warming? Shrink our carbon footprint! 3. Organic, local, seasonal eating Recycle, mend, turn down the heating Share, cooperate, stop competing Shrink our carbon footprint! Watch out! The seas are rising Cry out! The seas are rising Bale out! The seas are rising Save our lovely planet! 4. Don’t believe the greenwash, keep on prying Tax millionaires, stop envy buying Climate change deniers, they’re all lying Shrink our carbon footprint! Chorus: We can do a lot about global warming We can do a lot about global warming We can do a lot about global warming Save our lovely planet! Lyrics by Oliver Swingler and Making Waves choir, Cullercoats, UK – Version 3 March 2013”

The petrochemical industry in Grangemouth already severely affects the climate in Falkirk and the surrounding districts. The cutting, treating, replanting and transporting of the raw materials is simply exporting the carbon emissions to the supplying nation/s. The super fine ash WILL escape to the atmosphere, a proven fact over years of working in the chemical industry. The massive structure will become an eye sore for generations to come. A wood dust explosion, will be more devastating than any we have seen so far in the history of Grangemouth.

At the moment, disabled people are being put through a complicated procedure which often grinds down even the hardiest of claimants. It seems to be designed to deter already vulnerable people who are disadvantaged by physical and mental disabilities. I understand that there are cases of fraud, but the actual figure of 0.5% for DLA ( Fraud and Error in the Benefit System, DWP 2012) shows that a minute percentage of the 600,000 disabled people affected are making false claims.

Our library is only open 11 hours per week and costs a mere £3-50 per head p.a. to operate. We rely on it heavily for books, internet access and as a meeting place for various town groups. This is particularly true of disadvantaged groups, especially the disabled and those without a car,. Of the 8 libraries due to close in Scotland 7 are in Moray. Cutting such a life-line service may precipitate further economic decline in a town which has lost its fishing industry.

There has in the past 12 months been several accidents on this stretch road & I don't think it will be long before we will experience a fatality.

Transparency and fairness.

1 - With the discovery of Richard III within half a mile of Vaughan College, Leicester is already experiencing a significant increase in tourism: this valuable City Centre site, driven past by thousands of people can become a vital shop window for the University. 2 - This centre has been used as a vital resource for many other groups, not just the University, and demographic changes mean that far more people are looking for Continuing Education. Surely some imaginative thinking could expand demand and increase revenue. 3 - Leicester is already known for its excellent multicultural track record, with people of many cultural backgrounds living in harmony - Vaughan College could become a showcase for this, in the City Centre, easily accessible by public transport, rather than being on a University Campus.

It's important that patients in England can and rightly should expect to be treated with care, compassion and that every attempt is made to preserve their dignity at the end of their life. This is important not only for the patient themselves but also their families. The Liverpool care pathway is used in situations where modern medicine is unable to prevent a patient's deterioration and where they are expected to die within the next 48-72 hours. It ensures that symptoms which are entirely predictable and a natural part of dying are assiduously looked for and controlled to ease a person's suffering at the end of their life. The loss of the pathway will effectively remove medical ad nursing staff's ability to ease patients' suffering as they are dying and will lead to futile and extraordinary measures to prolong life where there is no chance of improvement or recovery. At a time when families should be able to calmly reflect and celebrate the lives of their loved one in peace, instead patient's final days and hours will be transformed into a frenzied circus of intravenous cannulae placement, nasoenteric feeding tubes, 6 hourly infusions of fluids and antibiotics and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Allow patients to die in peace and enable our hospital staff to facilitate this as they have been doing since the inception of the Liverpool pathway.