‘The TUC in September 2012 passed the following motion by a large majority: "Congress accepts that the trade union movement must continue leading from the front against this uncaring government with a coalition of resistance taking coordinated action where possible with far reaching campaigns including the consideration and practicalities of a general strike." The TUC and it’s affiliated unions are therefore committed to consider the practicalities of launching a general strike in Britain. In the subsequent months the attacks on the working people of Britain have continued, with cuts in welfare, NHS privatisation, scapegoating of migrants, public sector job losses and restrictions on employment rights. We note however the lack of progress made in the terms of the above motion and in uniting the labour movement to mount a campaign of opposition against austerity. Therefore we the undersigned - trade unionists, workers, unemployed, pensioners, students, young people, and the disabled - call on the TUC to say YES to a general strike against all the cuts and name the day for it to begin. This should be done by no later than TUC Congress 2013.’

This is vitally important. Our bees are having enough trouble as it is without our local authorities planting non-pollinating plants. Also, I believe that if a community is given something beautiful to look at, people will get involved and start helping to keep the place tidy, which in turn will insensitive them to help control vandalism.

British Gas owner, Centrica, is currently in talks with Cuadrilla to buy a stake in its fracking operations in Lancashire. By signing this petition you can send a clear message to Centrica that if it goes ahead with the deal you will consider switching your supplier (if you’re a British Gas customer) and may also advise friends and family to follow suit. Fracking – the extraction of shale gas through hydraulic fracturing of rock – has a wide range of potentially very serious environmental and social impacts. What’s alarming is that the areas under consideration for fracking cover most of the country. Despite assurances from the government and industry to the contrary, it’s impossible, no matter how stringent the legislation, to guarantee the integrity of shale gas wells. And any well failure can result in methane leakage and widespread groundwater contamination. Even if just a small fraction of the anticipated tens of thousands of wells fail – which they inevitably will – this will have disastrous, and potentially irreversible, consequences for our drinking water supply. Fracking also has devastating implications for climate change. The London School of Economics and Carbon Tracker recently warned that 80% of known fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground if we’re to have a fighting chance of maintaining a habitable planet (http://www.carbontracker.org/carbonbubble) – and that’s before we even consider shale gas. The government and fossil fuel industry insist that it provides a low-carbon transition fuel until we develop our renewables infrastructure. This is nonsense – support for fracking will reduce the sense of urgency and divert desperately needed investment away from renewable energy. And there’s nothing low-carbon about shale gas – the energy-intensive extraction process, and inevitable methane leakage, gives shale gas a potentially higher carbon footprint than coal. Furthermore, shale gas will be used as well as, not instead of, coal. In addition to all this, fracking uses vast quantities of freshwater (expected to become scarcer under climate change) and produces similar quantities of waste water, all of which must be transported in thousands of road tankers, thundering through our towns and villages and damaging roads which will need to be fixed at taxpayers expense. House prices have reportedly dropped 24% near fracking sites in America, and there are already reports of people struggling to sell their houses in affected areas of Lancashire. And as if all this weren’t bad enough, almost all experts now agree that fracking won’t even bring down our energy bills, as many initially claimed. Quite simply, fracking will be great news for the fossil fuel industry and those in government with family ties and business interests in it. It will be very bad news indeed for almost everyone else. Public opposition has put a stop to fracking projects in Australia and Europe. It has also caused extremely costly delays here in the UK. Fracking is such an expensive, high-risk and controversial means of generating energy that it doesn’t take much to tip the balance for investors between being worth the risk and not. By keeping up the pressure on government and industry we can, together, put a stop to fracking in the UK. If you want to find out more about the impacts of fracking, and some of the myths that surround it, the following websites offer lots of useful information: http://refracktion.com/ http://reaf.org.uk/news.php http://stopfyldefracking.org.uk/latest-news/ http://frack-off.org.uk/

Our MP's should lead by example. If I was caught doing a dishonest, or criminal act I would be expected to resign my position. His constituency voters should have the final say on whether he remains an MP.

The Ritz Hotel has paid no Corporation tax for 17 (seventeen) years. Along with several other corporations the Ritz have used existing tax laws to avoid paying corporation tax. This is a more long running tax avoidance issue than any other company has been involved in. This entirely legal tax avoidance use series of tax reliefs to reduce its bill to Zero. While the country tries to manage by cutting back the welfare budget, the Ritz are happy to continue to avoid paying tax in the UK.

Because the rivers have not been dredged for many years, their capacity has been reduced. As a consequence and because of the very heavy rain over the last year, a number of main roads across the Levels have been flooded almost continuously since mid-November 2012.(The same number of roads were flooded in May 2012.) As a consequence, school buses, cars and lorries face long detours and delays, with increased fuel consumption and damage to minor roads. Journeys into hospital, which should take 20 minutes, last over an hour..A number of villages (such as Muchelney) were cut off completely for weeks. Vast areas of farmland have been submerged and numerous small farmers face ruin. Some 150 houses (involving up to 500 people) have been flooded out - some more than once over the last 3 months. In some cases, the houses were flooded 30 inches deep in brown filthy water. More than one famiy lost all their furniture. Householders had to abandon their homes for Christmas and the New Year.One elderly lady, who had lived in her house for more than 50 years, had to be rescued by the Fire Service and has now been living in a small holiday let for nearly 3 months.Small businesses, such as log suppliers, have seen their livelhoods destroyed. The Somerset Levels are an important area for wildlife and consequently tourism (there are no fewer than 9 SSSIs in the area). In the May 2012 floods, nests were washed away and nestling birds drowned, The same will happen this spring.

This is a national problem driven in part by developers with their land bank areas of green belt. The north of Bristol is no exception, where South Gloucestershire Council have proposed to build a total of 22,000 houses at central government behest, and 3,200 will be in Stoke Gifford/Winterbourne, 1,200 of which are being built at Harry Stoke and 2,000 are proposed on the green belt East of Harry Stoke ref: LEOHS. Filton Airfield and Cribbs Causway are brown field sites, more than capable of accommodating the majority of this requirement. There is serious vehicle congestion in and around Stoke Gifford and the proposal will only bring more traffic estimated to be around 6,000 vehicles onto the all ready congested road network

The A814 between Dumbarton and Helensburgh is the missing link in a network of cycle tracks in the area. It is a busy, twisting and narrow road and the pavement is in most places unsuitable for a bike. Cyclists are forced to cycle on the road, which causes delays and frustration to traffic and puts cyclists at serious risk of injury when vehicles do pass.

Carers usually carry on looking after other(s) until they drop. Carers services help stave off this for very modest sums. If they cannot care as they are doing, the financial costs fall on the NHS, Derby council etc. Carers are twice as likely to go to their GP's as the general population. Carers are adults as well as children and it's estimated there are 5,000 of them just in Derby. We need your help to demonstrate the community supports this campaign by 4th January when the Derby City Consultation closes.

I've been concerned about fracking ever since I saw the "Gaslands" film which showed what individual American citizens had experienced after allowing the gas companies to drill on their land. It's the chemicals they use with high pressure water jets to fracture the earth underground, that do the damage, and the film showed how the poison gets into the ground water, animals died and people became chronically ill and had no redress whatsoever in the States. We cannot allow this to happen to our precious water supplies in the UK.

Shale rock contains natural gas trapped in the ground and can only be released by building a number of wells on pads which drill deep underground vertically and horizontally. The rock is blasted using a mixture of sand water and some chemicals. Benzenes and other toxic chemicals are needed in the process to shatter the rock and release the gas. The water flows back and Methane that has been trapped underground as well as 'N O R M' Naturally Occurring Radon gas can escape. The process of flaring the gas can release the Methane and Radon. Earth quakes can occur and at least 50 small earthquakes occurred in Blackpool last year. The movement of rock can also cause subsidence of a wide area. France has banned shale gas exploration so far and many parts of North America have moratoriums in force because of the dangers to health and the environment. It is a fossil fuel and so is not carbon neutral. The government will fail in reducing carbon emissions and so the green agenda once hailed by the P M as important will fall apart and other carbon neutral energy sources such as wind, wave and Solar power will be neglected. It has been made known that the government will be prepared to give the Shale Gas companies tax breaks when the re start their operations soon. This is unacceptable when so much is at stake in the carbon neutral industry which does not pose health risks.

How can humanity evolve when there is oppression and suppression in this world