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A Tight SpotA Tight Spot The big news this week on the BBC news channel, is that Meghan Markle has started wearing tights to prepare for joining the royal family, who don’t go bare legged, for unexplained reasons of protocol. This reminds me of having to wear tights as part of my school uniform. Never mind the gender pay gap I was a child and had no income, yet I was obliged to buy a product that had built in obsolesces. My tights didn’t last long before they laddered, especially on splintery school chairs and under desks where gum had been secreted. Nail varnish only halted a ladder for so long. I was lucky if I could wear a pair of tights more than five times before throwing them out. That’s a total of a week’s wear per pair. In today’s prices Marks and Spencer sell three pairs of thick black tights for £5. There are about 40 weeks of term time in the school year, and no one wears socks in summer, or those sheer tights that tear when you are taking them out of the packet, so I spent £66 on tights each year. Or rather my parents spent £66 on tights per daughter per school year, and I have two sisters, so my parents were spending £200 per year on tights. They might have done this buy giving their daughters pocket money and hoping we learnt budgeting skills, but there was no way of saving or scheming that avoided the need for their daughters to buy 40 pairs of tights each. According to government statistics, in Britain today there are 1,564,819 girls of secondary school age in state schools, and many will attend schools where trousers are not part of the uniform for girls. So at the end of each school year British school girls have spent about £104,321,267 on 62,592,760 pairs of tights all of which are slowly decomposing on landfill sites. And I mean slowly, tights have the wondrous ability to ladder like greased lightening and decompose at a snails pace. It strikes me that this is not a great use of the earth’s resources and is good neither for the environment or the wealth of Britain’s school girls and their parents. I never liked wearing tights. I didn’t like that they failed to keep me warm in winter, and were sweaty all year round, and sweaty means fungal infections. So I say that protocol needs to move in the other direction. Wearing tights does not equate with decency. I am proud not to be royal and bare legs are fine by me. I just wish the people who design school uniform weren’t influenced by the royal family as much as they seem to be. There are better thing that Britain’s school, girls could buy with £104,321,267. Heck if all girls could wear trousers to school up-skirting and environmental disaster would both suffer a body blow. Others have campaigned on the cost of tampons for school girls, I say there’s more work for feminists to do. Ask Damian Hinds to make wearing trousers and option for all Britain’s school girls.28 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Caroline Henthorne
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Label bread containing GlyphosateIt is important so I don't die of cancer .9 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Dan Theman
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Funding for Leahurst Road PreschoolLeahurst Road Preschool is largely funded by charitable donations, so the improvements needed cannot happen without support from external funding, such as the Local Improvement Scheme. The funds applied for were in part to pay for access to speech therapy within the preschool setting. For some children this is vital developmental support to ensure a confident and worry-free start to school. A separate application was made for a covered area outside to enable our children to play and learn outside in all weather. Being outdoors promotes a healthy and active lifestyle, and exposes the children to nature and the world around them. Many children learn best through active movement, but this is limited in the winter months particularly without access to a covered play area.26 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Ilona O'Donnell
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Save the Glasgow Queen St Station ArchGlasgow residents and visitors have been delighted to see the beautiful 1842 arch revealed in all its glory after the recent demolition of the 1970s Station facade. We'd like to see the arch preserved in the proposed design.12 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Kel @GdTenementGuide
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Stop the closure of the King's Lynn railway station revenue officeNo train departure from King's Lynn prior to 07:15am will have any on-board host presence. Trains departing prior to this are the busiest trains of the morning. Two thirds of the stations up to Cambridge are rural, un-staffed sites and quite often machines at these stations are unreliable and out of service. The revenue protection role was amended to the title of passenger host and by definition the role is predominantly customer service focussed, supporting vulnerable and elderly passengers in addition to providing safety and security.158 of 200 SignaturesCreated by JoAnne Rust
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Glasgow Parking (West) CrisisGCC are doing a fantastic job by stealth of fining residents who already hold parking permits. It's night after night, scores of tickets for £60 have been issued. This will drive away our friends, relatives and above all shoppers to Byres Rd. Prepare for a retail meltdown like in 2008 when there were 12 empty shops for 5 years on one of Scotland's alleged Premier shopping street, really! And the parking wardens are not observing for 10 minutes before issuing tickets. The last Labour led council started this scheme to fill their dwindling coffers. I want the SNP led council to fix it ASAP. I didn't vote for this parking regime, neither did the people who have signed this petition. What exactly is the extra revenue being spent on, certainly not the roads! The parking wardens have arrived en mass in white mini vans at gone 6pm and stay in the area until almost 10pm every night. Clearly they are not issuing enough tickets during the daytime to meet their quotas! One person told me allegedly they posse of parking wardens are a private firm bussed in from England, I will investigate further.34 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Gail Gyi
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Refuse to welcome the UDT conference and arms dealers to GlasgowThis event showcases corporations like Leonardo and Thales that supply arms to regimes with atrocious human rights records, such as Saudi Arabia.Two of the co-sponsors of the event – BAE Systems and Babcock – are also building the next generation of Trident nuclear-armed submarines.We are appalled that Glasgow Life, a Glasgow City Council 'charity', is extending a welcome to arms dealers and those who facilitate nuclear war. Rather than wasting time and taxpayers’ money on promoting arms dealers, Glasgow Life should be following their own mission statement and enriching the lives of the people of Glasgow by providing much needed services. We call on Glasgow City Council – an administration that includes nuclear disarmament in its manifesto – to cease sponsoring the Undersea Defence Technology conference immediately, and adopt an ethical policy for future events within our city.'12 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Isla Scott
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Better funding and better access to mental health treatmentJust like physical health, we all have mental health. Sometimes we feel well and able to cope with everything. Other times we may feel low or stressed out, or struggle to get through the day. Mental health problems can affect anyone; it doesn’t matter what age or religion you are, whether you’re male or female, or your ethnicity. It doesn’t mean you’re weak, just that you need some support. Every week, 250,000 people will visit their doctor because they’re worried about their mental health. But nine out of ten people who experience mental health problems say they also have to live with prejudice and misunderstanding. It doesn’t have to be this way. Just like we need to look after our bodies to try to keep them healthy, we need to look after our minds too. From teaching others how to improve their resilience to creating outdoor spaces to improve mental health, young people could improve the mental wellbeing and resilience of families, Scouts and wider society52 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Kate Morris
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Protect Scottish WildcatThere are very few of these animials in the wild and have only recently been discovered in certain areas. These areas are now being destroyed.46 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Wendy McLachlan
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Ban the sale of single-use plastic plant pots in garden centres and plant nurseries.An estimated 5 million pots are wasted each year. They are expensive to recycle and inevitably end up outside of conventional routes of waste management, therefore adding to plastic residues in water courses and oceans. It's a problem that shouldn't exist. Biodegradable alternatives are already easily available and at low costs, made from materials such as bamboo, rice husks, cardboard, coconut and straw. Plastic pots are designed as single use packaging so even if they are re-used they have a very short lifespan and are ultimately un-recyclable.85 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Rob Mason
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Remove palm oil from foodPalm oil plantations are responsible for the destruction of rain forests and is threatening the orangutang with extinction. This is also causing negative climate change in a big way.37 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Nicholas Frost
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Pay at pump fuel stationsIt gives a message on the pump to pay at kiosk yet are unmanned at night. Please allow this option to pay for fuel as some people do not have £99 in their account every day of the week. To see this problem look at forecourt CCTV and see how many customers are driving to work on empty without getting the required fuel, hospital workers, night shift workers or college students trying to go to their families at the weekend or even your son or daughter who may not have a big budget. These groups of people could end up on the motorway without fuel. This system is about prevention of fraud yet there is CCTV and numberplate recognition. When you put your card & pin number full bank account details you are giving authority for the debit of the money from your account. If you had no intention to pay this would be surely classed as fraud with CCTV. The £99 money is held back so you cannot buy more fuel from anywhere else. A prime example would be if you put £10 of fuel in over the weekend period and you only had £100 in your account you could not put another £20 in your tank and would then become stranded and vulnerable.15 of 100 SignaturesCreated by Steven Patch
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