Tower Hamlets has the fourth most expensive private rents in the country. But if you live here, you live amongst one of the poorest populations in the UK. The cost of housing is forcing working class people out of the borough. Landlords - including so-called social Landlords - are looking to make a fast buck, some have resorted to driving out existing tenants. We pledge to defend tenants against eviction. Tower Hamlets' housing crisis continues with 20,000 on the council waiting list 8,000 of whom live in accommodation unfit for habitation. This is forcing many, particularly young people, out of the borough.

This will not only end the treatment of addicts and recreational drug users as criminals, but it can also see an increase in revenues through taxation, a reduction of the government deficit by roughly £1.25 billion and a decrease in crime as seen in the US state of Colorado. The "Misuse of Drugs Act 1971" is a 43 year old law with a desperate need of an overhaul and needs to be repealed, if possible, in order to allow for a safer, better law regarding decriminalisation of illicit substances to be put in place. For information regarding the legalisation of Cannabis and decriminalisation of other illicit substances visit: http://www.clear-uk.org/ http://norml-uk.org/ And watch the documentaries: "The Culture High" and "The Union: The Business Behind Getting High".

We have now been inspired by one of USA`s most successful environmental campaigns called Think Outside The Bottle. Because of this campaign, one of the biggest states – San Francisco successfully tackled the serious problem of plastic bottles littering the City. Many more states are now following their lead. “I took a train to Liverpool. They were having a festival when I arrived. Citizens had taken time off from their busy activities to add crisp packets, empty cigarette boxes and carrier-bags to the other wise bland and neglected landscape.” - Bill Bryson; ‘Notes from the Small Island’. Do we really want Liverpool to be described and perceived this way in the World? Being committed to the future of Liverpool, we had organized a similar campaign in our city, which will help to save Merseyside’s environment in both the short and long-term. We are getting citizens more aware of the problem of plastic bottles and their impact on nature, and reduce the amount of them littering the streets and parks of Liverpool. Getting our city cleaner would also help to improve its national and international image. It will also show Liverpool again as in the forefront of social and environment initiatives. Our aim is to bring together like-minded individuals and groups to form an association. We are going to organize a meeting with the council to develop a strategy to tackle the problem of the excessive amount of plastic bottles used and the litter they create. One of our ideas is to ban sale of drinks in plastic bottles below 0.6 l. in Liverpool, like it happened in San Francisco. This could be connected to proposal to mount drinking water fountains around the city - this seems to be very helpful not only for citizens but also for visitors. Furthermore, it can help city to reduce number of plastic waste and all cost connected. We believe this perfectly fit with the Mayor’s environment improvement campaign. We are now looking for the support of other groups and organizations. We hope that you will find the idea interesting and would like to join us on our route to make Liverpool an even better place to live, for all of us and for generations to come. If you or your organization would like to join us and create this campaign with us please sign the following statement.

Brazil's democratic government is investigating the torture and disappearances which took place under its previous military dictatorship, but so far the British government has ignored their request for access to British government paperwork. The Brazilian government has implicated the British government which trained them in the so-called "English system" which had been used on Irish prisoners. Ex-colonel Paulo Malhaes is quoted in their report as saying "psychological torture was best, and England was the best place to learn it”. At a time when there is rightful revulsion at further revelations of torture in the US the British government must stop the cover-up and come clean about its involvement in torture by the former Brazilian dictatorship. For more details see http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/10/brazil-president-weeps-report-military-dictatorship-abuses

Upon speaking to a call centre employee (based in India) he was forced to work overtime to make up time taken for 'holiday'; this may not seem like a big deal, but he has no holiday entitlement for the first 6 months of his employment contract with BSKYB (or whichever third party they are sub contracting the call centre work to)!!!… can you imagine anyone here in the UK having to endure that working arrangement? It's already bad enough that these multi-billion dollar corporations take jobs out of the British economy, and although workers in the developing world may not need equal pay scale don't we as fellow workers feel they at least deserve some basic working entitlements (for example accrued holiday earned via the hours they work)… Currently in India the statutory minimum is merely 1 days entitlement for every 20 days of work performed the previous year!!!… SHOCKING when you consider SKY TV has millions of customers here in Britain paying BIG MONEY every month into the coffers!!...

1. To maintain independence and dignity for Disabled service user citizen's of Birmingham. 2. To secure the "fund"from being used elsewhere within the peoples directorate and being absorbed into the overall budget. 3. To Ensure a level of Independence, openness and scrutiny as a beacon status service performance indicator. 4. To maintain Birmingham's position as the second city, that cares for all it's citizen's and promotes Equality for All. 5. To comply with Statutory Equality Duty, Human Rights, Equality and Community Care legislation.

Everyone knows what is going on here and it is getting ridiculous: We talk about a "bad food environment" and yet there is little legislation to prevent the powerful retailers who supply most of our nutrition from using pernicious sales tack-ticks. Supermarkets know that will power is finite resource and the most effective way of getting customers to crack, is to tempt them with high sugar foods in close proximity for a long time. These counters are designed cause sugar cravings. They are deliberately overriding the consumers free will and in light of the obesity and diabetes pandemics it is a disgraceful business practice.

It is a disgrace that during this time of austerity when so many people do not even have enough to eat, and benefits are being cut that tax-payer's money should be wasted on champagne for the elite. The budget for champagne in the House of Lords alone is £65,000 according to an article in the independent http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/if-you-want-to-see-the-gap-between-the-house-of-lords-and-reality-for-yourself-then-just-look-at-their-champagne-budget-9910611.html Why should the tax payer pay for any alcohol at all for members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons? Surely this money could be better spent in this time of austerity.

Fracking is a dangerous and polluting way of getting oil and gas out of the ground. It's dangerous in so many ways: it poisons our water, it can cause earth tremors and produces a huge amount of toxic waste. And, it gives the land under our homes to giant oil corporations.

Nigel Mills admitted to having "probably had a game or two" of Candy Crush during a Commons committee hearing on pensions, but still claims he was "fully focused" on the meeting. The Work and Pensions committee help to make decisions that will effect the lives and futures of millions of people across Britain and Nigel Mills's actions, and flippant attitude in response to the allegations, demonstrate a huge lack of respect for the people he represents and how trivially he views his work as an MP, whilst perhaps underscoring a wider issue of accountability in the commons. It's time politicians took our future seriously! This is not a game!

Diesel fumes are a dangerous hidden killer in major cities of the UK. Tons of diesel particulates are breathed in by British people every year, unseen and causing untold illness and early death through their inhalation. Cars, lorries, diesel trains at stations, chocking us with this stuff every day of the year. Paris has a strategy to eliminate diesel pollution by 2020. But in the UK, their is no strategy. No serious and thorough monitoring of diesel vehicle emissions in our cities accompanied by restriction of traffic if dangerous levels are reached. No long term strategy to reduce the usage of diesel cars and trucks overall. No strategy to eliminate highly polluting diesel trains by speeding up the electrification of the rail network and replacing ancient rolling stock. Why not? Because the government couldn't care less. The government are happy to allow pollution of our cities with these noxious fumes, little caring about the appalling health effects, and making no attempt to restrict them. Cyclists, pedestrians, babies in prams, open food displays, everybody using our city streets and railway stations, are breathing in the dangerous, and unseen diesel particulates, slowly but surely damaging their health. Something must be done. Starting now. Sign this the petition to demand that the government take immediate and effective measures, and implement a strategy to drastically restrict diesel fumes from wrecking the health of many British people, setting targets for drastically reduced limits of measurable diesel particulates.

How many of you with a landline actually use it? Ofcom proposed an upto 8% cost reduction, yet the costs have just gone up by 6%+!! Ofcom produced a report that proposed the reduction in the costs of landline rentals over a number of years. At the time of the Ofcom report, 11th July 2013, the wholesale cost of a landline was £93.27 per annum or £7.77 per month. These are phone lines rented from BT by the likes of Sky, and then re-sold to Sky subscribers at a cost of £196.80 per annum or £16.40 Ex VAT per month (current price after latest price rise). The current landline rental price from Sky Is £16.40 Ex VAT per month and that's a rise of 6.49% on last years cost - yet Ofcom proposed a reduction in these rental costs! Ofcom stated in its published article 11th July 2013, and I quote: "Wholesale line rental: the regulated wholesale price today is £93.27 per year. Under Ofcom's proposals the prices will fall in real terms by between CPI - 2% and CPI - 8% every year" and if the proposal was successful the reduction in charges would come into effect on 1 April 2014 and run until 31 March 2017. CPI = Consumer Price Index. See full details of Ofcom's proposals here:http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2013/new-prices-for-landline-and-broadband-services/ What happened to Ofcom's proposals as monthly costs for landlines are still rising? Perhaps this text below explains the price rises?! According to a BBC article; Latest figures from the regulator, Ofcom, show that consumers spent three billion minutes fewer on their landlines in the year to June 2014, a reduction of 12.7% in one year alone. As a result, operators lost out on £85m of revenue compared with the previous year. "Call volumes are declining," said James Barford of Enders Analysis. "People are using Facebook or WhatsApp, or even email if they're a little old-fashioned, so operators are having to recover their costs from increased line rental," he added. see full article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30251029 The landline price increases: Sky: up by 6.49% to £16.40 a month BT: up 6.25% to £16.99 Virgin Media: up 6.25% to £16.99 Talk Talk: up 4.7% to £16.70 Why are the costs of landlines still rising and what happened to Ofcom's proposals to reduce the costs of landlines? We all understand that companies have to make money but making a margin of £103.53 per year, per landline, per customer is scandalous, especially when the likes of Sky do not have to do any work or maintain the landline, as they pass this job back to BT. We do understand there are processing costs associated with these charges though!! Let's put this into context:- SKY have 5.3 million subscribers who need a landline to receive the full TV service from Sky and use their broadband services. So, all the subscribers have a phone line, thats 5,300,000 x £103.53 (Sky's margin on landlines) = £548,709,000.00 income from landlines per year! That's over HALF A BILLION plus revenue, per year from landline charges! BT, Virgin and Talk Talk are making vast amounts of money as well from landline rentals per month. There where as of December 2013 - 22.6 Million residential and SME broadband connections - do the maths at £103.53 margin per connection! See full details here: http://media.ofcom.org.uk/facts/ 'Margin' is the amount of money made by Sky when charging for a landline:£16.40 x 12 = £196.80 less the £93.27 quoted by Ofcom = £103.53 Margin. What about the elderly that don't have SKY TV or Talk Talk TV or BT TV/Sports? These are people that need a landline to stay in contact with family and the outside world? The fact that it costs them £16.99 + VAT per month or £203.88 +VAT per annum for a landline from BT is outrageous. Is it any wonder some elderly people will not put the heating on? They probably can't afford it when they are paying £16.99 + VAT a month NOT TO TALK! In 1995 BT ran an advertising campaign with the late great Bob Hoskins and the strap line was "It's good to talk". Their next advert should use No Doubt's song 'Don't Speak' as the backing track and they should have a Dick Turpin character holding a sign with the strap line "It's great for us!" or they could pay Bork to use her version of the song 'It's Oh So Quiet" with an elderly person in a cold house, staring at the landline telephone!! The more people that sign the petition the better. "Come on BT, Sky, Talk Talk and Virgin, show some community spirit and immediately reduce the costs for landlines for the elderly and for those who need landlines to communicate with the outside world because they are house bound. Individually we can moan about the costs of landlines, sign the petition and collectively we could get cost reductions as proposed by Ofcom. Please sign. Thank You Philip Smith-Lawrence