This needs to happen now because: 1. Council tax is regressive. Band A takes about 1% of the property value but Band H takes about a tenth of that. So, the more the house is worth, the less you pay. 2. At least 2,500 homes are worth at least £1 million in Brighton and Hove but the vast majority are not even in the top Council Tax band. That’s £ billions worth of homes only contributing about £7.5 million a year to local services, a tiny fraction of their value. Meanwhile, Housing Benefit has been cut but rents in Brighton and Hove went up on average by 27% over the last year. 3. The government gave councils responsibility for Council Tax benefits but gave them the funding less 10%, adding to the burden of already over-stretched councils. This means the poorest in the City are now required by law to pay Council Tax out of meagre benefits, yet residents living in the highest value property have only seen minimal rises to their council tax bills despite seeing the value of property increase an average of 12% in the past year. 4. The top rate of tax on income was reduced by the Coalition government from 50% to 45%. This means the highest earners have received a tax cut while wages have stagnated for the majority, and benefits cut for the poorest. 5. The poor already pay more of their income in tax than the rich http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jun/16/british-public-wrong-rich-poor-tax-research 6. Rising wealth inequality in Britain is one of the highest in the industrialised world and this has resulted in perverse situation where the top 1% own the same as the bottom 55% of the population http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/15/britains-richest-1-percent-own-same-as-bottom-55-population 7. The Spirit Level research shows that wider income inequality exacerbates and increases social problems, from health, to life expectancy, to education to others see http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/ 8. Thomas Piketty shows that the value of wealth has increased faster than the value of wages, effectively entrenching the circle of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/28/thomas-piketty-capital-surprise-bestseller. Progressive taxation should be used as a policy lever to address high levels of inequality. This is something the Coalition government are ideologically opposed to but this leaves space for truly radical and progressive local politics to make bold an brave decisions. Brighton and Hove City Council has the power both to make reductions in household council tax bills due to Council Tax Reduction regulations, and it also has the power to establish free standing benefits, outside of Council Tax regulations, to make local funding more progressive. For more details and examples of what can be done, please go to our website www.newdeal4brightonhove.org This petition will be presented to Full Council in October 2014, but the campaign won’t end there. When the petition is presented, we are granted a 3 minute speaking slot. This will be available on the council’s online podcasts.

Our hospitals in east lancashire are in special measures and yet are being forced to find £30 Million in savings, Despite underfunding being the cause of the Trust's failure.The ELHT, East Lancs Hospital Trust has a serious problem in recruiting and retaining top quality Doctors and Nurses. This trust is being deliberately run down and this could be your hospital trust next. Help stop it now.

I've been in the unfortunate position of being a weekend Dad for a long time, and have felt nothing but discrimination as a result. Having recently tried and passionately fight for custody of my children through the farcical family courts, I cannot begin to imagine what must be going through my children’s minds as to why Dad is no longer available to them every day. As the primary carer due to being self-employed and at home; all the routines, bedtime stories, school runs, meals etc. that were in place prior to being made homeless by my wife a few years ago, were suddenly non-existent, and a family unit destroyed by the mother, yet people like Penelope Leach clearly feel mothers are perfect and that fathers cannot provide the same level of care, compassion, love, discipline. Having read her views I'm absolutely livid. A couple of months ago just prior to Mother’s Day I sat with my two boys (5 & 6) and they painted up two empty wooden jewellery boxes and decorated them with various craft bits and pieces. They then each made a homemade Mother’s Day card. They were both very proud, as was I of what they had done, and only too eager to give these to their mother. Yesterday was Father’s Day, and I received only a wonderful card made by one son at School. My oldest commented that he was hadn't been able to make one. While I don't expect any gifts, the fact that each year, on birthdays, father’s day etc., my children’s mother cannot be bothered to ensure that my children at least give me a card it shows how poor this particular mother is in thinking about the best interest of her children. There are some fantastic fathers out there and some extremely poor mothers and Penelope Leach does not recognise this.

I have been a registered psychiatric nurse for more than twenty years. I am gravely concerned regarding the situation unfolding within our communities and mental health services as a whole. Times are difficult and I appreciate the need for financial constraint but fear we have gone too far down this road. Following the suspension of our local psychiatric inpatient unit in 2012 our area has been without sufficient inpatient beds to meet the needs of its community. Consequently people are being placed in intolerably difficult and potentially life threatening situations, as people are discharged prematurely to free up beds, increasing pressure on dwindling community resources. Similarly people are becoming unnecessarily acute symptomatically, prior to admission, necessitating Mental Health Act Assessment, where timely intervention would minimise the need for such measures. Services are at breaking point and I fear a significant rise in untoward and avoidable incidents were sufficient resources in place. The lack of adequate inpatient beds is resulting in many of our most vulnerable being hospitalised in an untimely manner, hundreds of miles away from family, friends and the familiarity of local support and services, exacerbating difficulties arising from already fragmented care and a lack of continuity and seamlessness within service provision. Waiting times for care co-ordination are in excess of 3 months. Something I have never before encountered, leaving people in the community unsupported and without service provision. Timely intervention at the point of referral is critical to recovery, promoting well-being and optimising the efficacy of community based solutions, as alternatives to hospital admission. My purpose in writing to you is as advocate to those I serve. They are amongst the most vulnerable and I fear, increasingly neglected members of society. I respectfully petition you to bring their plight to the attention of government and support my plea to you, to support the urgent need for adequate inpatient beds, per head of the population. Services are in collapse and otherwise avoidable tragedies are going to become common place. In the last two years 1291 acute inpatient beds have been c!osed. Below is a list of individuals within my local authority, who at the time of writing are being accommodated in inpatient wards a great distance away from local facilities. There are 60 such local authorities in England alone: 19 year old hospitalised 85.2 miles away from home. 20 year old hospitalised 83.1 miles away from home. 23 year old hospitalised 48.2 miles away from home. 27 year old hospitalised 75.6 miles away from home. 27 year old hospitalised 76.8 miles away from home. 30 year old hospitalised 105.5 miles away from home. 34 year old hospitalised 222.6miles away from home. 47 year old hospitalised 82.7 miles away from home. 54 year old hospitalised 316.3 miles away from home. 58 year old hospitalised 237.8 miles away from home. 68 year old hospitalised 81.5 miles away from home. 73 year old hospitalised 69 Miles away from home. 93 year old hospitalised 81.2 miles away from home. My greatest fear is these difficulties are not locally based but reflect a national crisis within the provision of services for those in need of acute psychiatric care.

We need our hospital services back. Maternity and paediatric services at Eastbourne District General Hospital (DGH) were downgraded a year ago. The local NHS Trust said it was a temporary measure. Now we are facing a bleak future with these core services likely to be lost forever in Eastbourne. Why? In May 2013, the local NHS Trust centralised consultant-led maternity services for the area at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings leaving only a midwifery unit at the DGH. At the same time it stopped overnight care for children at the Eastbourne hospital. We were assured these changes were temporary for 18 months only. In the meantime, the East Sussex Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), the organisation which commissions NHS services, launched a review of permanent services for maternity, paediatrics and emergency gynaecology in East Sussex. It drew up six options, none of which include a two-site option for consultant- delivered services. Option 6 (selected by the CCGs) will keep consultant-led services for maternity and paediatrics at the Conquest Hospital. So people in Eastbourne will have to travel to Hastings for this care with an average total transfer time of 1 hour 34 minutes from the DGH to the Conquest. This far exceeds acceptable safety limits for many interventions such as emergency Caesarean sections. What is our alternative? Save the DGH launched an alternative proposal for the CCGs to consider alongside its six options. Option 7 keeps consultant-led maternity services, emergency gynaecology and in-patient paediatrics at both hospitals. Our proposal also maintains a level one special care baby unit and a short stay paediatric assessment unit at the DGH and the Conquest. It also goes further by stating that all core services, like emergency general surgery and emergency orthopaedics which have recently been removed, are needed and should be provided at the DGH. Option 7 maintains all of the services that the IRP stated must remain. Why do we need Jeremy Hunt's help? The CCGs made a ruling on permanent changes to services in June and selected Option 6. Then HOSC met on the 28th July and failed to refer the decision back to the Secretary of State. The IRP ruling states that these Consultant-led services must remain in Eastbourne and Hastings and therefore we ask Jeremy Hunt to intervene and enforce the IRP ruling. People living in Eastbourne deserve a hospital in the town that provides them with the care they need. If maternity and paediatrics are permanently downgraded at the DGH, we will have the most disadvantaged town in the UK for the population size. Please support us by signing. We need your help! For more information visit www.savethedgh.org.uk

Jean Charles de Menezes (pronounced [ʒeˈɐ̃ ˈʃahlis dʒi meˈnezis] in Brazilian Portuguese) 7 January 1978 – 22 July 2005) was a Brazilian man shot dead by the London Metropolitan police at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground after he was misidentified as one of the fugitives involved in the previous day's failed bombing attempts. These events took place two weeks after the London bombings of 7 July 2005, in which 52 people were killed. Contemporaneous and later police and media accounts contradicted each other, specifically regarding Menezes's manner and clothing as he entered the station, and whether there had been any police warnings before they fired. The death sparked an intense public debate over a shoot-to-kill practice known as Operation Kratos. The codename was dropped in 2007, but the policy continues. Police put under surveillance the communal entrance to a block of flats in Tulse Hill, south London, in which Menezes was living, and saw Menezes leave the building. Plain clothes officers, armed with pistols, followed him as he took a bus to Brixton tube station, before boarding another to Stockwell because the tube station at Brixton was closed. Specialist firearms officers were called to Stockwell. Just after Menezes entered a train, several officers wrestled him to the ground and fired seven bullets into his head at point blank range. The train was still at the platform with its doors open, having just been evacuated by officers. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) launched two investigations. Stockwell 1, the findings of which were initially kept secret, concluded that none of the officers would face disciplinary charges. Stockwell 2 strongly criticised the police command structure and communications to the public, bringing pressure on the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair to resign. In July 2006, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute any of the officers, although a corporate criminal prosecution of the Metropolitan Police was brought under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. This alleged that the police service had failed in its duty of care to Menezes. The service was found guilty and fined. On 12 December 2008 an inquest returned an open verdict.[1]I feel that because of the way he was taken from life that it is the least that can be done. I pass the memorial at stockwell and look it to his young eyes and it makes me upset that he was killed so brutally .

It undermines a business and can push it to the edge especially a small online business that relies on accessing it's own money from its Paypal account. Paypal act like Judge, Jury and executioner with virtually nobody to turn to in the UK if things go wrong. Paypal are regulated by Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, based in Luxembourg, the FCA Financial conduct Authority here in the UK apparently would look at a complaint case but have no real power to intervene. Paypal are not regulated in the UK in the same way a bank is and so get away with withholding your funds as it sees fit for up to 180 days, this limitation or freezing of your account can happen without notice or warning. This can happen to anyone, one such case was when an Ebayer recently had an increase in sales revenue because a product became a hot item. This Ebayer came to the attention of Paypal and their account was limited with £3000 sat in their account and unable to withdraw any of the money or purchase anything, the effect of Paypals limitation also caused problems with Ebay and meant the seller was unable to list any new items either. In essence this small time online business was earning a steady part time income to zero within a few days, This does not just affect Ebay online business sellers it can also affect individuals who can also find themselves with a limited account and a very frustrating wait to access their money. Paypals resolution process is drawn out without it appears any kind of definitive timescale it feels it needs to stick to. They are a multi-billion pound company who bully and trample over people, currently they know they can get away with what ever they want. Please join this petition and make Paypal reconsider their policies and prevent them from freezing and limiting Paypal accounts without evidence of wrong doing. Innocent until proven guilty should be restored as it should be, put Paypal in its place. There is no room in the UK for a company that is able to limit or freeze a monetary account without evidence of wrong doing and a court order.

Health and social care services are under huge pressure, largely due to our ageing population. Hospitals are struggling to balance their budgets and meet targets at a time of increasing demands, while social care is taking deep cuts and becoming a scandal-hit Cinderella service. If health and social care were integrated and more community services were developed, fewer old and vulnerable people would end up on trolleys in A & E or in hospital beds. The Government recognises this, but its Better Care Fund is taking money from hospital budgets to pay for these changes. All the main political parties agree health and care services need to be integrated. If integration is to function properly, it needs to be given sufficient funding to allow both sectors to work on equal terms to move relevant care services out of hospitals into the community. With proper investment and given time to work, the looming crisis in health and social care would be averted and we would all benefit from a fully integrated service.

Hussein was a member of a political group opposed to the dictatorship in Chad. His best friend, cousin and father were all arrested and disappeared in 2010 and the authorities were looking for him. He fled to Italy, but in his asylum interview they stopped him giving important information, then refused his case with no explanation and no chance of appeal. He then found that his life was also in danger in Italy, he was threatened by groups connected to the Chad dictatorship. He had to leave and came to the UK, which has no historical links to Chad. He thought it would be safe and to claim asylum, but the Home Office has refused to hear his case. Instead the UK wants to deport him on 20th June to Italy under the Dublin III regulation, where his life remains in danger. The Italian asylum system is under severe pressure, people wait for years in overcrowded immigration prisons and the chances of a fair hearing for Hussein's case in Italy are very low. If returned to Chad Hussein faces persecution. To be returned would be in contravention of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. He must be given the opportunity to apply for asylum and seek safety in the UK. We the undersigned people call on The Rt Hon Teresa May to stop the planned removal for 20th June to Italy and allow Hussein (H.O. No.A1802739) to claim asylum in the UK. Italy's asylum system is under severe pressure and his life would not be safe there. We want Hussein to stay because he won't be safe in Italy. We want Hussein to stay because in Italy the asylum system is collapsing. We want Hussein to stay because he is family to us. UPDATE 18 June: We have enough to pay for injunction! Unbelievable amount of money raised 12 hours! You are all amazing! Wow, thank you all so much for your help yesterday we now have over 1600 petition signatures for Hussein, including the paper petitions and have raised £1400 which is enough to pay for the solicitors to put in an injunction to aim to halt the deportation. So we don’t need further donations at this point. It's really amazing to feel the power of so many people working together to achieve this. We are hopeful that this will halt Hussein’s deportation. We are really grateful for all your support but since we won’t know until late on Thursday if the injunction has been successful, in the meantime we’re also taking other steps:

The publishing of these reports would allow the Scottish people to examine the results and make a more informed choice on the question of independence for Scotland.

The young must be re-engaged with Politics and this will only happen if they can participate and feel part of the system. This reform would lead to a feed up rather than feed down format. The excessive cost of 818 Lords could be considerably reduced and the 2nd House would be elected. The Prime Minister would be directly elected by the whole country and he would select his own cabinet. The concerns of the electorate would be better served by Regionally Elected Mp's who would be in closer contact with the electorate.

Dungeness B has already had a life extension in 2005. The safety of Dungeness B and the safety of Europe is already on borrowed time with regard to potential nuclear catastophe. We understand that a transboundary Environmental Impact Assessment has not been carried out at Dungeness B. Steve Thomas, professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich, said: "It doesn't feel good when we come up against limits and the first thing they [the ONR] do is to move the goalposts." Safety limits are being scrapped to allow Dungeness B to go on into dangerous old age. This would make Dungeness B the oldest operating nuclear plant in Europe at 45 years. Dungeness B is the son of Windscale, later renamed Sellafield after a fire broke out due to high temperature in the graphite bricks. Had the Windscale fire not been brought under control (by good luck and courage), and the radioactive fallout limited, then the writer of this petition may well have not have been born. The authorities deny that the Windscale fire increased the mortality rate amongst infants in Cumbria, preferring to blame "population mixing" for increased leukemias. But it is undeniable that radioactive fallout added to the routine emissions from the nuclear plant. People are realising that a large nuclear accident has transboundary impacts and that Environmental Impact Assessments (that the UK is signed up to - Espoo ) must include neighbouring and distant countries. A transboundary EIA has not been carried out at Dungeness. The leaders of Europe have a real opportunity right now to prevent catastrophe and contain nuclear pollution. Dungeness B http://www.engineering-timelines.com/scripts/engineeringItem.asp?id=1033 Previous Life Extension by British Energy http://www.modernpowersystems.com/news/news10-year-life-extension-at-dungeness-b Proposed New Life Extension by EDF http://www.nucpros.com/content/edf-extend-uk-dungeness-b-nuclear-plant-45-years Safety Scrapped to Accommodate Life Extension / Office for Nuclear Regulation Defends Dungeness Safety Decision http://www.imeche.org/news/engineering/nuclear-regulator-defends-dungeness-safety-decision-04061402 WHY IS A CUMBRIAN WRITING THIS PETITION? The threat from nuclear is not localised. Waste from Dungeness B travels up to Sellafield by train (through London) to be reprocessed i.e. separation of uranium and plutonium - this involves the waste being expanded x189 times with most of it spewed out into the Irish Sea. http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_weapons_and_global_security/solutions/nuclear-terrorism/reprocessing-and-nuclear.html Windscale Fallout http://nuclearhistory.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/windscale-fallout-path-scandinavia/ Still FIghting for Gemma http://www.truemovies.tv/tvguide/film.aspx?mID=472 http://www.robedwards.com/2007/03/still_fighting_.html 240 Greenpeace Activists take action across Europe to highlight the risk of ageing nuclear reactors http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/09/greenpeace-europes-aging-nuclear/ Windscale - Britain's Biggest Nuclear Disaster https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElotW9oKv1s A Gamble with Safety - No2Nuclear Power http://www.no2nuclearpower.org.uk/nuclearnews/NuClearNewsNo63.pdf Transboundary Environmental Impact Assessments http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2430353/europes_ageing_nuclear_reactors_will_have_to_undergo_environmental_assessments.html (this has not happened at Dungeness but is happening in the Ukraine!) Nuclear Waste Trains http://www.greenpeace.org/international/PageFiles/25532/7842.pdf Stop and Contain http://mariannewildart.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/stop-and-contain-reprocessing-at-sellafield-is-insane/ American Perspective on Reprocessing http://io9.com/failed-nuclear-weapons-recycling-program-could-put-us-a-1586851270