THE HOSPITAL IS NOW REGULARLY ON `BLACK ALERT` WHICH MEANS IT CANNOT ACCEPT ANY ADMISSIONS DUE TO LACK OF AVAILABLE BEDS AND BOLTON PATIENTS FALLING ILL/BEING INJURED HAVE TO BE FERRIED TO SALFORD OR WIGAN. MEETING AT `FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE` SILVERWELL STREET BOLTON ON THURSDAY 23RD MARCH AT 7.30 : SPEAKER DR JACKIE GRUNSELL GP.

My simple request was that I would as a wheelchair user like the same opportunity as everyone else to buy a cheap 1st class ticket for a long journey. If you are not a wheelchair user you are perhaps not aware that the majority of Virgin East Coast rolling stock are ancient Diesels which do have one wheelchair space available which is not accessible by most wheelchairs nor do they have an accessible toilet their own words! Only the electric trains have an accessible toilet in First BUT when phoning or looking online there is no way to know which trains are suitable for me ie electric and in consequence I have missed the cheaper tickets, apparently and according to Virgin East Coast my fault for not booking sooner! Follow this link and see for yourself. https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.com/rail-travel/your-journey/assisted-travel/

This is important because so many lives are ruined by domestic violence, this violence impacts on the lives of women, men and children, some children grow up to believe violence is a normal act and go on to become perpetrators themselves. Lives are lost to domestic violence everyday, stop the violence. On average the perpetrator will assault their target 36 times before police are called. The reluctance to call the police is born out of extreme fear and shame.

Self employed people generally work over 50 hours a week - many work considerably longer hours. They get no job security or holiday allowance. Their salary is not paid if they are sick and yet they contribute hugely to the nation's wealth. Many self employed people manage all aspects of their business from the PR, to office admin, to ensuring that they keep up to date with H&S, keeping accounts etc as well as delivering the core nature of their business. A three monthly submission process of tax return would create an unacceptably huge administrative burden on self employed people. It would stifle our collective ability to deliver our core business. It would discourage entrepreneurialism. In terms of the arts and third sector self-employment - it would add further administrative duress to an already ailing and underfunded landscape.

The IMF, the Bank for International Settlements, and many financial experts are warning of a new global financial crash far worse than 2008, caused by the same forces: the unbridled speculation in derivatives, and outright criminal activity, of City of London and Wall Street megabanks. Under current policy and legislation, government bailouts and “bail-ins” (the confiscation of assets and even individual bank deposits to prop up failing banks) will be used to attempt to save the financial system yet again. The City of London and Wall Street Too-Big-To-Fail (TBTF) banks have received US$19 trillion in bailouts since 2008, even as brutal austerity has been applied in the UK, USA and other nations. The TBTF banks are now 40% larger than in 2008. They remain heavily invested in derivatives, the world trading centre for which is London. Derivatives, such as the infamous mortgage-backed securities at the heart of the 2008 crash, now total US$1.2 quadrillion, compared with a global GDP of only US$50 trillion. While not lending to the real economy, the London/Wall Street banks have engaged in drug money laundering, financing terrorism, tax evasion, mortgage fraud and outright theft from their customers, for which they have been fined tens of billions of dollars. The UK’s National Crime Agency reported in May 2015, “We assess that hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars almost certainly continue to be laundered through UK banks, including their subsidiaries, each year.” Late 2016 stress tests conducted by the Bank of England showed that the major UK banks are woefully undercapitalised. Their derivatives holdings, aptly termed by Business Insider “unexploded nuclear bombs nestling deep in the financial system”, dwarf their assets (lending) and deposits. In the inevitable next crisis, major banks would likely collapse, triggering a meltdown of the trans-Atlantic financial system. The UK Parliament passed the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013. It, however, merely provided for “ring-fencing”—separating “investment” and commercial banking within each bank, but, unlike Glass-Steagall, allowing them to remain under the same roof and be done by the same company. This “solution” was denounced by knowledgeable members of both the House of Commons and Lords as simply window dressing which would allow the present, wildly speculative practices of the TBTF to continue. Why full Glass-Steagall separation? The USA’s 1933 Glass-Steagall Act strictly separated deposit-taking commercial banks from the “investment” banks whose wild speculation had caused the Great Depression. Glass-Steagall operated for 66 years and made systemic banking crises impossible. But the City of London’s 1986 “Big Bang” financial deregulation, followed by the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999, which both London and Wall Street had demanded, led to the 2008 crash. Support for full-scale Glass-Steagall is non-partisan: In the USA, both the Democratic and Republican Parties adopted it in their 2016 platforms, and the AFL-CIO (the central labour federation) has endorsed it. In the UK, 445 MPs and Lords from all parties voted for it in 2013, many of them warning that ring-fencing would not work. The late Labour MP and former cabinet member Michael Meacher said, “It must be obvious to everyone that this device [ring-fencing] will be breached in no time by regulatory arbitrage in the City of London where all the big banks employ armies of lawyers and accountants for just this purpose.” Conservative MP Sir Peter Tapsell, a former member of Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet and “Father of the House of Commons” until he retired in 2015, said, “What I mean by a complete return to Glass-Steagall is that we should have none of this nonsense of ring-fencing, which used to be called Chinese walls. It never works. Chinese walls turned out to be papier-mâché. I worked in the City for 40 years and I promise Members that it is impossible to make that work.” He was echoed by Lord Nigel Lawson, who as Chancellor of the Exchequer had supervised the “Big Bang”, but in the 2013 debate and ever since has acknowledged that the repeal of Glass-Steagall was a dreadful mistake. In the Guardian of 11 August 2015, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell wrote that “the Corbyn campaign is advocating a fundamental reform of our economic system”, to “include the introduction of an effective regulatory regime for our banks and financial sector”, and “a full-blown Glass-Steagall system to separate day-to-day and investment banking” (emphasis added). Only an aroused, mobilised population can ensure that Glass-Steagall is adopted now, before the TBTF banks crash.

Britain’s only clinic specialising in the treatment of chronic urinary tract infections has been closed to new NHS patients for over two years. Hundreds of patients who have been referred to the clinic cannot be seen. They are being denied care and living in agony because they cannot afford to pay for private treatment. This is deeply unethical and unfair. The partial closure of the clinic has also affected its ability to recruit staff and leaves its future uncertain. The LUTS clinic run by Professor James Malone-Lee is pioneering research and treatment of chronic urinary tract infections which affect hundreds of thousands of sufferers in the UK. This includes infections that have become antibiotic resistant. Chronic UTI wrecks lives. The LUTS clinic is doing vital, life-saving work and needs your help! After suffering for a year with repeated urinary tract infections, 40-year-old Kirstin Lavender was referred to her local hospital in Yorkshire for an exploratory cystoscopy. Doctors confirmed her bladder was inflamed but didn’t know why. Following this invasive procedure, Kirstin bled for 6 months and her infection symptoms – nausea, fever, frequent urination, urgency and back pain – got so bad she became bed bound. Repeated tests showed no evidence of infection so Kirstin’s consultant diagnosed the incurable inflammatory condition, Interstitial Cystitis. All doctors could offer her was pain management. Kirstin’s life was unbearable. She had lost her health, her job and her identity. She was disabled by extreme kidney and bladder pain and facing life in a wheelchair. Finally, Kirstin persuaded her GP to refer her to Professor Malone-Lee at the LUTS clinic. Here she was diagnosed with a chronic bladder infection that had likely become embedded in her bladder lining. Her infection was complicated but, after seventeen months in treatment with the clinic, Kirstin is healthy, free of pain and has her life back. In October 2015 – after a single adverse event – the clinic was closed at a day’s notice by the Whittington Trust. Professor Malone-Lee’s patients brought a legal action against the Trust and it reopened the clinic a month later. Worryingly, 29 months later the clinic remains closed to new NHS patients. Repeated assurances that it would open in April 2017 have come to nothing. Islington Clinical Commissioning Group is responsible for commissioning NHS services in the borough & wishes to see the clinic become a specialist tertiary provider. Whilst discussions for a move to a London tertiary hospital are ongoing, a phased reopening to new patients at the clinic's current location has, in principle, been agreed by the Whittington Hospital and the local commissioning groups for the spring of 2018. However, critical timelines have been missed, causing more delay to this phased reopening date. While NHS managers stall, hundreds of patients with chronic UTI are being denied treatment. No other clinic treats this way so they have no choice but to wait – in terrible pain with debilitating symptoms - while their condition worsens.

The Royal Family have never yet undertaken a state visit to Israel. Now is the worst time to start, with the apartheid system in Israel becoming ever more entrenched and Palestinians (and other ethnic groups) suffering more and more. This visit would be to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, and I'd point out that that Declaration included the commitment that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”. This is an approach which Israel has signally failed to adopt. Many ordinary people deplore the actions of the Israeli state and actively pursue a non-violent course of boycotting the country. That's the most effective peaceful weapon that ordinary people have. Please stand with us on this cause, and against a violent and prejudiced state. The support of the Royal family would mean a lot.

Speeding along the Harwich Road has become more and more a problem with a number of motorists exceeding the existing 40mph limit, as proven by our Community Speedwatch Team. Vehicles pulling out of side roads and pedestrians attempting to cross the road are all at risk.

The family home as been in our family for 30++years

Children are still dying from playing in the polluted area. Shortly after the leakage Union Carbide sold the plant to Dow, to avoid meeting their obligations to the people of Bhopal. Upjohn Polymer have recently sold their Isocyanate plant to Dow. Dow chemical is aiming to expand its business in PU in India. Polyurethane (PU) foams use 50% isocyanates in their manufacture.

Our Government, its Institutions, Politicians, Local Councils are NOT trusted to conduct their affairs with efficiency and integrity. The same applies to most corporations and many businesses. Legislative and self-regulating bodies are often self protecting, evasive and shamelessly lenient to their members. A robust and free ranging system of external investigation and whistleblowing is often the only way large institutions are held to public scrutiny and account. Current Law Commission proposals criminalise these investigative activities across an extensive array of issues and activities - in both public and private spheres. Recently revealed scandals such as HMRC sweetheart deals with accountancy firm Goldman Sachs, MOD's cover up of the failure of Warrior armoured vehicles, details of EDF's deal with the government over Hinkley Point, overcharging by contractors on the Government's Work Programme ....... anything deemed to be "sensitive economic information" will be subject to the new 'Secrecy Laws" and subject to a 700% increase in prison sentence up to 14 years. With increasing likelihood of NHS privatisation deals, can we risk these details being held secret under such threats? In an ultimate act of cynicism, the closing date for the consultation is May 3rd. .... World Press Freedom Day. Two fingers, anyone?

Its very important to not just pensioners but also the disabled pass holder's to give them greater freedom and very important independence which will benefit them so much more in every way of life.