At present all military personnel and civil servants who work overseas can access every public funded service and benefit as though they have been physically present in the UK. This is a right protected by legislation whereas humanitarian workers face difficulties or are unable to access the same basic benefits and services as home clients because they have not been physically present in the UK. This creates unnecessary hardship for returned humanitarian workers.

The developer Sellar Property Group has received planning consent to demolish the Baroque Edwardian former Royal Mail sorting office in a conservation area, and build a 19 storey replacement office tower totally out of keeping with the surrounding buildings. The former sorting office, built in 1907, is an unlisted building of merit. Its loss will be hugely detrimental to the conservation area and the surrounding listed buildings. The proposed design of the replacement mega block does not respect Westminster’s scale and character - it removes a building with architectural interest and history and replaces it with something over dominant on a massive scale. At the planning committee meeting on 6 December Westminster Councillors acknowledged that the plans would cause harm to the conservation area yet still approved the demolition of the sorting office and the new 19 storey tower. The planning committee also waived aside a strong objection from the London Ambulance Service on the grounds that the proposals badly affected the major ambulance route to St Mary’s Hospital. Though a last minute alternative was proposed by the developer, the NHS is maintaining its objection. This case has triggered national interest. The amenity societies have made substantial objections, and there were many individual objections. SAVE along with Historic England, The Victorian Society and many others considers that this sensitive site deserves a better quality development – one that respects the townscape and retains the most significant parts of the historic building - rather than obliterating it. Westminster City Council – a central London borough brimming with important buildings and areas - used to be a model for enlightened planning, conservation and design policies. This proposal fails on all these accounts. We call on the Secretary of State to call-in this application for his own determination allowing it to be examined in the open forum of a public inquiry. Historic buildings and areas are assets for everyone to enjoy, and should be celebrated as such. Britain is respected worldwide for its sensitive approach to historic buildings - this scheme must go back to the drawing board. For more information and images see our press release here: http://www.savebritainsheritage.org/campaigns/article/421/Press-release-SAVE-Britains-Heritage-blasts-outrageously-and-gratuitously-overscaled-Paddington-Cube Or contact the office on 020 7350 3500 or [email protected]

Most people don't realise that in this country anyone can set up a business working with children with no qualifications or DBS checks. Given that victims of child abuse often don't come forward until well into adulthood safeguards should be put into place to protect all children. The FA refuse to take responsibility for children working as referees, within football. So all aspects of the children involved need to be considered. Only paid child minders are registered and checked by ofsted I think a similar system needs to be rolled out to all organisations that deal with children.

Because letting rough sleepers remain on our streets could kill them. It is inhumane and lacking in basic compassion

Essex County Council have packaged all their health, well-being and family services for residents from pre-birth to 19 years and have decided to let the contract to run them to Virgin Care. Good childcare is vital for the future of this country and this move can only serve to reduce the quality of childcare in Essex. The services affected include: • Health visitors • Children's Centres • Family Nurse Partnership • The 0-5 Healthy Child Programme • The 5-19 Programme This takeover represents an example of creeping privatisation of services to a situation where there is reduced accountability and a strong possibility of cuts to hard working staff and their employment rights. The NHS and its related services should remain a publicly provided, publicly funded health service for the benefit of all UK citizens, not for the benefit of those who wish to make a profit. Virgin Care Ltd pays no corporation tax in the UK and should therefore not profit from the UK taxpayer. It is part of a group whose ultimate parent company is based in the British Virgin Islands, which is a tax haven. Virgin Care has been quietly picking up multi million healthcare contracts across the UK to run at the taxpayers expense for the benefit of their offshore shareholders. (source: http://bit.ly/virgincareprofile) Help us tell Essex County Council we don't want Virgin Care in Essex.

If Rupert Murdoch has full control of Sky TV then in my opinion too much UK news media will be in the control of one person/company.

We believe that this takeover would not be in the public interest and that the plurality of the UK’s media landscape would be seriously diminished if it went ahead. Our media is already dominated by a handful of very powerful organisations that exert huge control over the national conversation.

There is currently a proposal to make 20 million pounds worth of cuts to the Birmingham Parks Budget . This means reducing staffing in the 6 major parks down to only 2 hubs with these expected to manage every other country park and park space run by BCC in the whole of Birmingham. This will mean no more supported schools groups, a huge reduction and diminishment to our green spaces, no more eco action and nature events ... or secret santa, or nursery for plants to make our city beautiful, no more community action liaison work, no more drug and alcohol support group work, no more keeping an eye on our country parks to keep them safe places for us to visit, reduced visitor centres and significantly less maintenance of these precious spaces across our city. Without regular care will fall into dereliction and disrepair. We need these major parks for our kids to play in, for us to walk in and keep fit, and we want to know they are staffed and safe! Birmingham is the UK's second city with the most green space of any uk city these spaces don't just look after themselves. They need dedicated care to remain the nurturing places we all know and love. Unfortunately central conservative government has slashed the council budget for Birmingham (a labour council) disproportionately compared to say that of conservative Oxford. It's not right!!! The consultation document is worded to try and get those who do respond to agree to these draconian cuts as a good idea...we need to stop them and the consultation is only open to respond to until the first week in January 2017.

I was fortunate as an MP to be sitting near Michelle Thomson MP in the House of Commons, Westminster, London in December 2016 when she spoke of having been raped as a teenager. Her act of speaking up has already had a profound impact. I acknowledge other parliamentarians have also spoken up, but more could do so. Parliamentarians, whether male or female, and regardless of whether they have suffered from violence, should do more to speak up and legislate where appropriate. This petition is a small contribution to allow people to acknowledge the need to support parliamentarians willing to accept their responsibility to do more.

I am begging people to get behind this campaign.My sister who has a spinal degenerative disease and needs regular pain killing injections in order to function has received a letter from the NHS in Blackburn that funding has been refused for ongoing treatment. She is certainly no alone, and there could be many other people affected by this decision. She has had to pay 864.00GBP in order to get a pain killing injection from her specialist today. What is going on? This is not a cosmetic face lift or botox, we are talking about a pain killing injection that is necessary for her to function. Please help me to expose what is happening to innocent people, many of whom are not in a position to pay. They are being referred back to their GP's who are going to be overwhelmed with patients needing this care. Please help. xxx I am not only fighting for this treatment for my sister but to all the other patients who have received similar letters advising them that their treatment is no longer available.

This farm has become an integral and important part of East Birmingham life. It has been visited by hundreds of thousands of families since opening many years ago. It offers an opportunity for children, many of who are from an underprivileged background, an opportunity to see farm animals at very close quarters. They are able to engage with the animals and ask questions of the friendly staff. It is a local institution. The farm also offers a magnificent opportunity for local young adults with a variety of special needs and challenging backgrounds to volunteer as "workers" on the farm. They give their time freely, their only reward being the personal progress they make in terms of independence and interaction with society. It would be a disgraceful reflection on all of Birmingham's Council Tax payers and Councillors for these vulnerable young adults to see all of their hard work dashed and their achievements (both in terms of the farm and their personal development) destroyed.

Lost beds in Derbyshire could mean that people are sent home to recover from illnesses rather than being kept under observation. Let’s make sure that our NHS doctors can make decisions they think are best for patients. Our NHS is already being starved of funds. The percentage of Government spending on healthcare in 2015-16 was 6.6%. It used to be close to 10%. We are now spending about the same as Slovenia and Iceland and behind Greece and Belgium. While there is a need to join-up care in Derbyshire this is being done in the context of £22 billions cuts in the NHS and may well result in loss of nearly a third of hospital beds in Derbyshire. How can we afford to lose more beds? This continued degradation of the NHS will foster the call for further break-up of the NHS and selling off to the private sector. Created on behalf of the Derbyshire NHS SOS Campaign