The government have raised the stakes of SATs so high that poor results spell disaster for primary schools. As a result, even in Year 1 - at age five - our children spend more time practising handwriting than painting pictures, because then they'll be ready for the SATs prep they'll have to endure in Year 2. There are no rules that limit the number of hours children can spend on SATs-focused maths and literacy in school, and teachers are telling us their pupils often spend entire weeks doing not much else. Our children aren't happy at school anymore, and neither are their teachers. It is a sorry state of affairs when parents have to fight for their children's right to play, but that is what we must now do. If the government want to test our children's maths and literacy ability, their tests must reflect the level our children can be expected to achieve if they work on these subjects for a reasonable amount of time each day. If the level of difficulty of the current tests requires our kids to spend all day every day doing nothing but exam preparation, then the tests are too hard.

The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share our community with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. If you don't live in this area, click here to start a campaign for your city: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-pesticide-campaign

The current caricature statue in the new development is receiving almost unanimous criticism and in no way reflects the history of our valley as a world-leading producer of special steels. Industrial relics around Attercliffe and within the grounds of Northern General Hospital create a great deal of interest and are meaningful to the area. We should emulate this idea. Once erected, the monument would be indestructible requiring no maintenence and would generate a lot of interest and pride in the industry which was responsible for the very existence of our town.

Waltham Forest Council recently had written on their website that they are planning to perform road closures in the Chingford area to reduce movement across Chingford/Highams Park areas. A linear closure at the junction of Endlebury Road and The Ridgeway, is inappropriate considering Endlebury Road used to have two entrances from The Ridgeway, now only one, with traffic calming measures put in place along Endlebury Road. And to now decide to completely permanently remove access at this end of Endlebury Road is inconvenient, unnecessary and unsuitable. Residents and commuters would have to travel along the Ridgeway through The Green, Kings Road and Larkshall Road creating a build up of traffic in these already high traffic flow areas. To shorten this route Warren Road would be used as a cut through, which would be unsafe as it is a small residential road. The road closure would make the Ridgeway less accessible to residents in Endlebury Road and neighbouring Roads such as Goldsborough Crescent. Endlebury Road is a safe road and there is no need to cause further inconvenience to the residents of nearby roads and commuters in the Chingford area. It will not benefit to residents but instead will cause a new problem to deal with. If there is an emergency such as a fire, emergency services will unable to access the Ridgeway end of Endlebury Road as fast as they could now, putting lives at risk for a closure that residents do not want. It would also be a possibility that the land gained from the closure could be built upon e.g. Flats, Residential houses MORE PROPOSED CLOSURES: 1. Linear closure in Heathcote Grove at the junction with Chingford Avenue 2. A diagonal closure at Ainslie Wood Road junction with Underwood Road and Inks Green 3. A linear closure at the junction of Beresford Road and Rangers Road Thank you www.walthamforest.gov.uk

Starbucks have never paid full tax - in case you hadn't noticed, tax-dodging is losing our economy over £8 billion a year in lost revenue. Our infrastructure including hospitals, police force & schools are at breaking point following drastic cuts to their funding by our Conservative government. We, the residents of Hythe do not want another tax-dodging big business to do business in our town, taking custom from the owners of our unique independent (tax paying) cafes. Hythe is sought after place to live BECAUSE it has a unique high street. Uglyfying our high street will also effect local property businesses as it will become a less attractive place to live. We do not want to become a bog standard, ugly high town with generic, plasticky shops like every other. Where is it all going to stop?

The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share our community with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. If you don't live in this area, click here to start a campaign for your city: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-pesticide-campaign

Connolly & Callaghan (owner of popular Stokes Croft complex Hamilton House) are the leading provider of homeless accommodation in Bristol. When Bristol City Council accepts a legal duty to provide housing for someone in need there is a strong possibility that it will be a Connolly & Callaghan property they are housed in. An ACORN member who wishes to remain anonymous has discovered that Connolly & Callaghan have been buying up property in our city and evicting the existing tenants in order to create more homeless accommodation. These former tenants are then forced to look for somewhere else and some made homeless. More homeless people means more ‘customers’ for Connolly & Callaghan - whose rent is paid for by Bristol City Council. And these are no ordinary rents, often charging £250-£350 per week, Connolly & Callaghan are raking in a tidy profit. In a recent letter evicting tenants from Carpenters Place in Knowle, General Manager Phil Callaghan wrote “All private tenants are being asked kindly to leave Carpenters Place and find alternative accommodation so that the company can continue with helping the ever growing need of homelessness...In order to make the transition period as easy as possible we will allow you to terminate your tenancy with us without a notice period…” As if this wasn’t enough, there have been reports of terrible conditions in the hostels ran by Connolly & Callaghan, with cockroaches, rats and raw sewage in one in Bedminster. It is unacceptable that Bristol City Council pay extortionate amounts to a private company that is cynically profiteering from the housing crisis by evicting tenants and providing substandard living conditions. We need decent and dignified homeless accommodation at a fair price and we need the Council to take the lead in making this happen. Please sign and share and don't forget to tick the box to stay in touch with us! UPDATE: Independent media organisation The Bristol Cable have covered this story in detail. For full information read the article here. https://thebristolcable.org/2016/05/bristol-firm-profiting-from-housing-homeless-by-kicking-other-tenants-out/

The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share our community with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. Often being sprayed in day time hours in windy conditions around the general public, or children and pets are left to play in sprayed areas with no warning. Many other effective alternatives exist, as PAN-UK point out, and are already in use in other European and UK cities. Indeed there are many hundreds of examples from around the world of towns and cities, both larger and smaller than Cardiff, which have effective, sustainable, economic, non-chemical weed and pest control regimes in place. Pesticide-free is possible! The Cardiff Council is currently using Darka pro to spay verges, parks and alleyways which contains the controversial glyphosate. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. If you don't live in this area, click here to start a campaign for your city: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-pesticide-campaign

This is the biggest attack on the NHS you've never heard of. For the last few years the news has been full of winter and summer crisis in the NHS, with A&E's closing their doors and ambulances unable to discharge their patients.(1) In late 2015 the Chief Executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens, created a plan to solve this by CLOSING more A&Es. He thinks if you close hospitals people will stop using them. (2) Called Sustainability and Transformation Plans he has split England into 44 areas - called 'footprints'. Each 'footprint' was told in late December in 2015 that they must have a plan by 30th June 2016 to completely change the way the NHS works. To work they had to be able to prove they could clear their massive debts within a year. To do that they have to close services and sell land and hospitals. Has a hospital closed near you? Is it under threat? Simon Stevens says that to make the NHS affordable we, the public, must get used to no longer having a major hospital within easy reach. This was planned in 2013, but shelved until after the 2015 election as being 'politically sensitive'. It looks like the STP has taken that off the shelf and that is very bad news. In 2013 there were 140 full A&E hospitals in England. We could be be left with between 40-70 A&Es. Closing A&Es is very bad for your health. (3)   There was a link to TTIP. Jeremy Hunt hired Simon Stevens to take over NHS England in 2014. Before that he was President of global operations for United Health of America where he was a lobbyist for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. He didn't oppose it. He fought to open up public health services like our NHS to US private health corporations. We know TTIP and the NHS are top campaigns for 38 degrees members. (4) Now he's in charge of our NHS! He is driving through a change which will eradicate our NHS and replace it with a US style health service. These new organisations could even be run by US corporations, holding the budgets and deciding what care will be provide and who can get it. This is what the Sustainability and Transformation Plans are doing to our NHS. See blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/08/05 and Updates, below. TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE THIS A MILLION SIGNATURES FOR THE NHS! We think this is the last big battle to save our NHS. If you want it to be there for your children and grandchildren in their time of need then fight now. (6)   BECAUSE WHEN IT’S GONE, IT’S GONE https://youtu.be/0HyL-riKqqc (1)  http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2015-01-07/hospital-alerts-whats-the-state-of-your-local-hospital/ (2) http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/simon-stevens-nhs-will-be-unaffordable-without-radical-reforms-10099433.html (3) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2200339/NHS-Cuts--Savage-consequences-revealed-pensioner-waits-6-hours-ambulance.html (4) http://healthcare-competitiveness.com/wp-content/uploads/Medtronic-UnitedHealth-Group-want-to-export-U.S.-health-care.pdf (5) http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/nov/11/uk.publicservices (6)https://youtu.be/GHkzmCL-uNE Also:- https://opendemocracy.net/ournhs/deborah-harrington-madeleine-dickens-and-caroline-molloy/hunt-and-stevens-leaving-their-dirty Another dreadful week for Jeremy Hunt: https://opendemocracy.net/ournhs/caroline-molloy/you-don-t-have-to-be-brain-surgeon-to-know-hunt-is-wrong-this-week-everyone-d I've also grouped them together on a page here: http://bit.ly/NHSfootprints Find out which 'Footprint' you are in by scrolling down to the map here:- https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/stp-footprints-march-2016.pdf http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2016/08/05/tory-plans-for-nhs-privatisation-released-during-parliamentary-recess/

His work has been life changing for so manyof our unsung heroes and he, and the continuing work he has instigated deserves the countries recognition.

The use of glyphosates has already been banned or restricted in 8 countries. It is not acceptable that ourselves, our children and the animals we share our community with are being routinely exposed to these chemicals whether we like it or not. This is a matter of great importance for those of us who care about each other's health and the health of our children, our cats, our dogs and all the flora and fauna of this city, of course including our beloved bees. If you don't live in this area, click here to start a campaign for your city: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/start-a-pesticide-campaign

It is now over a year since the recent outbreak of armed conflict in Yemen began, forcing 2.4 million people to flee their homes, and leaving over 22 million people in need of humanitarian support. The conflict has killed over six thousand people, and left the health care system on its knees. Humanitarian agencies are struggling to respond and the country stands on the brink of famine. A senior representative of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has described the current level of humanitarian assistance in Yemen as a “drop in the ocean.” The underlying causes of the conflict between the Huthis and the current regime in power are complex, with the latter being supported by a coalition of other states led by Saudi Arabia and supported by the United States. Both sides in this conflict stand accused of serious violations of international law, including war crimes, with particular condemnation of the aerial bombing campaign that is targeted at Huthi-controlled areas. Accusations of war crimes levelled at the Saudi led coalition in particular have included attacks on three Médecins Sans Frontières facilities which resulted in the death of both patients and healthcare workers. As health professionals, we have a duty to speak out against all causes of ill health in Yemen. This must include the sale and export of UK weaponry that is fueling the conflict. Between April and September 2015, the UK approved sales of around £2.8 billion worth of combat aircraft and bombs to the Royal Saudi Air Force. A recent legal opinion by Matrix Chambers concluded that the UK Government is in breach of its obligations arising under the Consolidated Criteria on Arms Exports, the EU Common Position on Arms Exports and the Arms Trade Treaty by authorizing transfers of weapons to Saudi Arabia that could be used in Yemen. We therefore join human rights organisations, the European Parliament, the Dutch parliament, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International in calling for an immediate end to UK arms transfers to all sides in this conflict. We also echo the advice of the Chair of the International development committee, Stephen Twigg MP, that the UK Government should retract its opposition to calls for an independent international inquiry into the alleged abuses of international humanitarian law during the conflict. Co-authored by Dr David McCoy, Dr Sarah Alhulail, Ben Clavey and Chris Venables. Signatories: Dr David McCoy: Director, Medact, Director of Global Health Teaching, Queen Mary University London Dr Frank Boulton: Medact Trustee, Visiting Lecturer, Southampton University Dr Sridhar Venkatapurum: Lecturer in Global Health and Philosophy Kings College London, Trustee, Medact Sir Iain Chalmers: Patron, Medact Dr Jacky Davis: BMA National Council David Nott OBE: Consultant Surgeon, London Dr Johann Malawana: Junior Doctor Dr Louise Irvine: BMA National Council, GP, London Dr Jackie Applebee: GP Tower Hamlets Dr Iain Maclennan: GP & Consultant in Public Health (retired) Dr Richard Horton: Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet Dr Sharif Ismail: Academic Clinical Fellow in Public Health, Imperial College London