In its stupidity this government is taking us for fools! Justin Tomlinson has been appointed Minister for the Disabled. Because of his background he is totally unsuitable to take the post. He has a strong record for voting against the interests of the sick and disabled claimants and also for the repeal of the Human Rights Act, whilst voting for the bedroom tax!! Under these circumstances he should not have been given the post, or perhaps it was deliberate knowing the governments record in this field.

If we remember Margaret Thatcher in this way it would be disrespectful not to build a similar museum for Clement Attlee, where it could be argued he did more for the greater good of the Country rather than promote self interest. A few years ago there were rumours that the museum could be publicly funded. But no matter who's paying for this museum, even building it is in poor taste because Thatcher was the architect of so many damaging government policies. We don't need or want an expensive museum to remember her by!

It has been reported that MPs who were only elected last week are set to receive a backdated 10 per cent pay rise worth £7,000 within months. A review of MPs salaries is taking place in the next few weeks, and the review is likely to rubber stamp a finding from 2013 which was that MPs' pay should increase from £67,060 to £74,000. The review is being conducted by IPSA (Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority), who are Parliament's expenses watchdog. Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "To press ahead with a 10 per cent pay rise is not only putting two fingers up at voters, but it starkly contradicts the pay restraint required elsewhere in the public sector if the government is to balance the nation's books. The only way to stop the salary increase is by Mr Cameron passing a law in the House of Commons to scrap Ipsa altogether." (The above as reported in The Telegraph) If "we are all in it together" then MPs should not have a 10% pay rise when public sector pay has been frozen for years.

More people are going to suffer if these cuts are made and we need to do something to stop it now.

It is clear that this scheme (South Wye Transport Package) will do nothing to relieve traffic through Hereford as it is presented to the public. It is to unlock land (some of which is already owned by the council - therefore us) for the wholesale industrialisation of South Herefordshire with roads, industrial buildings and cheap housing. What, you might ask, is wrong with this? Doesn't Herefordshire need jobs and homes? Yes, arguably it does but the devil is in the detail. Herefordshire may need selective, attractive developments - both commercial and residential - that tie in with and support its USP of tourism, agriculture and just being attractive. What Herefordshire does not need is broiler sheds, ugly retail and industrial parks and acres of soul sapping, shoddily built hutches that now degrade and blight so much of the country. Examples of flaws: The Marches LEP says: “Scheme business cases should therefore demonstrate high value for money and contribution to economic growth, reducing carbon emissions, reducing social exclusion, improving safety and promoting health / well being”. The Parsons Brinkerhoff report to Cabinet on the Southern Link road options clearly states that “all scheme options will have a slight adverse impact on greenhouse gases due to vehicles travelling greater distances and at higher speeds.” and adds “All route variations will have an adverse impact on walking and cycling levels in the rural area, discouraging these activities by increasing severance on existing routes and loss of rural amenity through the introduction of traffic noise and proximity to traffic.” The Highways Agency were clearly fed disinfo by our council cabinet (made obvious by their response) and in a passage missing from the council report state: " ...under current guidance the building of new road infrastructure could only be justified in policy terms when other avenues such as travel planning and sustainable travel modes had been developed and shown not to address the transport needs and issues identified. We note the commitment to improve cycling and walking environments on the A465.“ No such mention of cycling and walking provision appeared in the subsequent Cabinet presentation. None of the alternative remedies have been tried. These are only some of the flaws, and others are under review by teams concerned with the resulting impact. Proper consultation has not taken place, to the extent that at least one retired couple we know of were the last to know that an add on to the scheme is due to go through the middle of their garden and ploughing through 500 yr old oak trees. Today it is their garden under threat, tomorrow it could be yours as the SLR is clearly the tip of the iceberg to the plans If you are on the outer edges of the city of Hereford, now is the time to act and lobby your local councillors and MPs. Responses should be made to Herefordshire Council re Planning Application 151314 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRD8E7jNubo This kind of development will eventually destroy Herefordshire: it will destroy its beauty. It will destroy its individuality. It will destroy everything that makes it special and, worst of all, it will destroy its local, home grown businesses and local economy by making the county so unappealing, bleak and blighted that no-one with any choice will want to visit it let alone invest in it and live in it.

Life for a person who is disabled whether it be a physical or a mental disability is hard enough already. People never chose to be disabled and it can happen to anyone at anytime. There are many many more humane ways to save money and a society who does not care for the less fortunate of it's people is doomed, history teaches us that time and time again. The disabled and sick should have never been demonized in the press, even the disabled peoples doctors are being ignored or seen as in collusion with their patients to"sponge" off of the state, in most cases this is categorically untrue. Most of us know directly or indirectly someone who suffers from a mental or a physical disability can we as a civilized society stand by and watch the most vulnerable in our society being targeted yet again as an easy attempt to claw back money while the bankers and large corporations get away with it again. Do we as civilized people condone this behavior as right or just?

They docked the benefits so that's hitting them once and with what they have left they have to pay the bedroom tax so they been hit twice. So they won't have much to live on. People should have enough money to live. Prices go UP and money gets cut from everywhere.

The BBC service is one of the most admired public broadcasting companies in the world. It has its faults but it is one of the most trusted sources of news on the planet. As the latest attempt to curb its influence proceeds it will be interesting to see who is behind the attempt to run it down until it is just a public information station. It is simply unthinkable to destroy this national asset.

The PM claimed we're all in this together. Now is the time to prove it. MP pay rises should be limited to the average of all other public sector pay rises. If we truly are all in this together, then why can MP's receive higher pay rise percentages than nurses, teachers, firefighters, etc? Now is the time to demonstrate that MP's truly believe we are in it together as a nation and agree to link pay rises to those in the rest of the public sector. Or is it as Orwell eloquently said in Animal Farm ... "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others"?

The new government is saying they have a 'mandate' to make changes. They do not have a mandate as less than 37% of the population voted for them. Attacking the BBC's licence fee arrangement is undermining our democracy and also undermining the cultural heritage of the UK. I don't want a television service which looks like that in the US.

If this is not done then more and more people will consider themselves disenfranchised and have even less wish or need to become involved in the way our society is run. Here in Scotland, with 50% of the vote, the SNP has garnered all but 3 of the Westminster seats. In other parts of UK, some parties did not even put up a candidate, knowing that there was absolutely no chance of any representation: thus there were very many voters deprived of choice. This cannot be allowed to continue. Please support my campaign.

British expatriates are not happy and are demanding their human rights. Thousands of British citizens are married to citizens from other countries around the world, known as non-EU or non-EEA (European Economic Area) nationals. Since 2014 the UK government opened the doors to citizens from the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar whose citizens can travel to the UK with an Electronic Visa Waiver (EVW) document. This allows them to visit the UK for up to six months without a visa and free from any payment. Travellers from these three countries only need to complete their Electronic Visa Waiver online at least 48 hours before departure and present a printed copy on departure and again on arrival in the UK. No surprise then, that when British nationals living and working in many countries around the Middle East, who are married to non-EU citizens e.g. South Africans, Russians, Ukrainians and many other countries, discovered this form of discrimination against their spouses and families they were not too happy. The non-EU spouses of all British nationals living outside the UK are required to obtain a visa which must be valid for each visit when flying back into any UK airport. British citizens feel they are discriminated against because they are married to non-EU citizens. Why should they have to go through the process of having to prove that their spouse has the right to accompany them each and every time they return to the UK.? A campaign has been launched to provide awareness of this discrimination towards British citizens and their families. See: https://www.facebook.com/britishcitizensandtheirfamilies