• Fair deal for John Lewis cleaners
    Cleaners are as integral to the team as shop assistants, managers, and directors. Outsourcing the cleaning services is demeaning, discriminatory and clearly counter to your founder's vision. We are grateful to Polly Toynbee for alerting us to the situation in a recent Guardian article. For some of us, it is so unjust and morally repugnant that we intend to boycott John Lewis, Waitrose and Greenbee until this injustice is put right - and encourage others to do likewise.
    558 of 600 Signatures
    Created by Robert Twycross
  • Reconsider the GCSE reforms
    We know that GCSEs are not working. We know that our education system is working solely due to the immense and highly admirable efforts of those who work tirelessly to improve the chances and opportunities of young people. We have the opportunity, as a people, to radically evolve this system. For a summary of why this government's proposals are likely to cause immense damage, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/17/michael-gove-gcse-reforms?newsfeed=true. Some of the world's most foremost experts in education, who have all achieved spectacular results, have suggested a very different route. See for example http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html. Rather than ignoring them, the government could and should make use of their considerable expertise. By taking the small step of revising the proposals through a committee of learning experts, the government has the opportunity to make positive and informed reforms that will benefit each and every child in the UK for generations to come.
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    Created by Samuel Morgan
  • Privatisation: Grainger Medical Group GP Surgery, Benwell, Newcastle
    On September 1st, the Grainger Medical Group GP Practices in Benwell, Newcastle were handed over to the private healthcare company Care UK. This followed a tendering process that was obscured from public view, with patients at the practice only finding out that their GP was being tendered out after the contract had been awarded to Care UK. Care UK have a poor track record of providing GP style health care services. In the past they have lost 6,000 X-ray records, and turned away a patient from an urgent care centre, who in fact had meningitis, because of the terms of their contract. Staff at the practice have resigned in protest at the decision. The Council has the power to scrutinise the tendering process, yet did not look at the bidding process. This is a serious error of judgement and does not bode well for the ability of supposed scrutinising bodies to play their role in an increasingly privatised NHS. With the passing of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, private providers will become increasingly common place in our NHS. It is important our elected representatives hold them to account.
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    Created by Peter Campbell
  • SAVE OUR LOCAL PLAYING FIELD "OLDLAND COMMON"
    The part of the High Street playing field Oldland Common adjacent to Victoria Road that South Gloucestershire Council intend to sale with the permission of the Secretary of State for the development of 13 dwellings. We, as rate - tax payers and the rightful owners, request that this land be officially designated an open space for all in perpetuity. In the memory of the late Sir Bernard Lovell, 31st August 1913 - 6th August 2012 who was born and lived in Oldland Common and never forgot its green spaces and in line with the Bitton Parish Local Plan. This application is yet to be approved and can be viewed at http://developments.southglos.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=dates&keyVal=M6MNCYOK05500 This field has been used for generations by the local people for recreational use and if sold would leave the children with no playing field and force them onto the streets.With your help we can stop it !! PLEASE SUPPORT THIS NATIONAL ISSUE.
    207 of 300 Signatures
    Created by TERRY HAYWARD
  • SAVE GEORGE WARD PLAYING FIELDS MELKSHAM
    This area is vital to the local community. We have a shortage of sports pitches and community open space on the Western side of the town The Council should be putting the local community before profit.
    511 of 600 Signatures
    Created by TERRY CHIVERS
  • Please do not cull Badgers
    We do not know what the long term effects would be on other wildlife and surely it must be wrong to cull using methods which can cause injuries before a slow lingering death.We already have many organisations opposed to this policy, please listen to us!!
    424 of 500 Signatures
    Created by michael batchelor
  • Stop the closure of the Special Care Baby Unit at Withybush Hospital
    The Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) is the only one in Pembrokeshire. By closing it, newborn babies will have to be sent to Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen, a round trip of around 80 miles in a rural area. Many babies will not survive this trip and parents will not be able to visit their babies due to the long distance and difficulties with transport in this area. This will have a long-term knock-on effect with the parents not being able to bond with their babies. My daughter was born six weeks premature and without the care she received immediately after birth in SCBU she would not have survived. She is now a healthy 25 year old with two sons and a daughter of her own, my gorgeous grandchildren who are the light of my life. My youngest granddaughter also needed special care when she was born prematurely, she was several months early and tiny. She is now, thanks to the care and dedication of the staff on SCBU, a healthy and happy 3 year old. My son and his wife would have been unable to spend any time with her if they had been forced to travel to Carmarthen. Giving birth to a baby that needs special care is stressful enough without adding extra problems for the parents. They need to be able to visit their baby often, especially if Mum is breastfeeding and forcing them to travel to Carmarthen will make an already hard time even harder. Most young families don't have their own transport and public transport in this area is almost non-existent.
    10,472 of 15,000 Signatures
    Created by Elaine Watson Picture
  • Reinstate grading system for GCSEs that teachers and pupils were working towards
    These teachers and pupils have worked hard to succeed. This government is not supporting children, especially children in the state sector and especially children who do not come from priveleged backgrounds. All children are our future.
    193 of 200 Signatures
    Created by Kathleen O'Neill
  • Lung Cancer
    People die of lung cancer . All to often the person with lung cancer cannot be helped at it is too late to cure it
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    Created by Jim Wingham
  • Keep Swanage Hospital
    The isolated position of Swanage (27 miles by road from the nearest large hospital) and the fact that it is a holiday town receiving up to 250,000 holiday makers during peak holiday weeks. The hospital provides a range of specialized facilities including 15 beds for multiple use and specialist care as well as a vital minor injuries unit that can be accessed on a walk in basis. The hospital is highly rated with a matron in charge and has excellent fund raising support with money available for proposed expansion work. It should be regarded as a jewel in the crown for NHS Dorset
    205 of 300 Signatures
    Created by Max Stanford
  • B12 Testing & Treatment
    Its Important that this test is done as symptoms can be relieved by supplementing with B12 which cost as little as 50Pence per Ampule , saving NHS Billions Pounds, and saving Billions on welfare assistance , saving millions of people in UK from suffering from this deficiency and getting diagnosed with more serious conditions . Dr. Chandey as done so much research into this condition and as helped Thousands of people back to Health , many have been in Wheelchairs. Also Martin Hooper as just published a book on The Forgotton Illness . This as long been neglected by NHS not testing for B12 deficiency .!!
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    Created by Gillian Broughton
  • Make Kirklees Locala accountable
    Community Interest Companies, CIC, are being formed from various parts of our NHS, for example District Nurses, school nurses, cottage hospitals and as such are not required and will not answer any questions under the Freedom of Information Act. We cannot find out about such things as MRSA rates, staffing rates, number of lost records, bullying, pay rates for senior executives, etc. CIC are funded by us out of the NHS budget but we have no rights to ask what the money is being spent on and how successful the spend has been. They say they are "Not for profit" companies but that does not mean they are not a "Not for loss". The Huddersfield Examiner ran an article on the situation http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/local-west-yorkshire-news/2012/05/18/holme-valley-hospital-s-privacy-over-public-information-86081-30994333/ These are your services, you family members, children that depend and use these services so do we not have the right to ask uncomfortable questions and find out where our money is being spent and how efficiently it is being used.
    133 of 200 Signatures
    Created by Terry Hallworth