Successful Campaigns

No parent should have to hold their children and comfort them as they die, or be told that their child has been harmed by someone who is supposed to love them. But that’s exactly what I had to experience 10 years ago when my sons Jack and Paul were killed by their father after a family court judge granted him unsupervised contact with them, despite my warnings. For the past nine years, I’ve been campaigning with Women’s Aid to ensure children are at the heart of every decision made in the family courts and their voices, wishes and feelings are heard. I’ve been to Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament to help get key changes through in the Domestic Abuse Act.  In 2017, we saw new guidance published for judges making decisions about child contact in cases of domestic abuse. And in 2020, the Government committed to make the family courts safer for adult and child survivors. But years later, we’re still waiting for true reform to keep children safe now and for generations to come.  That’s why I’m calling on the new Labour Government and family courts to ensure, once and for all, that decisions made about parental contact do not allow known abusers to have unsafe contact with children that puts their lives at risk.

UPDATE - 25/09/15 Victory! Amazing news, following a campaign from 38 Degrees members, restaurant company Las Iguanas have announced they are changing their unfair tips policy. It’s a fantastic victory for people power. https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2015/09/28/las-iguanas-campaign-victory/ Read their announcement here: http://www.iguanas.co.uk/news/ourpolicy "What a great result for the hard-working staff at Las Iguanas and all 38 Degrees members. This shows without a doubt that when the public get together and have a single-minded focus, then things can and will change. Other restaurants with unfair tipping policies should be looking at this and following suit." Samuel Hughes - Petition Starter

WE WON! 30/05/18 British citizen Andy Tsege has received a pardon from the Ethiopian Government after almost four years on death row in Ethiopia. Andy has now been released from prison and is now with his family in Ethiopia. After four unbelievably hard years for on death row this is wonderful news for Andy, his partner and their children. The new Ethiopian government should be recognised for what they have done today. “I am so thankful that the pain and anguish my children have had to go through could now soon be coming to an end. Helawit, Yilak and Menabe have spent too long without their father and we are all hoping Andy will be free to come home to us soon.” Yemi Hailemariam, Andy’s partner https://reprieve.org.uk/update/andy-tsege-is-pardoned-by-ethiopia/

25/11/2014 SOS campaign success! Just four days after we handed in our SOS petition to Downing Street, the Department for Communities and Local Government has committed to a £10 million for refuges.

UPDATE: 8/9/15 - We were delighted to hear that Wadih has been granted a 3 year visa to remain in the UK. Thank you for all your hard work on his behalf. Hopefully, the visa will be extended to a permanent status, so that the family do not have to suffer the stress of worrying about Wadih's future. Read more here: http://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/13713175.Man_with_Down_s_syndrome_from_Beirut_given_30_month_extension_to_visa/ Read about the petition hand in here: https://home.38degrees.org.uk/2014/12/15/petition-hand-in-dont-deport-wadih/

16/05/18 - We won! Amazing news! Today Chris Grayling announced that he's bringing the East Coast railway line into public ownership! Together with you, we've been campaigning on this for months. We've warned against a Branson Bailout, told Stagecoach to stay away, supported Bring Back British Rail's legal case and kept the pressure up on politicians and the Department for Transport - and WE'VE WON! More here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44142258

Brilliant news - Michael Gove has abandoned his plans to drop climate change from the curriculum! And the papers are reporting that it was the “widespread support” for our campaign that persuaded him to change his mind. As a teacher, it means so much to me to know that young people will have the opportunity to understand climate change and how it will affect their lives. It’s only by educating children about what their future will look like that we can give them the chance to shape it for the better. The outpouring of support for our campaign was incredible. More than 37,000 of us came together with campaigners from the UK Youth Climate Coalition and People & Planet. We signed petitions, wrote letters and took our campaign right to Gove’s Department for Education. Thank you so much to everyone who stood with me to do this. It couldn’t have happened without you.

25/01/16 - We Won! Thank you for signing the petition Keep the Duke of Edinburgh's Award in East Sussex; it has been an extraordinary past 2 weeks, but 6,400 signatures, hundreds of emails, calls and messages and more than 10 radio, TV and news articles later and we have managed to stop the funding cuts to the Duke of Edinburgh's Award in East Sussex! Thank you so much to all of you that signed it, and for the support of friends and family in making this possible. I was the figure head for the campaign, but many people helped out behind the scenes in getting signatures and helping to manage the press, and 38 Degrees also kept in helpful, regular contact throughout. Whilst we have won this battle, I know that DofE is a soft target for cuts as a non essential service, and we must remain vigilant for the actions of the council in the future, however for now, this is a great success!

01/02/18 - We Won! On February the 1st, I presented full council with the 5,623 signatures of the ‘Open Brighton's Homeless Shelters 365 days a year’ petition and made an appeal to the room. After some debate, there was then a vote on expanding the provision of services to those already homeless. In a stunning repeat of last year’s unanimous vote, the council have now agreed - without abstentions - to send an extra £25,000 for night shelters, bringing the total to £160,000. This is an amazing result, and you played a key part in it. I’m so proud of what we achieved, as you should be.

The House of Lords has blocked the UK government's plan to relax restrictions on water pollution to encourage housebuilding in England. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-66804160