The consultant led services, for mums giving birth in the conurbation around Dewsbury, are due to be moved to Pinderfields Hospital Wakefield, in September 2016, to be replaced by a midwife led unit with 6 beds. Often mums in labour do not call an ambulance, but travel to hospital independently, via car or public transport. I would not want to travel from Cleckheaton or Birkenshaw to Pinderfields on the bus. Other women with no car may feel the same which will mean more calls for ambulances. The midwife led unit is for low risk births only, so first time mums should be directed to Pinderfields which will be dealing with higher risk births from the North Kirklees AND Wakefield areas. Will this not put a strain on the resources in Wakefield? Just after the Government Body rejected the Kirklees and Wakefield Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JHOSC) Report that the changes to Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust's Dewsbury District Hospital site were not in the best interests of the local population, the Daily Mail published a study showing that the death rate amongst inpatients at nearby hospitals, went up, when Newark A&E was closed. A large study in America also came to this conclusion. Shockingly, news has broken that Huddersfield Royal Infirmary is also earmarked for closure and replacement by an Urgent Care Centre. Pontefract Hospital has also just been redesignated an Urgent Care Centre. The resulting scenario of driving seriously ill patients in ambulances across the region and subsequent overcrowding in hospitals which have a fully functioning A&E will have a knock on effect for patients around the whole region of West Yorkshire and beyond, Barnsley for example and Oldham. We know Mid Yorkshire Hospital Trust is facing 'winter pressures' and it is mid summer! Why do the CCGs and Trusts not get together and tell this 'democratically elected' government to stop the NHS vanity projects and fully fund front line services? This is what happened in a neighbouring hospital in London, when Chase Farm hospital was closed. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jun/19/north-middlesex-ae-staff-describe-unit-as-unsafe-and-unsupported http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323141/Shocking-proof-Accident-Emergency-closures-cost-lives-Death-rate-jumps-THIRD-department-closes.html Strategic Projects team http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36847643

Woman's hour is the only programme for women in this country and its totally dominated by white middle class interests accents and perspectives. I am white and middle class and I am tired of having this window on my world so small and exclusive .

On 25 June, thousands of people will come together in London to celebrate their identity and their values. Celebrating and promoting institutions of war, that profit from the planning and execution of warfare globally, is an affront to the values that LGBTQI+ movements - and Pride itself - have been built on. Pride is being used within a wider public relations strategy that aims to capture the imagination of the public whilst concealing the brutal nature of warfare and the gruesome trade of the arms industry. The Red Arrows serve to promote British arms sales internationally, helping to sell weapons for BAE Systems to countries like Saudi Arabia. BAE Systems is a company that not only profits from war, but also incentivises it. There is No Pride in War. Let’s keep the Red Arrows and the arms industry out of London Pride 2016.

It's 98 years since (some) women were allowed to vote in Britain, and 214 years since A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was published. Muirfield Golf Club needs to get up-to-date. Treating all human beings as equal is a mark of civilisation.

This is an outrageous tax on women. Women in the UK are paying 5 times more for emergency contraception (EC) than women in other countries. In many European countries and across North America women are able to pick up the morning after pill straight off pharmacy shelves without questioning. On average women in the UK are paying over £15 more than women in other countries in the EU. Research by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service shows women feel they are being punished by the high price of EC, which overwhelmingly falls to women, and that the pharmacist consultation can feel embarrassing and intrusive. While EC can be obtained for free f‎rom GPs and contraceptive clinics, appointments can be hard to obtain in the window needed. Women rely on buying EC from pharmacies when they cannot get a timely appointment - a particular problem for women with work and childcare commitments. National pharmacy chains should not be exploiting women in need. It is not good enough that they only offer free EC schemes to younger women, when women of all ages use EC! They have the power to dramatically improve access to EC by halving the cost - they should do so now.

Following the overwhelming success of England’s women at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada last year – with semi-final viewing figures peaking at 2.4 million on the BBC despite an 11pm kick-off, and with the third-place playoff victory against Germany drawing a peak of 2.5 million viewers despite a 10pm kick-off – it's time that our women get equal broadcast coverage on free-to-air television as their male counterparts. Given that the women took England to their highest finish in a World Cup competition since the men won in 1966, we should be celebrating their sporting achievement, and the massive rise in popularity in women's football, both professional and at grassroots level, over the past decade.

Southwark Council are threatening to evict the Feminist Library from the building on Westminster Bridge Rd, London, that has been its home for 30 years. The council have given notice that the rent on the Library’s space in the building, which has housed a variety of community groups alongside the Library for the past 30 years, will be raised from £12,000 to £30,000 a year. Council officers are refusing to negotiate - join us in calling upon them to work with us to save the Library. On 10th February, Southwark Council Cabinet approved a report that ‘highlights the need for a thriving VCS (Voluntary and Community Sector) that mobilises community action and makes best use of community resources, skills, knowledge and spaces’. We cannot understand how treating our organisation in such a way is consistent with approving this report. [1] Dr Laura Schwartz, Associate Professor of Modern British History, University of Warwick has said: ‘"The Feminist Library is a wonderful cultural resource that needs to be defended at all costs. Generations of my students have used it for their academic research, as well as informing themselves about the continued oppression of women in our society and how to fight against it. The Library is now the only archive in London where a wide array of feminist publications are truly accessible to the general public and available on the open shelves. It also provides one of the few spaces in central London where women and feminist activists can come together to meet and organise for a better world. If the Feminist Library is evicted from its current premises, Southwark Council will not only be guilty of cultural vandalism but also of silencing women." Learn more about the Feminist Library and donate to our Emergency fund here: http://feministlibrary.co.uk/support/emergencyfund/ About the Feminist Library: The Feminist Library has an incomparable collection of over 7,000 books, 1500 periodical titles from around the world, archives of feminist individuals and organisations, pamphlets, papers, posters, and ephemera. We also provide space for meetings, readings, exhibitions and events, a space which supports and encourages research, mutual support, activism and community projects, with well over 20 different groups having used the events space just in the past calendar year, a number of them national and international. We are volunteer led, as we have been all our life; we are intergenerational, being significant custodians of our feminist heritage, whilst looking to the future; and our approach is intersectional – we provide a space for different feminisms to co-exist. We support not just archiving work, but also publish our own zines and support independent producers and artists. We are a registered charity, and completely self-funding. [1] Details of report http://casouthwark.org.uk/focus-southwark/southwark-council-agrees-new-voluntary-sector-strategy ‘Southwark Council Agrees to New Voluntary Sector Strategy’

As he spreads his hateful speech and guides people on how to exploit, manipulate and rape women, he's putting the welfare of women at risk. He needs to be stopped by all genders, within our communities. Having written a number of jaw-droppingly offensive blog posts and published books, Roosh V believes that men should stop asking for permission, and that alpha males should slowly break down the confidence in women to get what they want. He is a hugely dangerous individual. His fans have extensive forums online, detailing where to 'pick up the easiest girls' in each city, naming bars, venues and strategies. Roosh V needs to be stopped. Please sign.

RooshV, a militant pro-rape pick-up artist is holding gatherings for his followers in Cardiff on 6th February 2016. This makes our city unsafe. Promoting rape is hate speech, and should be treated as such. This is what the evil man is about: http://www.thenational.scot/news/militant-pro-rape-pick-up-artist-organises-events-in-scotland-where-female-gate-crashers-risk-furious-retribution

RooshV, a militant pro-rape pick-up artist is holding gatherings for his followers in Glasgow and Edinburgh. This makes our cities unsafe for at least half the population. Promoting rape is hate speech, and should be treated as such.

‘The Home Office estimates that 14,273 women and girls in Bristol have been a victim of domestic abuse in the past year’ (Bristol Ideal: 2015). For the women who have to flee from domestic abuse there are some fantastic support networks in Bristol that supply ‘emergency’, ‘temporary’ accommodation in safe houses and women’s refuges. I myself was living within a safe house in Bristol with my one year old son when I started this petition. It took me almost a year to move out and that is relatively quick as many women I left behind have been there 2 years and counting. Currently women and families living in temporary housing that need help from social housing to move on are not given priority. This petition is to get Bristol City Council to change the banding criteria to put vulnerable women and children into the highest band, Band 1. Despite being officially classed as homeless and at risk, the current highest banding we can be put into is Band 2. Not all women even get up to Band 2! This petition has got us some great attention and coverage and the issue was out to Bristol City Council in March as a motion to change the banding. A vote was taken and we got a unanimous yes vote. We thought we had won and the change would be made. Unfortunately politics is never that simple. The then mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson, did not action the motion so it was not put through. As the local councillor and mayoral elections were coming up we knew we would not see a change happen till after May. So continuing to campaign we attended mayoral hustings, posed questions on radio programmes and used social media to reach out to all the mayoral candidates to give a response to this band change. All were extremely positive about making this change and promised to see it happen. Marvin Rees, the new mayor of Bristol, went as far as putting it into his campaign manifesto to become mayor. Now he is in power, and has been for over 100 days, we still have not seen the band change! So now we are calling on him to make good on his promise and help save many lives. With the startling, but sadly well known, statistic that on average 2 women per week are killed nationally as a result of domestic abuse, it’s time more action was taken to improve services. Bristol City Council needs to give priority banding to re house survivors of domestic abuse to literally save lives. According to Women’s Aid (online), ‘the most dangerous time for a woman is when she is trying to escape her abuser’. Having to wait months to get into emergency accommodation is not good enough. Having to wait years to get out of emergency accommodation is not good enough. Please sign this petition to make Marvin Rees stick to his promise and make this important change ! Thank You. Reference Links: http://www.womensaid.org.uk/domestic_violence_topic.asp?section=0001000100220036§ionTitle=Statistics http://www.bristolideal.org.uk/domestic-and-sexual-violence/

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.