This is the biggest single political decision the United Kingdom has faced in the past 40 years and it would be morally repugnant to prevent British Citizens currently resident abroad from voting in the in / out referendum, considering the significance of the decision being made. It is estimated that somewhere in the region of 5.5 million British Citizens currently reside overseas, with nearly 2 million living in the EU. These people move abroad for a variety of reasons, work, family, health or to retire to name but a few. Many have family ties remaining in UK and, contrary to popular opinion, moving overseas does not mean these people have turned their back on the UK. Many continue to take a keen interest in news and political developments back home and despite long-term residence overseas, some continue to be UK taxpayers through occupational pensions, rental of UK properties whilst abroad or from other income derived in the UK. As the law currently stands, once you have resided overseas for more than 15 years, you lose your entitlement to vote in any elections in the UK, whether you are a UK taxpayer or not. We face the situation where many British Citizens are to be denied a say in the long-term future of the UK in relation to the EU and the rest of the world. Their voices should also be heard and rightly so.

Under an independent Scotland the revenue from the oil and gas fields would enhance the Scottish budget. The pre-1999 border was already favourable to England but Tony Blair pushed through the change to maritime waters underhandedly just before devolution to Scotland, thereby giving England rights to revenue from oil and gas fields in those waters, in case Scotland pushed for independence. Read more here: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives2012/01/scotlandengland-maritime-boundaries/

Coventry City Council is supporting the proposal that it, alongside other Warwickshire councils in Coventry and Warwickshire’s Local Enterprise Partnership, joins the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP and Black Country LEP to form a West Midlands Combined Authority (this has been confirmed as the name of the CA). Despite the fact that many residents have concerns about Coventry playing very much the second fiddle to Birmingham, as it did in the old West Midlands County Council days, our Council is not intending to canvas the opinion of residents through a referendum. I do not believe that such a decision about the City, which will have an impact for decades ahead, should be made without full consultation and an extensive and public discussion of all the pros and cons.

It will save the country money on their expenses.

The political conversation being had at the moment is skewed towards reducing, removing or abandoning key components of our Human Rights legislation and we disapprove of this. It was a Conservative Party pledge to replace the UK Human Rights Act (1998) with a British Bill of Rights. The reasoning behind it was to reclaim sovereignty for the nation-state with regards to Human Rights. In doing so, all those concerned have shown a fundamental lack of knowledge about how the EU, the ECHR, and the British legal system, interface with one another. Not only do we think the British Human Rights Act does a good job at protecting the British people's fundamental rights and liberties, we think the further guarantee of a European level is useful to ensure that human rights are respected and developed. To not be part of the ECHR would be to be in the same boat as Belarus, Europe's last formal dictatorship. Britain is greater than that.

The people of Scotland have a right to say if they are kept in Scotland

Hunting wild mammals with a pack of dogs causes unnecessary stress. There is no reason why, in this day and age, such outdated methods should be used to hunt any animal. Foxes in particular are iconic as part of the British natural fauna and are relatively peaceful animals. There are better methods and measures that can be used to stop foxes from damaging livestock and farmland than the way proposed by pro-hunt campaigners. The act of chasing a fox with a pack of dogs is barbaric and has no place in our society. Voting to repeal the hunting act would also be an affront to democracy. Polls from YouGov, Ipsos Mori and The Mirror show that the majority of the public want to keep the hunting ban in place. If there is to be any vote on the repeal of the hunting act, the public should be consulted via a national referendum. If this condition cannot be met, then the ban should remain in place. You can see the poll results below: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/01/09/british-people-still-support-fox-hunting-ban/ http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/dec/25/britons-fox-hunting-ban-survey https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3315/Hunting-Poll-2013.aspx http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fox-hunting-back-agenda-says-5665629 We, the people of Kingswood, ask that you, Chris Skidmore, vote to keep the hunting ban over the course of this next parliament.

This is important as in modern day society socialism and plain human instinct is to help and support one another. With the proposed budget being shown next month, we are likely to see the poorest get hit with waves of austerity and the rich getting richer as usual. Please sign to prevent such happening!

Only 36.9% of the UK population actually wanted the current UK Government which means the majority of the population do not want the Conservatives to represent them. How can this be democratic? Before the next election we need a reformation of the voting system so that the Government we end up with represents the majority of those who voted for them.

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.

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.

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.