This is the most high profile pre-election event taking place in the Stroud constituency; and has a huge potential impact on the decisions listeners to the programme will take at the ballot box. Just as it was essential to have all seven candidates represented at the national debate. It's vital that all six candidates for the Stroud constituency are represented at this event. As is happening at many of the other equivalent BBC events around the country. By not giving all candidates the same platform the BBC are undermining the fairness of the election in Stroud.

Broxtowe is undergoing great change with centrally-imposed infrastructure projects radically altering the area. The impact of this centrally-imposed, swingeing cut on the local council budget will destroy all hope of mitigating against such changes. Front-line services will be under threat, with the impact being felt by all residents; with the most vulnerable being hit hardest. Read more here: http://www.nottinghampost.com/Borough-faces-biggest-spending-cut-country/story-25737818-detail/story.html

Evictions are at a record high. Council house building is being destroyed and sold off with waiting lists growing. Housing has become insecure, often unsafe and unaffordable Companies are exploiting workers in homeless organisations and Housing Associations, organisations which are often seeing surpluses, yet cuts to pay and important services are being cut. Companies who have blacklisted workers in trade unions are being contracted for public contracts, we say NO. All of this and sadly, too much more, are reasons for our manifesto demands at this key time: 1. Stop the cuts - Austerity for the 99% ! 2. Build and repair over 300,000 Council houses per year, incorporating improved accessibility and environmental standards. 3. Stop the transfer of council stock to housing associations. Stop the social cleansing 4. End the right to buy - We lost over 44,000 homes in 2013-2014 5. Bring in Rent Controls and establish a national register of private landlords to protect tenants 6. End unfair benefit caps and other benefit cuts such as the Bedroom tax and cuts in council tax benefit. Restore and increase the Independent living fund. 7. Protect Supported Housing - Stop the cuts and ring fence services which are vital for some of the most in need of specialist support 8. Decent Pay and conditions for workers in housing and social care 9. Bring in an £10ph National Minimum wage 10. End the Blacklist - restrict commissioning of social housing and maintenance services to providers who have signed up to the Joint Industry Board National Agreement for Engineering Construction. Act to remove approved providers found guilty of blacklisting. 11. Nationalise the Banks - Taking over the banks on a permanent basis would enable investment to be planned in line with democratically decided priorities including housing that working people can afford. We must put a stop to the disaster of austerity and build secure homes for the 99% The full manifesto can be found here - http://www.housingworkers.org.uk/readnews.html?con_id=172 Please cut and paste the full manifesto or add the link and ask your MP's and councillors to pledge their support. https://www.writetothem.com/ And if your looking to find out candidates for local or general elections please use - https://yournextmp.com

Wandsworth Council have approved an application by the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum to build a six-story car park in Battersea for over a hundred luxury cars. At a time when the need for affordable housing has never been more urgent and pollution levels in London are making headlines, we ask that you overturn this decision and make a powerful, symbolic statement which shows that you really care about London. There is an urgent need for affordable housing in the UK, particularly in central London. You have a golden opportunity to make a meaningful statement. Rather than encouraging pollution, obscene riches and the exacerbation of extreme social inequality in central London, you have a superb opportunity to highlight the urgent need for more social housing and move London in a positive direction by publicly rejecting Wandsworth's decision. Homes for hundreds of Londoners, or hundreds of cars for one billionaire? Boris, this is a real chance for you to prove to us that you care.

Life saving equipment such as automated defibrillators and electric chest compressors are already very expensive, but to have to pay VAT on top is making NHS services less able to provide these. In Rural areas where an ambulance can take a long time to reach a person who has suffered a cardiac arrest, an automated defibrillator can mean the difference between life and death. In the Scottish Borders we send patients to Edinburgh for heart surgery such as fitting of stents. If the person arrests in transit it is not possible for a paramedic to provide effective CPR for the entire journey, particularly in a moving vehicle. An electric chest compressor has been shown to increase survivial rate in this type of circumstance from zero (as it is not possible to physically continue effective CPR for long periods of time), to an amazing 50 percent survival rate. Sadly this piece of equipment is £10,000 plus VAT. Surely it cannot be right for the government to give a budget to the NHS and then claim a substantial part of it back in VAT.

The money paid into these pension funds has already been taxed. Now they want to tax it again. This is nothing short of highway robbery. Why should people who have scrimped and saved all their lives to try and provide themselves with a decent pension (which government fails to do) be penalised? Yet another example of rip-off government in rip-off Britain. There are enough pensioners, and people soon to reach retirement age, in this country to put a stop to this.

Having different levels of pension payment is discriminatory and contrary to the United Nations Social Protocol and the Commonwealth Charter, both of which the British government has signed People retiring overseas to be near their families for their final years each save the UK around four thousand pounds every year through non-access to the NHS and other pensioner benefits People retiring overseas release houses for other families so helping the housing crisis There are thousands of people in Britain who would like to emigrate but cannot afford to do so because of the frozen-pensions' policy. It would benefit the taxpayer to enable these people to emigrate and save the country the #4,000 a year detailed above It would meet the "fairness" criteria which is supposedly the foundation of every Conservative policy.

An estate agent in Bristol called CJ Hole has been sending out letters to its landlord clients asking "Are you getting enough rent?" and "How do you get more rent?" The letter they are sending to landlords explains that "with rents increasing every week in Bristol, it is highly likely your property is due a rent increase.” It goes on to say that “the demand from tenants is far exceeding the number of available properties and we have never seen such a buoyant rental market." It doesn't once mention the rights of tenants. The letter shows how some estate agents and landlords are seeking to cynically profit from the housing crisis in Bristol at a time when inflation has declined to 0.3% and deflation is predicted. I think there is no justification for increasing rents at a time when prices are actually going down. In addition, real average earnings have fallen by 8% since 2008. Such predatory rental practices are an attack on low income people and threaten the most basic of rights – the security of a home to live in. Bristol's housing supply has been described by an official report as "in crisis." In 2013 just 60 affordable homes were built across Bristol Please sign this petition if you want CJ Hole to stop sending these letters to its landlord clients and if you want your next MP to support rent controls, giving more rights to tenants and building more affordable homes. If you have experienced a rent rise you believe is unjustified please post the details below. I.e. how much was it, was it in response to improvements made by the landlord, and any other points you think are relevant. If you have seen similar letters from other estate agents, please contact me. We will compile a list of all responses and use these as the basis for a later action/petition. Read the full letter below: https://s.bsd.net/38degrees/main/page/-/11096902_10153147467450900_147746140_n.jpg

Lord Marlesford's litter bill is still working its way through Parliament, but if it is passed it will allow councils to fine the registered owner of a car for a littering incident. Until that is agreed though, the litter camera approach will only work if you can actually identify an individual, which makes it practically impossible. It will help to reduce the disgusting and very alarming amount of litter that is thrown onto our roads every day.

The Sri Lankan police has a long history of human rights abuses and vicious attacks. Amnesty International’s latest annual report into Sri Lanka alleged that unlawful detentions and torture by security forces were carried out routinely. Since 2007, the Scottish Police College has trained thousands of Sri Lankan officers - including some senior commanders. But training has failed to protect human rights in Sri Lanka. Siobhan Reardon, Amnesty International's programme director in Scotland, said: “Human rights campaigners and family members of people subjected to enforced disappearance were threatened and arrested, and fatal attacks on religious minorities went unpunished.” Also a UN report commissioned by secretary general Ban Ki-Moon found that as many as 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in the last months of the civil war in May 2009, mostly through indiscriminate shelling by Sri Lankan security forces. The police training reform project is funded by the Foreign Office (FCO), was supposed to embed "international standards in police training." But a recent FCO report found instances of torture, deaths in police custody, police abductions and instances of suspects shot and killed as they attempted to flee. The current contract will end on 31 March 2015, but it could be renewed. Police Scotland should not enable human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. Please listen to the Scottish public, Tamil community and human rights campaigners. Please sign this petition and stop Police Scotland enabling human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. Tamil Solidarity and a number of diaspora campaigners support this petition.

The reason removing the three feathers is important is because it's traced back to Edward the Black Prince; oldest son and heir to Edward III of England and therefore no connection to the native land. Having the feathers is a statement of English oppression and ownership - I find it offensive that it's being used instead of daffodils, leeks, the Red dragon or the Saint David's cross. Y rheswm mae'n bwysig cael gwared o'r tair pluen yw oherwydd ei fod yn olrhain yn ôl i Edward y Tywysog Du ; mab hynaf ac aer i Edward y trydydd o Loegr ac felly tydi o ddim yn cysylltu efo'r wlad enedigol . Mae cael y tair pluen yn ddatganiad o ormes a pherchnogaeth Saeson - Dwi'n gweld hi'n sarhaus i ei ddefnyddio yn lle gennin Pedr, cennin, y ddraig Goch neu y groes Dewi Sant .

Fracking causes devastating effects, affecting every sector of public life, from health to agriculture, to tourism and the environment. Places such as the USA, or Australia where Fracking has already happened have seen a complete degradation of normal life; taking a shower brings your whole body out in a painful red rash, you can light your water on fire, you can't sleep for the noise of the machines and worse, the division of communities due to the manipulation of the Fracking companies. The effects of Fracking are truly endless, with long term effects still being uncovered. We want a ban on Fracking because we love our families, our friends and where we live. Many people have become seriously ill when Fracking companies have started drilling near them. There are many stories of heartache, from someone's wife who has cancer to a mother's young son with severe asthma. Under no circumstances is it acceptable to put communities through the ordeal of Fracking for the sole reason of extracting fossil fuel from the ground. With the effects of the Climate Change becoming worse, this is not the time to invest in Fossil Fuels. If we do not change our habits the repercussions of Climate Change will affect every single person on this earth. We should therefore be investing in renewable energy, not in polluting practises such as Fracking. By signing this petition we make it the duty of our politicians to ensure that Climate change is curbed and Fracking never happens in Northern Ireland.