Free voices are being quashed in Bangladesh - whether it is in the press, or bloggers or lecturers. The government has shown that they they can suppress free speech without any recriminations leading others to also take the law into their own hands. Up to now no one has been arrested for the murders of bloggers yet they have arrested Shafik Rehman on the preposterous charge that he was plotting to kidnap the PM's son.

The track record of academy schools is mixed at best with little or no added value achieved in comparison with state schools. Amanda's biased credentials cannot provide an independent perspective on the future of schools. This compromises Ofsted's value and significantly threatens children's education.

Most mainstream parties have campaigned against leaving the EU so it is not proper they carry on uninterrupted without seeking a new mandate. Indeed these parties have specifically warned against leaving the EU. In any case members of parliament with conscience could consistently vote to trigger a vote of no confidence in the government.

Tony Blair is working in the interests of the Labour Party. Tony Blair gave the Tory Party 2 land slide election victories, whilst the current leadership, democratically elected, my be a A Dangerous Experiment, its a democratic experiment. Just because Blair has a different world view to Corbyn that is no grounds to slander him. Blair has a track record (for that period) Corbyn might be right for this time. The Electorate will choose. Splitting the Labour party is reminiscent of Brownites or Blarites. So we now have the Corbinites to divide the party. Blair wants a Labour Victory and feels there is a plan to go for the center ground which is a different plan to that or the left. Is the Labour Party a broad or Narrow church?

Weapons kill people. The companies that manufacture weapons profit from selling them to states which kill people. A more peaceful world means less weapons are required which, in turn, would hurt the profits of arms manufacturers and the dividends of public money investments. We should not be relying on dividends to help fund our local authorities when those dividends only increase as more weapons are sold. This is morally wrong! The article which spurred this petition can be found here: https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/8521/killing-name

School meals are very important for pupils health and it has been proven that students who eat school meals they produce more work and they are more focused. It has also been proven that Scotland is better at education than England and they are higher in the score table because they do have free school meals.

People in small towns and villages need internet just as much as people in big towns and cities. Decent broadband connection is essential for everything from paying bills to running businesses. Not forgetting of course that school children and college students need broadband access to do their homework. But for some places in the UK, the internet speed is either painfully slow or non-existent. It's time the government stepped up and fulfilled it's promise of decent broadband for everyone.

These musicians are the future of our orchestras, pop band ensembles, film/tv soundtrack session musicians, pit players for ballet, opera and musical theatre shows and your childrens' future teachers and mentors. The great majority of classical musicians flourished from training orchestras such as these! Closing the orchestra down is ignorant and shameful. -- "EU has just cut every Euro of funding to the young musicians of the Orchestra (backdated to last October), without so much as an advance whisper? The consequences of this decision are incalculable: the destruction of one of the world’s greatest training orchestras, generations of young musicians denied unique opportunities, and the loss of 40 years of patient tradition, and one of the EU’s greatest arts organisations. This funding decision is simply the consequence of a change in the EU’s cultural funding policy. Two years ago it was decided by the EU that there was to be no more cultural funding for any single organisation. Instead, €1.45bn of cultural support over seven years (a 7% increase on the previous programme) was only allowed to be used on projects with a highly complicated partnership structure. The new Creative Europe programme has wonderful objectives. But it is project funding to encourage national organisations to get together to become more European, not core funding for what is the original pan-European organisation. This “one size fits all”-approach to cultural funding doesn’t work for an EU orchestra with members from 28 countries, and that we were being forced into the wrong funding box. “The European Union Youth Orchestra remains one of our most distinguished ambassadors … a potent symbol of our European Union.” (Jean-Claude Juncker, EU Commission President). “I was moved not simply by the beauty of the music they produced, but also by what they stand for: the EUYO perfectly embodies the power of being united in diversity,” (Juncker’s colleague Martin Schulz, European Parliament President). And here is Tibor Navracsics, EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport. “The EUYO is remarkable - both for the outstanding quality of its performances and for its exemplary function … it inspires us”. And finally, the EU’s number one foreign policy politician Federica Mogherini: “This is Europe at its best … In hard times like the ones we are living, the EUYO sends a powerful message to all the young people of our continent: your time is now.” " >source: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/13/marshall-marcus-the-european-union-youth-orchestra-cannot-be-strangled See them perform: European Union Youth Orchestra - EUYO - Flashmob - Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam - 23.08.2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOs72u5FjCE EUYO Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 6, 'Pathétique', Movt I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lft2isVp0kk SHOSTAKOVICH 4th Symphony mov-1 (part 1/3) Vladimir Ashkenazi (BBC Proms 2006) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YVGZy2nsWA ---- Email: [email protected] Or send a letter or postcard to: Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, European Commission, Rue de la Loi / Wetstraat 200, 1049 1049 Brussels, Belgium

In May 2015 the electorate of Caithness, Sutherland & Easter Ross returned Dr Paul Monaghan as their MP, a massive swing of 27 percent had unseated the sitting Lib Dem MP, John Thurso. Incredibly less than twelve months later and following an electoral process that allowed three Lib Dem Hereditary Peers to determine his selection, John Thurso again became a Hereditary Peer in the House of Lords with the title of Viscount Thurso. The fact that John Thurso can now be in a position to affect the democratic will of his successor is an affront to democracy that totally unacceptable in a modern democracy in the 21st century.

Going to war affects us all and is something that must be debated and voted on in Parliament. Mr Cameron says Parliament should not make the decision as MP's are "ill-informed" We cannot allow our country to be high-jacked in this way by Mr David Cameron. It is too easy for one man to be compromised or swayed by vested interests. A Parliamentary debate and vote is our safeguard against this.

Tory MP compares calls for financial transparency for MPs with a "ban on curtains" and George Osborne changes his mind on anti-money laundering checks. This government isn't serious about anything, never mind tackling tax avoidance: "The Chancellor has caved under pressure from influential Tory Charles Walker, who last week refused to reveal his tax returns George Osborne has agreed to make MPs exempt from anti-money laundering checks under pressure from moaning Tory backbenchers. ...Ministers will now move to exclude MPs from the watch lists in the forthcoming Bank of England bill. Mr Osborne caved under pressure from influential Tory backbencher Charles Walker, who has been pressing for the change for some months. Mr Walker, who chairs the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs, last week threatened to table a bill banning curtains if he was forced to publish his tax returns." This is bullying tactics designed to try and cover up, the general public have to detail everything to the government and law or face the consequences. Not a problem if we have nothing to hide. So why should MP's who are paid by the people to do a job for the people be allowed to get away with it......

Shortfalls in taxation (I.e.the funding for public services) is directly attributable to the global tax policies of companies who think HOW they trade doesn't matter. We should not accept tax dodging as an inevitable consequence of free trade. Director and shareholder behaviour will only change when transglobals realise these aggressive and anticompetitive policies are unsustainable. Moving, with immediate notice, to 'name and shame' will help consumers to make informed choices in future, and will cost offending transglobals both new and loyal customers as well as their reputation with shareholders and markets. If shareholders cannot create ethical and sustainable policies on their own account, they will have to be encouraged by Governments to do so. As Government is aware, the EU The Anti Tax Avoidance Directive sets out a comprehensive framework of anti-abuse measures, containing five legally-binding anti-abuse measures, which all Member States should apply against common forms of aggressive tax planning. This includes measures to deter profit shifting to a 'low / no' tax country, to prevent double 'non-taxation' of certain income, to prevent companies from avoiding tax when 're-locating' assets, to discourage artificial debt arrangements designed to minimise taxes and the additional safeguard of the anti-abuse rule designed to counteract aggressive tax planning. As an absolute minimum measure today, Government should immediately escalate a 'name and shame' policy to encourage consumers to be aware, so consumers can use alternative brands or local companies who fairly pay taxes in markets they sell to. With Liam Fox looking to resurrect a new version of the dreadful TTIP or dubious CETA with the US, involving potentially highly contentious ISDS, we should demand to know why so many huge US companies play on this kind of uneven tax playing field, as well as make it clear that this is a global problem which individual nation states ARE willing to take on, in order to protect local competition and essential services for UK citizens. UK Government should take a lead in saying we welcome trade and business, but not at any price. Pay to play!! Irrespective of the status of Brexi by 2019, the UK MUST ensure that it applies the EU Anti Tax Avoiance measure from 1 January 2019 ,which provide the minimum level of protection against corporate tax avoidance throughout the EU, while ensuring a fairer and more stable environment collectively for UK and European businesses in competition with transglobals brands. In doing this, Government will need to distance itself from the antidemocratic influence of the far right press, as their vested interests are in continued tax avoidance loopholes, irrespective of whether their owners are British citizens, foreign born or foreign domiciled. The first priority must be to protect British companies and British public services.