As the new school term gets underway, school cleaners and janitors employed across Ayrshire by the local schools contractor, Mitie, are taking to the streets to campaign against their second-class treatment by Mitie and the local council. GMB Scotland, the union for school support staff, is stepping up its campaign for a Living Wage for school cleaners. GMB Scotland is also demanding that janitors working in local schools, which are operated on behalf of North, South and East Ayrshire councils by the contractor, Mitie, are paid at least the same as council employed janitors. Members of the public across Ayrshire will be asked to sign petitions backing the cleaners and janitors at special street stalls organised by the union in Kilmarnock, Ayr and Irvine over the next few weeks. In each of the 13 Mitie managed schools across Ayrshire low paid, predominantly women, workers are being treated as second class citizens with the full knowledge of the political leadership of local councils. School cleaners employed by Mitie are paid nearly £1 below the Scottish Living Wage, currently £8.75 an hour, which is paid as a minimum to every other council worker. Many of these workers transferred to Mitie's employment from the local council but have seen their pay erode year on year compared to their colleagues, doing the same jobs, and still employed by the council. There are even examples of women working in school kitchens and also as school cleaners who see their rate of pay drop when they change a council overall for a Mitie one. Sign below to support GMB Scotland’s campaign for all our school staff to earn at least the Living Wage and for fair pay for all school support staff, no matter what school they work in.

Nobody wants to be the victim of a crime or need to call the police. If you've just lost everything the last thing you need is to find 15p to call someone. It just does not make sense to be charged to report something that wasn't your fault in the first place. Plus with mobile calls you might get disconnected and 5 calls later you've spent 75p.......

We are coming up to the 100 Years anniversary of the Great War. I am the last surviving family member of Private William Tongs D.C.M, who died on the 12th of May 1915, after carrying out three brave deeds, each act deserving the highest award of the Victoria Cross. There is evidence that the War Graves Commission's burial records indicated he was buried with the award of the V.C. His Commanding Officer was injured the same day that Pvt. W. Tongs earned the DCM for his first act of bravery. His second act was to rescue 7 wounded men of the Royal Irish Rifles under very heavy fire and brought them back to safety. His third act, as defined by his Commanding Officer in a letter to his father:-. "There was no more gallant officer or man in the battalion than your son; he earned his D.C.M. on 10th March for conspicuous bravery both in the handling of a machine gun and for going out under very heavy fire from the enemy and helping in seven wounded men. He died from wounds received in action on the 9th of May. On this occasion his gallantry was equally conspicuous in the manner he worked his machine gun. He was on this occasion wounded several times and died on the 12th May. He served his country nobly and died a hero’s death." It will be noticed that no award was made for the third plucky incident in the career of this noble Guernseyman. The V.C. has often been granted for such deeds. There are numerous V.C's awarded for far less brave acts, and although these recipients were courageous, the V.C. is usually awarded not only for gallantry but for the most conspicuous bravery, or some daring or pre-eminent act of valour or self-sacrifice, or extreme devotion to duty in the presence of the enemy." As an example of an oversite and in one case example, two VC's were issued to an Officer and a Private, for handling the same machine gun, the Officer was killed, the Private took over the machine gun and was eventually captured by the enemy. This one act was justified by the granting of two awards of the Victoria Cross. Yet Private Tongs earned a DCM for three acts of gallantry in the presence of the enemy which produced positive results. The V.C. Can be awarded posthumously and in this instance, my petition is purely to posthumously upgrade the DCM to the Victoria Cross, that was richly deserved, when Pvt. Tongs gave his life for his Country. The full story can be seen published by an independent organisation: - The Priaux Library in Guernsey Channel Islands. http://www.greatwarci.net/honour/guernsey/database/tongs-w-merville.htm London Gazette Issue 29180 published on 1 June 1915. Page 37 of 40 "For conspicuous gallantry at Neuve Chapelle on 10th March 1915. When he brought his machine gun into position under a heavy fire and silenced a German gun which had been doing much damage. On the 12th March, he rescued wounded men of the Royal Irish Rifles under heavy fire."

Making it compulsory for companies to have to receive their packaging back would change the waste and pollution problem faster - as they would be held accountable for what they are selling and how they are selling to the public. It would force them to make important changes internally to tackle the waste and pollution crisis. They would also potentially be able to offer refillable products at a discount that would not only save the public / consumers money, but would also solve part of problems of the waste crisis in a more long-term way.

People are trapped in their own homes because of the water rising. It has got to point that people can’t even have food to eat, kids have been starving for the whole day, because the waters are to high to get food. Many people have even lost their homes because of the water eroding the foundations away from the walls. Many people are missing because of the flooding and rock slides. The water has reached up to the second level of the house and people are left with inches away from death, left with no hope.

Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide on the market. Herbicides containing glyphosate are sold under a variety of names, and are made by a large number of different manufacturers, but the most well known is RoundUp, made by Monsanto. Gardeners and farmers choose to use glyphosate herbicides because they are both very effective, and have a very low toxicity to people and animals. Despite the fact that there is very clear scientific evidence that herbicides containing glyphosate are safe, and don't cause cancer (see sources at the bottom), and even though multiple well-respected international scientific bodies have examined all of the evidence and also concluded there is no link between glyphosate and cancer, a jury in California decided that a man's cancer was caused by it. As a result companies like B&Q and Homebase are considering removing glyphosate herbicides from their shelves. Waitrose is already doing it. If glyphosate herbicides are taken away, gardeners and farmers will have no alternative but to switch to other, more toxic herbicides, like pyraflufen ethyl (2x more toxic than glyphosate), dicamba (about 6 times more toxic than glyphosate), or diquat (almost 40 times more toxic than glyphosate). As a gardener, I use glyphosate for weed control, particularly invasive, difficult to get rid of ones like Ground Elder and Bindweed. Farmers are increasingly using it as part of no-till farming, to avoid having to break up soil which leads to soil degradation and erosion. Why should my health and well-being, and the safety of my family be put at risk by knee-jerk responses to a poorly made judgement in a foreign court? Gardeners and farmers should be allowed to decide for ourselves if we want to continue to use RoundUp and other glyphosate herbicides, rather than having it imposed on us. Courts are not good places to determine scientific issues. Juries can be swayed by emotions (a dying man vs a large faceless, not particularly trusted corporation), and because juries don’t generally consist of scientific experts, and therefore, like the rest of us, they aren't in a position to properly evaluate scientific evidence, particularly in a courtroom where they're under pressure to try and decide between 2 competing stories. So when the science says glyphosate is safe, I believe companies should trust the science, rather than relying on a single flawed court case that is being appealed. Sources: - Andreotti et al. 2017. A large, long-term cohort study with over 50,000 participants that wasn’t funded by Monsanto, which failed to find an association between glyphosate use and cancer among farmers. - Mink et al. 2012. A meta-analysis of 21 cohort and case-controlled studies in humans concluded that there is "no consistent pattern of positive associations indicating a causal relationship between total cancer (in adults or children) or any site-specific cancer and exposure to glyphosate". - Regulatory oversight agencies in the US, Europe and elsewhere in the world, including the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (acting on behalf of European Commission and European Food Safety Authority), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and World Health Organization Core Assessment Group, the European Union, the World Health Organization International Programme on Chemical Safety, the EPA, and the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority have all reviewed the over 800 studies on glyphosate (many of which are independent) and concluded there is no link between glyphosate and cancer. (Declaration of interest: I have never worked for or receive any money from Monsanto or any other chemical or agricultural company.)

RBS is the last major bank in the busy retail area with high local population since the closures of Barclays and Halifax banks over the last few years. Not everybody wants to use telephone banking or is computer literate. This will cause significant inconvenience to many customer who rely on the banks, they will need to travel to either Nottingham or Beeston for their everyday banking transactions . This will cost their customers time and money. The only winner is the bank who will save costs to add to their already significant profits.

Having to change anyone with a server disability on a cold and dirty floor is unacceptable. It causes stress and danger for all involved, not to mention its completely undignified! Everyone has the right to be changed in a safe environment, and with the correct equipment, so I am trying to get facilities such as a hoist room in and around Northamptonshire for those people who rely on such equipment to be changed safely.

The youth have no where to play socialise and meet so they hang around the town in groups they desperately need some where to go.

It is important for both enhancingbcsreer prospects for BMS graduates and for enhancing the services of laboratory practitioners in the nhs.

News papers (both national and local) do a very important job of holding those in power to account. But the Thurrock Council chief executive Lyn Carpenter has decided not to be held to account by blocking the local newspaper and refusing to answer any questions. By this the people of Thurrock will be kept in the dark about what their council is doing. Are the hiding something? Today it is Thurrock council but if they get away with this then tomorrow it could be your or my council. I think we should all be concerned about our democracy and make sure that Thurrock Council don't get away with it and send out a message to other councils that they can't do the same. Read more on this story www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/advertiser-lends-support-to-press-freedom-battle-1-5646497 I live in a borough which has had it's elected mayor charged with corruption. This was brought about by journalist doing a good job so I know how important it is for journalist to be able to do their job.

My mother, who lives alone, needs us both here in the UK as she is fighting cancer. I am British and my wife is from Mexico. We meet all the visa requirements but we failed to complete the new A2 English test that was brought in in 2016. My wife speaks excellent English, but with all of the stress of my mothers illness, we overlooked this new addition. It appears that my wife cannot take the test as the Home Office have retained her passport. The passport is required for ID for the secure test. If the Home Office sends the English college a certified copy of the passport and explains the situation, the college would let her take the test. We would therefore be able to resubmit the application without her having to go back to Mexico and losing her job at this critical time.