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To: David Cameron, Grant Shapps, Lord Feldman of Elstree

Hold your MPs to account for filibusting a bill which would affect their private interests.

Provide an explanation, other than the fact that they were serving their own interests as private landlords, as to why Christopher Chope and Philip Davies felt it necessary to filibuster (talk to death) the bill that would have prevented revenge evictions by private landlords.
Take steps to discourage this practice in the future that could be shared across all parties.

Why is this important?

According to the housing and homelessness charity Shelter, 2% of all renters in the private sector have been evicted after they complained to their landlord or letting agent about a problem.

Revenge evictions has particularly been a problem in London, where 14% of all families renting privately have been a victim to the practice in the last year.

Time to debate issues in Parliament is a precious commodity. It appears that these MPs put their private interests above those of their constituents, democracy and the British tradition of fair play. Rather than allow a debate, they deliberately monopolised the allotted time, using rule-play to subvert democratic decision making.

This seems to be further evidence how many modern politicians serve themselves over the common good of the electorate, thus bringing politics into disrepute again.

In order to restore some confidence, those political parties who value the opinion of the electorate should condemn the practice and take measures to reassure voters that a conflict of interest will not occur.
New reports:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/sirajdatoo/these-two-tory-mp-landlords-just-blocked-a-bill-banning-reve
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/tory-mps-who-blocked-bill-banning-revenge-evictions-are-private-landlords-1477218

How it will be delivered

I intend to serve the petition on the 15th of December of this year. Although on this occaision the filibusting was perpetrated by Conservatives, it is unfortunately not the sole practice of the Tories.

As such, I also intend to present a copy of the petition to all of the major political parties as an indicator of public opinion and call upon them to also condemn the practice.

United Kingdom

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Category

Updates

2014-12-20 13:59:15 +0000

I contacted the following for comment:
Lab: Labour.org.uk Single email addressed to Mr Miliband, Mr Allen and Mr McNicol,

http://www.libdems.org.uk/contact Sent to both HQ (President Tim Farron) and Mr Clegg.

DUP: [email protected] Mr Peter Robinson, Party leader.

SNP: [email protected] Nicola Sturgeon Leader and Angus Robertson Westminster Group Leader

Plaid Cymru: [email protected]

SDLP: [email protected] Alastair McDonnell (leader) Joe Byrne (Chairman)

UKIP: [email protected] Nigel Farage (Leader) Steve Crowther (Chairman) Tim Aker (Head of Policy)

Alliance: [email protected] (MP)

Green: [email protected] Natalie Bennett, Caroline Lucas.

Respect: [email protected] George Galloway

No response as yet.

2014-12-15 15:18:16 +0000

I tried to email The Conservatives but unfortunately, it only allows 512 characters. I called the office of the party chairman and left a message for Oliver Wells. I hope that he will get back to me with the appropriate contact details soon. I have contacted Lord Feldman via theyworkforyou.com and emailed the petition to [email protected]. I have submitted a highly edited message (it only allows 1000 characters) to David Cameron via number10.gov I will follow up on these and contact the other parties later in the week.

2014-12-02 19:31:29 +0000

5,000 signatures reached

2014-12-02 14:08:52 +0000

1,000 signatures reached

2014-12-02 13:57:51 +0000

500 signatures reached

2014-12-01 00:11:24 +0000

100 signatures reached

2014-11-30 14:39:10 +0000

50 signatures reached

2014-11-30 07:37:11 +0000

25 signatures reached

2014-11-29 22:32:33 +0000

10 signatures reached