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Petition Tag - liberal democrats
1. Petition to remove the coalition government from power! 
David Cameron stated that he would not cancel the EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance)
David Cameron stated that family allowance would not be affected and it was safe under a Conservative administration
George Osborne and David Cameron both denied that they had any plans to raise VAT and that the Labour party was trying to “scare” the electorate (Evening Standard, 2010)
The Conservative party said there would be no major top down reforms of the NHS in this parliament (Lansley, 2009)
Nick Clegg stated unequivocally that he and all 57 MP’s would vote against ANY increase in tuition fees (Libdem manifesto, 2010)
The Conservative party policy stated that failures in the penal system and law and order was due to Labour’s failed policies and anyone convicted of a knife crime would go to prison and more prison places would be made available (Conservative Manifesto, p57)
George Osborne stated that Labour had not regulated the banks enough and no one working in a Bank that had been saved by the state should get more than a £2,000 cash bonus (Conservative Party website, 2009)
Bonfire of the quangos. To get rid of quangos to make them more efficient, accountable and more cost effective (Cameron, 2009)
The result
David Cameron now says EMA’s don’t work and is scrapping them, always quoting one survey supporting this view that 9 out of 10 students would still do the course even if the EMA was withdrawn, ignoring other evidence and a larger body of evidence that suggests EMA significantly increases the chances of students starting and finishing the courses in higher education
Family allowance is cut for a section of the population
VAT increased to 20% and no statement to state if this is permanent or not.
The largest most far reaching reforms of the NHS have been announced since 1945, costing several billions of pounds at a time the government is strapped for cash. Causing uncertainty in the service and without a consensus or rolling the changes out giving evidence the changes are working – THIS FAR REACHING REFORM WAS NOT IN THE MANIFESTO
Tuition fees increased by up to 300%, although with some progressive safeguards, these could easily be over turned at any time by future administrations
Kenneth Clarke has announced the biggest turn around in prison and law and order policy known in the UK. People voted for the Conservative Party to be strong on law and order and to build more prisons. They have announced a closure of 3,000 prison places. fewer people to be sent to prison and declaring that prison does not work and then cutting the police budgets.
George Osborne we now know in recent negotiations tried to water down EU recommendations for regulating the banks. There will be no limitations on bonuses (Monbiot, 2011)
The bonfire of the quangos was more like a child’s sparkler. They failed to understand that many of the quangos actually do something and there is no one else to do it. The restructuring was announced without any research into who will carry out the functions after the restructuring or how much it will cost. It could well cost more than it did before the reforms. The House of Lords, the biggest quango in our country has been bolstered by the Conservative party with a massive new intake to increase support for the coalition. There is no timetable for reform of the upper house.
2. Stop unfair changes in employment law
The ConDem coalition is beginning to flex its' muscles and are following a Tory ideological aversion (with Lib Dem support) to employee rights. The attitude of the Lib Dems is particularly disappointing.
They are proposing under a Employers Charter to 'raise the bar' for protection against unfair dismissal from one years service to two. This will mean thousands of more workers will be dismissed unfairly and there will be nothing they can do! They are also proposing to force those who will still be able to claim to lodge a deposit of cash into Court to be forfeited in the event they lose their case! In reality this will mean that many workers will not be able to afford such a deposit and will have to give up seeking their rights.
The Government sees these measures as a way of paying back their big-business backers post election.
3. Introduce a Fuel Duty Regulator
East Kilbride SNP is backing calls for a Fuel Duty Regulator to tackle constant escalations in fuel prices.
The SNP has been campaigning for a Fuel Duty Regulator ever since 2005, when Alex Salmond moved an amendment to the Labour Government's Budget Bill. The SNP conducts this campaign in partnership with Plaid Cymru, its Welsh counterpart.
Before the 2010 election, the Tories and LibDems also called for action on fuel prices, but, since coming to office, have failed to act. Even worse, the coalition not only allowed Labour's planned Fuel Duty increases to go ahead, but added another 2.5 pence in VAT.
Before these increases, in a review of fuel prices in Europe in December 2010, the AA reported that the price of diesel in the UK is second only to that of Norway.
However, Norway, unlike Scotland, has control of its own oil and has much higher incomes than Scotland.
The Road haulage Association (RHA) supports the campaign for a Fuel Duty Regulator.
Speaking in support of a recent SNP/Plaid Cymru motion submitted to the Westminster Parliament, Phil Flanders, Director of the RHA’s Scotland and Northern Ireland Region, said:
“We have always supported the SNP’s proposals for a fuel duty regulator in order to bring stability to the costs of a haulage business where fuel can account for around 40% of running costs at today’s prices.
"Help is urgently needed for all hauliers and particularly those further from their market such as those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland."
Speaking in support of the petition, Linda Fabiani, SNP MSP for Central Scotland, said:
“Under both Labour and the coalition, Westminster has let Scotland down over soaring fuel prices. Indeed, both governments made matters worse by taking windfall tax benefits from soaring oil prices.
“It is simply unacceptable that in energy-rich Scotland, motorists and businesses are facing pump prices of up to £1.40 a litre, the vast majority of which goes to the London Treasury.
“These record fuel costs put huge pressure on vital sectors of the Scottish economy and risk choking the recovery that Scotland needs to provide long-term jobs in our communities.”
“In the past year alone, fuel prices have gone up by at least 14% and in the last 28 months there have been 8 fuel duty hikes amounting, on their own, to a 25% increase."
"This petition is an important part of the campaign to reverse that trend and I urge you to sign it."
4. Oppose ConDem anti-worker Employment law changes
The ConDem coalition Government is biased towards Employers. So it comes as no surprise that the Government is proposing a new Employer’s Charter.
Some of the suggestions are reasonable. For example, encouraging parties to resolve disputes between themselves by requiring all claims to be lodged with Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) in the first instance to allow pre-claim conciliation including settlements to be offered and speeding up the tribunal process.
However buried in the detail is a proposal to increase the period an employee qualifies in most cases for Employment rights from one to two years. This means that unless you are in a specially protected class (racial, sexual etc.) you will not be able to bring a claim for unfair dismissal until you have been employed for two years.
Just to turn the screw tighter the Coalition is proposing that sacked employees provide a financial ‘bond’ before they can apply to a Tribunal. Many low paid workers struggle to make ends meet and they simply have no savings to be used in this regard. The very workers that are most vulnerable would be the ones unable to take their case forward!
The Solidarity Trade Union rejects these outrageous proposals and campaigns to resist their implementation.
5. Nick Clegg should honour Liberal pledges on Student Tuition Fees
At the last UK General Election Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Clegg made great play of the Tory and Labour parties’ suggestion that student fees would have to be increased. He publicly signed a pledge that he and his party would oppose any tuition fee increases.
Mr Clegg was photographed holding up his signed copy of the pledge, which read, “I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative.”
More than 500 Liberal Democrat candidates signed the pledge, including every single elected Liberal Democrat MP.
In addition, the Lib Dem election manifesto spelled out that party’s pledge on university fees as follows: “Scrap unfair university tuition fees for all students taking their first degree, including those studying part-time, saving them over £10,000 each. We have a financially responsible plan to phase fees out over six years, so that the change is affordable even in these difficult economic times, and without cutting university income. We will immediately scrap fees for final year students,” read the Lib Dem manifesto.
If that was not enough, Mr Clegg made the following statement while on the election trail: "Despite the huge financial strain fees already place on Britain's young people, it is clear both Labour and the Conservatives want to lift the cap on fees. If fees rise to £7,000 a year, as many rumours suggest they would, within five years some students will be leaving university up to £44,000 in debt. That would be a disaster.”
Now, however, Mr Clegg has supported fee increases of up to £9,000 per year, £2,000 higher than his “disaster” prediction of only a few months ago.
This petion has been started by the National Liberal Party which offers a radical alternative to the Liberal Democrats. If you sign the petition we may contact you about this and other campaigns.
6. Boycott the Referendum on Electoral Reform - Sign if you want Fair Votes!
We were promised a referendum on Electoral Reform in the UK. Yet the best the Government can offer us is a choice between the current, unrepresentative "First Past the Post" and the immoral, unfair "Alternative Vote" system, where the victor is decided by second, third, fourth or even fifth or sixth best votes rather than genuine support for a party.
Currently, and which would still be the case should the Alternative Vote be adopted, a vote is only powerful enough to elect a single MP to "represent" the voters' constituency in Parliament. The UK is one of the oldest democracies in the world, and given that 21st Century politics is much focused on the race to who will form a government, this system of "First Past the Post" is outdated and not up to scratch in giving voters a real voice in elections.
A switch to the proposed Alternative Vote system would only change the way we vote. Instead of putting an "X" next to our selected candidates, we will be made to put numbers in descending order according to our "preferential" selection of each candidate. Not only will this be a pain in what ever but it will also cause problems in future elections. The thousands of people being left without a "voice" at the last General Elections due to polling stations closing before they got inside after waiting for hours in long ques is down partly to some voters not actually deciding who they will vote for before coming to the polling booth, news sources have claimed. Imagine what will happen if voters were to draw up a list of their most desired candidate down to their least desired candidate!
This is not necessarily a petition and is not going to anyone. This is a call to BOYCOTT the referendum in May 2011. No, not to abstain but to write "BOYCOTT" in clear, capital letters on the ballot papers. Sign up to this "petition" to confirm you will be voting to boycott this referendum. Just write "Anonymous" or any nickname you wish to use.
A "No" vote will be allowing the Government to assume we do not want an Electoral Reform of any kind. A "Yes" vote would leave us stuck with the Alternative Vote for a good number of generations to come. The more "Boycott Votes" we can get through, the more seriously the establishment would have to take our call for a Proper Referendum for Proper Electoral Reform.
For those of you who don't know, Proportional Representation is a system in which MPs are elected equally to how much votes their party gets, where votes can directly influence which party forms a government and who becomes Prime Minister, and is being used in many of the fastest developing countries around the world. Why can the Government not offer that as an option instead of a complex style of voting?
Please give a few minutes of your time to consider this as this will influence your daily life, and the daily lives of your children and grand-children. What will it be, will you vote "Yes" or "No" and let the Government take us, the voters for sheep, or will you simply write "BOYCOTT" on the ballot paper for a Real Referendum Now?
Introductory video on Proportional Representaion
This is a short video we made to promote our cause. Join us on Youtube!
7. NO! to the HMRC proposals for the PAYE system!
HMRC IS CURRENTLY CONSIDERING THE IDEA OF *ALL* YOUR PAY BEING GIVEN DIRECTLY TO THE GOVERNMENT!
FOR INFORMATION:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcgJnL6s2JY
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/9009795.stm
http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/downloadFile?contentID=HMCE_PROD1_030623
THE REASON FOR THIS IS SO THEY CAN DEDUCT TAX, ETC AND THEN, APPARENTLY, THE GOVERNMENT ITSELF WILL PAY YOU YOUR NET INCOME!
THIS IS BEING DONE IN THE NAME OF "EFFICIENCY" IN THE TAX SYSTEM.
THIS IS ANOTHER SEVERE STEP TOWARDS THE NANNY STATE FROM THE PSEUDO-FASCIST TORIES WHERE THE GOVERNMENT WILL HAVE DIRECT CONTROL OVER YOUR MONEY, YOUR GROSS PAY AND YOUR PERSONAL FINANCES!
8. Petition for Her Majesty the Queen to Dissolve Parliament
Her Majesty the Queen charged the government of David Cameron and Nick Clegg to "serve the country". As of this present moment, it seems more likely that they are instead serving only their own idealogical motives and are likely to destroy the country.
We hereby call upon Her Majesty the Queen to dissolve Parliament.
9. Petition against Lib Dem plans to axe Child Trust Funds
Say no to the Liberal Democrat and Conservative plans to axe Child Trust Funds for middle income earners and the disabled and possibly tax child benefit.
What will be cut next?
10. Begin the immediate withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan
During the election campaign many politicians are trying to avoid the issue of the war in Afghanistan.
This is because despite the massive popular opposition the the war, all three main parties support it.
We believe the war should be a central issue in the election campaign. British soldier deaths and expenditure are spiralling upwards just at a time when
all parties are calling for massive cuts in public spending. The projected costs of the war this year are almost the same as the amount the government plan to cut from the NHS.
Meanwhile the war is creating misery and destruction for the people of Afghanistan.
11. Official Petition for The Legal Age for Voting to be Lowered to 16
This petition is for political action to officially lower the legal age to vote in the UK from 18 to 16.
This is because we believe that at the age of 16, people can leave school, leave home and become a part of working Britain.
We also think that individuals ages 16 have the maturity and the ability to make their own informed descision to vote for a government of their choice.
12. Support Free Parking in Mill Hill Broadway
Support our local shops
Parking charges in Barnet have risen by a staggering 30% - the highest rate of any council in the country. Extortionate charges and over-zealous traffic wardens are damaging our local high streets (already reeling from the recession)!
Allowing local people to park in the Broadway for one hour for free every day would encourage people to shop locally – without congesting the Broadway with commuter cars. One hour free parking is the very least they deserve.’
The Broadway shops and businesses are keen to see a change as they feel "something has to happen" and all have countless stories of losing business (and even being blamed) for the punitive parking arrangement.
This is our Broadway and we need to change the situation to become shopper, trader and pedestrian friendly, so please sign the petition now.
