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Police and Crime Commissioner Elections: Can you help?

November 13th, 2012 by

** UPDATE ** Thanks to the hard work of thousands of 38 Degrees members we’ve got responses from nearly every candidate. Click here to see them and share with your friends and family.

In a few days private security companies like G4S could move one step closer to taking over large parts of our police service. This Thursday new police and crime commissioners are being elected. Proposals to privatise big bits of local police services could be one of the first things on their desks.

Privatising the police should be a matter of huge public concern – particularly after the G4S Olympics fiasco. But the police elections are incredibly low-key. Pro-privatisation candidates could sneak in under the radar. There’s a risk voters could only find out plans to privatise their local police service when it’s too late to stop them.

Together we can help voters find out in time about plans to privatise our police. If we each ask our local candidates where they stand on privatisation, we can build up a national picture. Then on the day of the election we can spread this information far and wide. We can sound the alarm about pro-privatisation candidates and give voters the info they need to choose who to vote for.

Can you take a few minutes to help gather the information? Due to the fantastic effort of thousands of 38 Degrees members, we’ve already got information about most candidates, but there are still a few missing. There’s a list at the bottom of this blog. If these are your local candidates, can you email them and ask them where they stand on privatising the police?

If you’re stuck, here are a couple of the questions you could include:

    • Can you promise not to privatise our local police services?
    • Will you allow companies like G4S to get involved in the running of our local police?
    • Do you have any connection to companies that might be interested in police contracts?

Once you’ve got a reply, please copy it into an email so it can be added into a database. That way we can publicise the responses far and wide next week.

38 Degrees members have voted to make it a priority to oppose plans to privatise the police. So let’s get our campaign going, and stand up for policing focused on protecting the public rather than on profits.

Police and Crime Commissioner Candidates we don’t have information on yet:

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Save Your Local NHS: It’s Working!

November 6th, 2012 by

petitionboxes

Here is some HUGE good news: more than 100,000 of us have signed local petitions asking doctors to use their powers to save local NHS services, and it’s working! City and Hackney CCG, in London, have said they’ll adopt 38 Degrees safeguards into their constitution.They’re doing what the government failed to do – protect our NHS, put their patients first, and use their new powers to prevent local health services being damaged by privatisation.

City and Hackney Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) joined forces with 38 Degrees to create what they hope will become a model constitution for the rest of the country. The success in Hackney is a huge step forward for two reasons:

      1. It proves our campaign can work – if we can win over local doctors in Hackney, we can win over the local doctors taking decisions about your local health services too.
      2. It boosts our chances of winning everywhere else – it’s always a bit harder to persuade someone to be the first to do something. Now that City and Hackney CCG have taken the plunge, it should be a little easier to persuade doctors everywhere else.

If we can get in early, while CCGs are still being formed, we can give doctors a better choice – one based on sound legal advice and the interests of patients, not private companies. “If our local communities speak out loud and clear, our local CCG will have to carry out our wishes.”

Dr. Clare Highton, the joint chair of the new Hackney CCG urged locals to become involved in patient organisations so that they can have a say in how services are run.

Can you add your name to the petition in your area?

Get-togethers have started to happen across the country. You can see if one if happening in your area and if not, organise your own.

If lots of us get together and take our message to local Clinical Commissioning Groups we can make sure they know when they stand up for the NHS, they’ve got thousands of us supporting them.

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Save the Bees!

October 17th, 2012 by

British bees are in danger. Three species of bees are already extinct and others are in rapid decline. Strong evidence points to particular pesticides being to blame for killing them. This week we have a chance to persuade the government to protect our bees and ban these harmful pesticides.

A government consultation on pesticide use ends next Monday. Normally the only people they would hear from would be the strong pesticide industry. But by handing in a large petition, we can make sure that the bees have someone to stand up for them.

Can you sign a petition now to demand the government phase out the pesticides that are killing our bees?

France and several other European countries have already started banning these pesticides, but the UK government is yet to be convinced. Together, by responding in our thousands, we can send a strong message to the government and counter the lobbying from the pesticide industry.

Last week thousands of 38 Degrees members responded to a poll on what we should be concentrating on together. Over 70% of responses highlighted that protecting bees was an important issue. This week is our chance to do something about it.

Could you take a minute to sign the petition now and help save our bees?

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