A mountain of evidence turns up at the department for the environment to hand in our petition to save the bees.

The petition to save the bees has now reached over 1/4 million signatures! This morning, a 38 Degrees “Mountain of Evidence” went down to DEFRA (The department for environment, food and rural affairs) along with Vanessa from Buglife to hand in the petition.

Armed with hundreds of thousands of names and a mountain of peer reviewed science, we wanted to meet with Owen Paterson, the environment minister.  We wanted to show him that by refusing to support a ban on the pesticides that are being blamed for killing our bees, he’s not only going against public opinion, but science too.

Alas Owen didn’t come out to meet us, so the mountain of evidence was left asking why Owen was ignoring it.

Watch a video of the mountain delivering the petition here:

This Friday 38 Degrees are hosting a “March of the Beekeepers” along with Avaaz, Buglife, Environmental Justice Foundation, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Pesticide Action Network UK, RSPB & Soil Association.

Join us at 10:30am in Parliament Square.  RSVP to the facebook event here.

Dress as a beekeeper or even a bee! Bring bee pollinated fruit and veg and a smile! Let’s show our minister how deep public concern is over the fate of our bees.

On Friday over fifty 38 Degrees members from North Shropshire held a meeting with their MP, the environment minister Owen Paterson, about the pesticides being blamed for killing our bees.

The meeting was so popular that there was standing room only to hear Owen argue his corner on why he has so far refused to back a call to stop using these pesticides.

Scientists and governments across europe are blaming certain pesticides, called neonicotinoids, for the declining number of bees and next week there is a big european vote, on whether to stop using these pesticides.  So far over 200,000 38 Degrees members have signed the  petition demanding that he takes action to protect our bees, but Owen is digging his heels in and refusing to take action.

38 Degrees member Suzanne had arranged the meeting with Owen and handed over a copy of our petition so far, along with a statement she had written.  Questions for Owen then came in thick and fast from the audience.

Bee keepers, gardeners and concerned local voters pointed out reason upon reason why he should reconsider his position and support the vote to stop these pesticides.  We pointed out that even his fellow MPs in the Environment Audit Committee are saying he must end his department’s “extraordinary complacency”.

For an hour we talked through our concerns with the minister, and although he kept repeating that the bees are very important to him, he seemed to refuse to change his mind.

However, the fight to change the minister’s mind is not yet over.  Later this week we’re planning on handing in our petition to the Department for the environment along with a mock up ‘mountain of evidence’ and then we’ll be joining a host of other organisations for a ‘march of the bee-keepers’ on Friday before the vote.

If you’ve not already signed it, you can sign the petition to protect our bees here.

Here are some comments from 38 Degrees members who were at the meeting:

“During the meeting it became clear that he had set his mind on a policy and it was not open to discussion. At no point did he say that he would refer anything to his scientific advisors, however persuasive an argument was.”

38 Degrees member – Stephen

My thoughts following the meeting are that I am disappointed in Owen Paterson as a Minister. He seems to see his role as the mouthpiece for the Chief Scientist.  I would have thought that as an intelligent man voted into government that he would have the capacity to critically analyse not only what the Chief Scientist is telling him but the additional   information available from the European Commission, Universities and the Environmental Audit Committee  and using some common sense,  come to his own decision about the right path to be following at the moment.

38 Degrees member – Claire

‘NEVER LET A GOOD BIT OF EVIDENCE GET IN THE WAY OF POLICY…’

Members of 38 Degrees were treated to an hour of monotonous repetition of just 3 points from Mr. Paterson, regardless of well researched, detailed questioning from his constituents.  He was unwilling (unable?) to engage with any of the statements of evidence put forward and displayed a worrying confusion between ‘opinion’ and ‘evidence’.  Those present were in no way impressed with the Minister’s performance; quite the opposite.  He has subsequently been described by many as ‘arrogant’ and ‘aggressive’ in his manner. His refusal to listen and discuss perhaps explains his current isolated position in Europe and, increasingly, at home.

38 Degrees member – Barbara

On Monday night 38 Degrees members in Eastleigh met up again in the Pavilion on the Park.  This was a first catch up after the recent by-election which saw 38 Degrees members pushing the candidates to get important issues on the table, paying for mobile billboards to remind people to vote, and even hosting a packed hustings event to quiz the candidates.

Throughout the by-election campaign there was a real hunger to keep in touch and leave an ongoing legacy in the area. Local members were keen to keep the pressure up on Mike Thornton the newly elected MP for Eastleigh.  At the hustings Mike Thornton and the other candidates all promised to come back after a year of being the MP to face the public and see how their first year went.

During the get together we discussed everything from fluoride in the water, through to immigration, NHS cuts, the local council and local green spaces.  The group decided to meet again on 22nd April to decide on next steps and local campaigns to run.

Watch this space to see how things develop, or if you live in Eastleigh perhaps join the google group.

Ken, Caroline, David, Linda, Anu and Ian in the waiting area at the Dept for Health

Yesterday 38 Degrees members and staff went to Westminster to meet with the health minister Norman Lamb MP to talk about our campaign against dodgy, pro-privatisation NHS regulations.  Over 350,000 members have now signed the petition against plans to force local doctors to open up almost all NHS services to private companies.  This petition and member-funded legal advice, helped push Norman Lamb to scrap the first version of these dodgy, pro-privatisation NHS regulations.

Linda delivering the petition to Health Minister Norman Lamb

38 Degrees member Linda who had previously written to members handed in the petition to Norman Lamb.

Norman and several staff from the Department of Health sat down with 38 Degrees to talk about the new regulations. We went in armed with the results of the survey taken by tens of thousands of 38 Degrees members which told us what you thought we should say.

Below is a video with feedback from the members present on how the meeting went as well as their thoughts on the campaign in general. This is very much our first impressions – as always the devil is in the detail. Norman Lamb offered some general assurances which in principle sounded promising, but we will need to follow up to get more details in writing before we decide what our next steps should be.

So, watch this space, as further feedback from the meeting and an email about the next steps in the campaign to save the NHS will be coming soon.

After all the hype Mike Thornton of the Liberal Democrats has been signed in as the new MP for Eastleigh. 38 Degrees have spent the last few weeks down there making sure that the issues important to our members were debated in what was seen to be a key battleground for the coalition.

Campaigning at the by-election was a first for the 38 Degrees team, but something we’ll need to do more of leading up to the next General Election.

People power could play a hugely important role in the general election in 2015. Although there are lots of safe seats across Great Britain (and yours may be one of them), there will be some towns and cities viewed as key battlegrounds, and these could help determine the election result.

Billboards and bicycles reminding people to register to vote

The members in Eastleigh worked hard to get their voices heard. Adverts were run in the local paper and on mobile billboards to remind people to register to vote. Local members voted on the most pressing issues and then emailed the candidates about them. We even held a ‘quiz the candidates’ event where nearly 200 people packed out a local hall and grilled the candidates on everything from the NHS to immigration.

Advertising for our hustings event and a packed hall

We’ve learnt a lot in the process about what our organisation can do in an election, what works and what doesn’t. And we’ve also shown prospective MPs that 38 Degrees members are actively engaged in the process and expect to be listened to.

Come the general election there will be dozens of battlegrounds like this across the country and we’ll need everyone to chip in and help make sure that the debates are around issues we care about, rather than those of the big parties and their spin doctors.

See below to see the edited video of people power in action at the hustings and click here for the full version, candidate responses to our questions, our election packs and more.

Some comments from Eastleigh 38 Degrees members:

“I was one of those who was crammed into the hall, and very pleased I was to be there and witness the evenings events. I thought that the whole proceedings were extremely well organised and very well orchestrated by the young man in the “chair”.”
Deborah

“I would like to thank everyone on the team for the splendid job that you carried out on our behalf in highlighting the issues, carrying out surveys and promoting petitions for the Eastleigh By-Election. There is no doubt whatsoever that your efforts have been very successful in bringing to the attention of the candidates exactly what the electorate expects of them, irrespective of who the winner is tonight.
Bob

“I want to thank you for Chairing last Evening’s Meeting at Pavillion in the Park, so well. Despite a couple of folk trying to ‘Steam Roller’ the Proceeding and some Residents making some memorable comments, I feel the Meeting went well….This was the first such meeting I’ve been to and, for my interest in Politics, it shouldn’t be my last. “
Jim

38 Degrees and One Community held a joint hustings event for the Eastleigh by-election, in a packed hall with around 200 people last night.

38 Degrees members in Eastleigh have been busy at work for this by-election, we’ve paid for adverts to remind people to register to vote, we’ve decided on our most pressing issues and  we’ve emailed the candidates about them.  A full blog post will follow soon with all the details of how members have been getting active in the election.  This hustings event was a great chance for 38 Degrees members and the people of Eastleigh to quiz the candidates in the flesh before the big vote.

The Liberal Democrat, UKIP and Labour candidates attended, unfortunately the Conservative candidate did not attend and was represented by an empty chair. It was a lively and passionate event, with standing room only, a real example of local democracy in action.

The questions from the audience were fantastic with topics ranging from NHS privatisation, through to youth unemployment, immigration, equal marriage and even Trident nuclear replacement.

To watch the night’s event in full please click on the video below

Yesterday afternoon some of the 38 Degrees team delivered our massive people powered “NHS: protect GP out of hours services” petition to Margaret Hodge MP in Parliament.

The petition asks the Public Accounts Committee, which she is the chair of, to launch an investigation into GP out of hours services provided by private health companies. And to investigate the allegations of terrible service, poor value for money and dishonesty relating to the service provided by Serco in Cornwall and Harmoni in London.

Over a hundred thousand 38 Degrees members have signed the petition as a clear sign that there is public concern about the issue. If you’ve not had a chance to sign the petition yet, you can do so here.

Together, we can outweigh the lobbying pressure of these big companies. If enough of us contact our MPs it will prove protecting our bees is an issue thousands of us care about. If hundreds of MPs demand the government review its decision, they are more likely to take notice and ban these harmful pesticides.

38 Degrees members have consitently prioritised tackling tax dodging.  As a member-driven organisation, official 38 Degrees campaigns are only launched with the support of 38 Degrees members.

Recently over 45,000 of us responded to a poll specifically about taking up tax dodging as a major campaign, and here are the results of that poll:

Should campaigning to stop tax dodging be a major focus for 38 Degrees over the next few months?
Yes – 95.62%
No – 2.11%

Do you agree that although we may target individual tax dodgers on the way, our main aim should be to make the government fix our broken tax system so that it’s much harder to dodge tax?
Yes – 97.22%
No – 1.22%

Should 38 Degrees aim to get businesses who pay tax on board with the campaign?
Yes – 95.33%
No – 2.65% 

Which other demands would you like to see in the campaign?

Other suggestions of demands from members fell into several categories:

Change laws, close loopholes

Shame the dodgers

Publish a list of dodgers

Boycott google, amazon, starbucks

Simplify the tax system

Tackle the avoidance schemes

Example quotes from members are:

“I’d like to see a tax-dodging company blacklist published. The Government/HMRC need to change tax law to close tax loopholes.”

“Simplify the whole tax system to make it impossible/difficult to dodge tax.”

“A clear and graphic demonstration of the correlation between companies avoiding tax and our hospitals, schools and public services suffering as a result.”

“Raise awareness of the seriousness of big businesses versus cutting public services and personal  ’belt tightening’ – by TV campaigns  and  press coverage.”

How would you like to get involved?

There were lots of great comments from members which fell into the following categories:

Produce a Christmas guide

Social media vía Facebook, twitter and more

Window stickers in shops

Public Boycotts

Direct Action

Example quotes are:

“‘I pay my tax’ car/window stickers for businesses and individuals?”

“It would be great with an online version of the ‘Christmas shoppers’ guide to avoiding tax dodgers’ as these could go viral on Facebook/Twitter, etc..”

“I love the campaign by small shop owners “I pay enough tax to fund a nurse.”

“National media campaign to name and shame extremely rich tax dodgers. Publish the names of major companies who don’t tax in national newspapers, billboard signs, etc. ”

“Creative direct action towards tax dodging businesses.”

“Name & shame them in the news papers they use for their adds”

Further comments members added were as follows:

“I think you should target individual tax dodgers too, it’s crazy that I pay all my tax through PAYE but the rich can just avoid it as they can afford to.  That’s not fair!”

“I don’t want to sound or be hypercritical, but I think we all dislike paying tax. If there’s a way we can honestly pay less tax then there’s nothing wrong with that. However, what I am adversed to is large and wealthy companies who are setting the wrong example, and are able to pay their accountants big fees just to avoid tax. When the country is in financial need they shouldn’t be dodging this issue.”

“I don’t know much about corporation tax, but rather than tax profits, which businesses can manipulate easily, why not levy tax on the gross sales/turnover?”

“Tax foreign companies on ALL their turnover irrespective of where it is earned, as the USA does.”

“Tax avoidance is endemic amongst those people and organisations in power and there is little incentive for them to change.  Set up an off-shore haven to employ all the ordinary folk (contracting us out to our original jobs) and so avoid tax. Then see how fast the government moves to close the loop holes.”

The results of this poll will determine how we focus our efforts on tax dodging over the coming months.  What do you think? You can leave a comment to discuss with other members using the form below.