We’ve have had some brilliant news about one of our recent campaigns: the tenants’ protection law was passed by Parliament last week in the ‘wash-up’, which is when bills are quickly passed before a general election. There was a real chance that the bill might not become law before the general election and it was touch and go getting it through in time.

We worked closely with a number of other organisations on this campaign, including Crisis, and our success is certainly a joint win! If you want to read more about the passage of the bill you can do so here

The law will ensure that those who rent are protected against eviction if their landlord is repossessed. Previously, the first some tenants may have known about being evicted because their landlord hadn’t kept up with mortgage payments would have been when baliffs turned up on their doorstep. You can read the full story here

Without you asking your MP to support and attend the second reading of the bill on 29th January this bill may not have been passed into law. This is an incredible achievement which will protect hundreds of thousands of tenants being thrown out of their home, whatever their landlord may have done.

Back in July, the Wright Committee was set up to suggest reforms for the House of Commons. Now MPs are being given the chance to vote on these reforms.

At the moment, the government has too much control in Parliament and the MPs – the people who directly represent us – don’t have enough.  If the Committee’s reforms are adopted, this will change: MPs will get more power to set the agenda of the Commons, and to vote for chairs of select committees.

These sound like small changes, but it’s crucial that they happen. Many good ideas don’t come from in government: for example, the 10:10 climate promise was debated on one of the rare days when an opposition party gets to set the agenda and the protection for tenants from repossessions came in an individual MP’s bill, or Private Member’s Bill.

We’ve been working together to get the Wright Committee reforms adopted by Parliament. Lots of MPs have been supporting us along the way, and some of them have made a video for us, explaining why they think the reforms are important. You can watch it at the top of this post.

Get your MP to support the Wright Committee reforms, here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/fix-Parliament

Here’s a breakdown of how MP’s voted on the Emissions Performance Standard amendment yesterday evening. If four more Labour MPs had rebelled, we’d have won - so if your MP voted the wrong way, please do get in touch and ask them why.

If your MP is not listed, that means they didn’t turn up to vote at all

With thanks for the data to Public Whip

Happy that your MP voted the right way? Or need to challenge them on why they didn’t? Click here to send them a quick message.

Party leaders will debate before the election

With the 38 Degrees’ general election consultation in its final phase, one of the ideas that has emerged has already become a campaign. Several people suggested that the TV leadership debates in the run-up to the general election would be a good way for us to get involved: it’s a chance to make sure that ordinary voters get heard, rather than just the usual suspects.

So, we were concerned when we saw the news that politicians and their spin doctors are already squabbling about how to make the debates work. There’s a danger that it will become another opportunity for polished political performances, without putting our would-be leaders on the spot about the issues that we care about.

At first, these debates seemed like a step in the right direction. But there can’t be open debate if the people that count – the voters – are left out. The party leaders and their teams want to control everything about the debates, so that nothing will be able to spoil their image. That means no questions from the audience and no real debate.

Now, we’re taking action to call on the party leaders to let voters choose and ask the majority of questions during the TV debates. We want to quiz the party leaders directly on the issues that matter to us, like climate change, public services and bankers’ bonuses.

Click here to join the campaign for real debates between the party leaders at election time, so we can get the answers we need to decide who to vote for on polling day: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/open-up-election-debates

Since 38 Degrees launched in early June we’ve achieved a huge amount together. We’re building a people-powered movement for real change in the UK. From demanding new laws to make MPs answer to us and flooding Parliament with emails about climate change to defending valued public services and calling for the Iraq inquiry be held in public, we’ve made our voices heard.

In just 6 months 60,000 of us have taken action 177,695 times. Across the UK we’ve been signing petitions, calling decision makers and inviting our friends to get involved.

Bankers: take responsibility
We were outraged to see bankers awarding themselves massive bonuses just after the government had to bail them out with our money. When plans to put a 50% tax on bankers bonuses leaked out, bankers went into overdrive trying to force government to back down. We stepped up to outweigh the banks’ pressure – in just 48 hours, thousands of us pressed the Chancellor to stand up to the banks’ lobbyists. People power worked: Alistair Darling stood up to the bankers and imposed the tax.

Tackling poverty, sticking up for public services
We’ve worked together to make sure the recession doesn’t hit poor families hardest. Together we helped convince the government to extend free school meals to protect an extra 50,000 children from poverty – in the words of the End Child Poverty Coalition this was “a major achievement….and could not have been done without 38 Degrees“.

We also took action to protect public services, defend the NHS from unfair criticism from a Conservative MEP and stand up for the BBC against attacks from James Murdoch. Our campaign against top-slicing the licence fee ended with a big success, with the government shelving the idea until at least 2012.

Cleaning up Parliament
The expenses scandal showed us the urgent need to make sure MPs really answer to us. Together, we’ve pushed for a recall law to give voters who have lost trust in their MPs the right to call a fresh vote. It’s great to see party leaders, and even the Prime Minister, slowly coming round to a recall law – but we’ve got a long way to go. Cleaning up Parliament is a big task and we’ll need to continue working hard both to make recall a reality and to force politicians to reveal their links to lobbyists.

Speaking up for Human Rights and Civil Liberties
We helped to convince Peter Mandelson to scale back his plans to disconnect millions of suspected internet file-sharers. We also worked with Tripping up Trump in Aberdeenshire, to oppose Donald Trump’s plans to evict families to make way for his golf course. We’ll continue to work with Tripping Up Trump in 2010. In the meantime, an 85 year old woman named Molly Forbes has begun legal proceedings to defend her home from the threat of compulsory purchase. You can show your support by sending her a Christmas card, addressed to – Molly Forbes, Paradise, Mill of Menie, Menie, Aberdeenshire, AB23 8YE.

Climate, Copenhagen 10:10, Quizzing the Minister
Our campaigning on climate change got the government’s attention. In October over 10,000 of us contacted our MPs in just 48 hours to ask Parliament to reduce its own emissions by 10% next year. This month, 38 Degrees members quizzed Ed Miliband (Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change) in the first-ever public conference call with a Cabinet minister.

A growing team
It’s been a busy few months for our small staff team – David, Hannah, Johnny and Nina. None of our campaigning would have been possible without the help of our volunteers who have worked tirelessly to build and support our campaigns. Thank you Alex, Ashley, Katy, Laura, Louise, Ross, Toby, Tom, and Tosin.

What’s next?
In 2010, it will be more important than ever to keep taking action together. The general election is looming, we’re still in recession, unemployment is climbing and politicians are talking of drastic public service cuts. We’ll be working hard to make sure Blair gets a grilling at the Iraq inquiry, we’ll turn up the pressure for tough action on climate change and will be running local campaigns, like our campaign to make sure Boris Johnson keeps his promise on delivering four rape crisis centres in London.

In the New Year we’ll need to decide together what 38 Degrees should do in the run up to the election. Before that, you can tell us what you think here on our blog.

You are what makes our movement grow. Please keep on telling your friends, family and colleagues about 38 Degrees through Facebook, Twitter and email.

Thanks for being involved,

David, Johnny, Hannah, Nina, Warren and the 38 Degrees team

Our survey of MPs’ summer recess plans has got off to a good start. 31 MPs have so far completed the questionnaire giving us an idea of their plans while Parliament is closed (the full list of names can be found at the bottom of this post).

Of the 31 respondents, there are 14 from Labour, nine from the Lib Dems, but so far only five responses from the Conservatives. Among those standing up to be counted are notable names like former Minister Hazel Blears, Shadow Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey (who recommends a trip to watch Didcot Town FC) and Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, Jim Knight.

Only four of the MPs who’ve answered so far have second jobs and over half of them, 17 in total, plan to undertake some sort of voluntary work during the recess. This includes Lib Dem Paul Rowen, who’s off to help out at a Catholic mission in Uganda, as well as numerous others who sit as trustees with various British charities.

But so far, we’ve only had responses from about 5% of the Commons – to get a more accurate picture we need more. We’re planning to publish the results in full later in the summer and we can keep on adding results at least until then. Has your MP replied? If not, why not?

It’s not too late – we’ll be collecting their answers all through the recess, so get on to them from our website

They’re your representatives, and they’re answerable to you.

MPs who have responded to date: Laurence Robertson, Evan Harris, Ed Vaizey, Angela C Smith, Martin Horwood, Ian Cawsey, Lynne Featherstone, Jim Knight, Angus Robertson, Sandra Gidley, Caroline Flint, Robert Key, Jo Swinson, Richard Burden, Ronnie Campbell, Susan Kramer, Ashok Kumar, Andrew Selous, Dr Bob Spink, Charlotte Atkins, Martin Linton, John Mason, Des Turner, Paul Rowen, Roger Williams, Alistair Burt, Jim Fitzpatrick.