From 1st January 2012, it will be illegal to keep hens in battery cages anywhere in the European Union. However, despite having had 12 years to implement the regulations laid down by the Laying Hens Directive 1999, some EU member states will fail to reach the deadline and are seeking an extension for their farmers. This could result in millions of hens being kept in battery cages illegally, and millions of battery eggs entering the UK illegally, potentially hidden in processed foods such as ready meals, pasta, cakes etc.

British farmers have invested £400m to comply with this legislation. However, they now face unfair competition, not only from egg producers outside the EU who do not need to comply with EU legislation, but also from non-compliant EU farmers.

We are asking you to sign our petition to tell David Cameron and his Government that we want to food labelling which clearly states if egg-based ingredients are sourced from caged hens. Improved food labelling will allow consumers to make an informed choice to help protect higher welfare production and to support British egg producers – good for both the welfare of hens, and our British egg producers.

The Irish Government plans to export Racing Greyhounds to China, a country which has one of the worst Human & Animal Rights Records in the world.
As an Irish Citzen & UK resident, I am appalled & embarassed to be Irish.
I appeal to all members to support a petition to present to the UK government in order for them to put pressure on the Irish government to abandon these plans.
What with the first ever upcoming visiit by the Queen, (a well-know dog & animal lover), to the Republic of Ireland shortly, an expose would be greatly embarassing to the newly formed coalition Irish Government.
A protest is being organised by Irish Greyhound Rescue in Dublin & the UK based www.greyhoundaction.org.uk, outside the Irish Embassy in London, dates to be announced.
Please help save these gentle & intelligent from a fate worse than death.

Thankyou.

When the UK entered Afghanistan 10 years ago, they promised to improve the lives of Afghan women. While some progress has been made, there is growing concern that women's rights will be left out. When it comes to discussions around transition and peace, women are being marginalised and ignored. Ask the UK government to make good on their promises to Afghan women and ensure that they are included at the upcoming Bonn conference on Afghanistan and that the promotion, protection and realisation of women’s rights are absolutely central to the discussion.

By using diplomatic pressure, funding Afghan women's organisations to attend peace talks, and by building women's issues into the transition plan, the UK government can make a difference for Afghan women.

The US-UK extradition treaty (signed secretly under Queen's prerogative) and the Extradition Act (2003) effectively remove all protection from UK citizens against unjust extradition. Despite being denounced as an anathema to justice by Liberty, the ACLU and eminent legal consensus in the UK, and despite a series of resulting high-profile injustices, the Treaty & the Act are currently undergoing very expensive 'review' by the government to decide whether this blatantly unfair legislation is fair or not. The law as it stands means that anyone can be extradited to the USA and the recently publicised brutality of its prison system without a shred of contestable evidence - you don't need to have committed a crime to be extradited. I hope that 38degrees will adopt a campaign to send a clear message to the review panel demanding just legislation and full protection from wrongful, politically motivated extradition.

Urge the UK government to follow Switzerland's lead in freezing UK-based assets of the Mubarak family. The Guardian reports that Mubarak family fortune could reach $70 billion, some of which may be held in HBOS accounts, part of the Lloyds group which is 41% owned by the UK government.

That money must not be allowed to leave the UK and should be returned to Egypt in a proper and timely fashion..

Former foreign office minister Lord Malloch-Brown has urged the UK to act:

"I think it would be a very prudent thing to do to freeze suspicious accounts here because it will take a new government quite a while to mount some kind of legal claim on them."

Help return that money to its rightful owners: the people of Egypt.

Hosni Mubarak pillaged Egypt’s economy, and leaves office with $70 billion in his family’s bank account. But he also bequeaths $30 billion in debt to the Egyptian people. This debt is illegitimate - much of it being run up to buy arms and other Western goods which benefited the regime and kept it in power. The UK is 'owed' £100 million by Egypt, but the British Government won't tell us how the loans were used.

People should not pay unjust ‘dictator debts’, nor should they pay debts whose origins are kept secret.

- The British Government must immediately come clean about it’s Egyptian debts
- It must cancel those which are odious - benefiting Mubarak and keeping him in power

Moreover, we must support the Egyptian people to audit all of their debts. This would enable the Egyptian people to take control of their economy and run it for themselves - not for the benefit of Western governments or banks.

If the debt is not cancelled it will be used to force economic policies onto Egypt and the Egyptian people will find that they are unable to properly exercise control over their own economy, society or even their own lives. New loans are already being offered to Egypt, which would simply allow the country to pay off its old unjust debts, and build up even worse debts in the years to come.

The lenders must take responsibility for propping up Mubarak's odious regime. The Egyptian people must be enabled to decide their own future, free of Mubarak's debts.

Drop Egypt’s debts.

A “plastic soup” of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said. And this isn't the only one. Is this the curse of our time?

Plastic bottles are at the heart of the problem. Manufactured, filled and then left for society to dispose of, they are everywhere. But imagine if the producers of plastic bottles were responsible for them even after we had consumed what was inside them. Imagine if we all sent our bottles back to the company that made them.

So I propose that we select a day and send back our bottles to the companies that made them.

I believe this would define Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) more clearly for them.

Simples!

The US parliment is trying to push through a bill which will limit internet piracy. While this seems like a worthwile thing in itself the way in which it is being proposed will mean that any and all sites in which people share information will be restricted in some way. The worst hit are actually the big sites such as Youtube or Facebook where the moderators will be legally required to block any information in which there could be piracy. This could include news stories copied off the BBC website or a homemade video of a gig which you went to see. While we are not part of the US we can still let their government know that what it does affects not just the US but also rest of the world.

Coltan is a mineral used in electronics, including all of our computers and mobile phones. 80% of the world's coltan is found in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and their proxy militias are the primary exploiters of coltan in the Congo, which is bought by multinational corporations, whom the UN has described as "the engine of the conflict in the DRC." The war in the Congo has claimed an estimated three million lives, either as a direct result of fighting or because of disease and malnutrition. More than 8,300 women were raped during fighting in 2009, and the DRC has been in the news recently due to systematic raping on a massive scale.

I want to put pressure on companies such as companies such as
Nokia, Motorola, Compaq, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Ericsson and Sony to ensure they are not buying coltan or other minerals from regions of the Congo where the fighting is taking place, and to audit their supplies.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4473700036349997790#

http://mobileactive.org/are-there-conflict-minerals-your-mobile-phone

We should push the British government to stand up to the EU. Why should we bow down to an unellected, quangoistic minority rule that fails to reflect the interests of our country.

Regardless of whether or not you think prisoners should have a vote, we should be able to choose for ourselves with out fearing repercussions from the EU.

Forcing women to have more expensive car insurance in line with men, whilst going against objective statistical data is crazy! Every woman could stand to pay more for their car insurance as a direct result of mindless European legislation.

Regardless of how you feel about the efficacy of herbal medicines, we should have the freedom to choose for ourselves, EU law isn't just banning the sale of herbs, they're removing your freedom to choose how you take care of your own health.

The list goes on and on.

Let's push the UK government to reject this lunacy!

Arguably the worst form of animal cruelty on the planet, you can find out more about Bear Bile here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bile_bear

A recent report from: http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Asia/Story/A1Story20110805-292947.html

The Chinese media has reported on an extraordinary account of a mother bear saving her cub from a life of torture by strangling it and then killing itself.

The bears were kept in a farm located in a remote area in the North-West of China. The bears on the farm had their gall bladders milked daily for 'bear bile,' which is used as a remedy in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
It was reported that the bears are kept in tiny cages known as 'crush cages', as the bears have no room to manoeuvre and are literally crushed.
The bile is harvested by making a permanent hole or fistula in the bears' abdomen and gall bladder.
As the hole is never closed, the animals are suspect to various infections and diseases including tumours, cancers and death from peritonitis.

The bears are fitted with an iron vest, as they often try to kill themselves by hitting their stomach as they are unable to bear the pain.
A person who was on the farm in place of a friend witnessed the procedures and told Reminbao.com that they were inhumane.
The witness also claimed that a mother bear broke out its cage when it heard its cub howl in fear before a worker punctured its stomach to milk the bile.
The workers ran away in fear when they saw the mother bear rushing to its cub's side.
Unable to free the cub from its restraints, the mother hugged the cub and eventually strangled it.
It then dropped the cub and ran head-first into a wall, killing itself.
Many TCM practitioners have denounced the use of bear bile in their treatment as there are cheaper herbs and synthetics that can be used in its place.
Bear bile is traditionally used to remove 'heat' from the body as well as treat high fever, liver ailments and sore eyes.