CEP: Hospital parking charges to remain in England

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Wednesday, 03, Sep 2008 12:00

The British Government is failing England - hospital parking charges are the latest example.

The Welsh Government has already abolished hospital parking charges. The Scottish Government announced yesterday Tuesday Sept 2nd that it will abolish them in Scotland. Both governments agree that these charges are not good for the health of patients because they put strain upon their families and friends and reduce visits. However, in response Mr Ben Bradshaw, British Minister for Health in England –he has no jurisdiction anywhere else in the UK- issued the statement that they will remain in England. Once again the British Government has failed England. Once again the British Government has shown that it considers England first and foremost purely as an employment park, purely as a place from which to extract government revenue.

‘I am appalled at the way the British government is treating our sick and elderly in England.,’ stated Mrs Della Petch CEP organiser in Yorkshire, in a message to all Yorkshire members,. ‘As well as free prescriptions, Wales and Scotland are abolishing hospital car parking charges and NI is to follow suit. But they will still stay in England.

‘The government says that Scotland and Wales now have their own national governments and can choose what to spend money on, but it doesn't take a genius to spend more money than the English are allowed. Funding is based on the Barnett Formula and on the very generous extra grants the British Government makes to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. Speaking in blunt language it comes down to this: whatever England gets, Scotland and Wales get more. Our Scottish Prime Minister Gordon Brown signed the Scottish Claim of Right in March 1989, in which he pledged ‘always to make Scotland's interests paramount in everything he did’. He is certainly carrying out that pledge.now.

‘Will someone please explain to us in England, why it is in Scotland's best interests for English cancer patients to die for lack of the most modern of cancer drugs made available in Scotland, and our elderly to go blind for lack of the latest eye medicine also available in Scotland? Where in the Labour manifesto does it say that Labour policies will be implemented to benefit Scotland and Wales more than England? Shame on England's MPs who do not rise up to protest at the unfair and unjust way the people of England are being treated. There’s not a spine between them. The British Government is failing England and our English MPs do nothing and say nothing’.

Contact:

Michael Knowles

CEP Media Officer. Tel: 01260 271139 Email: michael-knowles@tiscali.co.uk