Tag Archives: parking

Why are parking fees TRIPLING for hospital staff after Johnson promised to end them for everyone?

Where’s the warning that parking charges are enormous?

The price of working for the NHS is astronomical as it is – and now it seems it is rising again, in spite of a promise by prime muppet Boris Johnson.

The issue here is car parking. Boris promised to eliminate parking fees for everybody attending hospital – which includes staff.

But now we have reports that the price of staff parking at King’s College Hospital in London is tripling.

New permits will cost doctors and nurses at the trust up to £1,440, with the changes reportedly taking effect from the beginning of December.

Let’s remind ourselves of Johnson’s promise:

It seems the government pledged in their December 2019 election manifesto to provide free parking for some patients and staff on their night shifts.

In the email from the Kings College Trust to staff, the hospital’s management claim the move has prompted privately run car parking companies to pass on the cost to daytime NHS workers.

This prompts the obvious question: why are hospital car parks run for profit by private companies in the first place? Our health care is supposed to be free at the point of use so is our useless Tory government getting around that by charging us all to get there?

The question is rhetorical; the short answer is yes:

And it turns out Johnson was lying to Parliament when he made that promise:

In an exchange in the House of Commons in July, Labour leader Keir Starmer urged the prime minister to keep free parking – but Johnson refused to rule out bringing charges back in for hospital staff.

He told Starmer: “May I suggest he takes his latest bandwagon and parks it somewhere else.”

Johnson added: “The hospital car parks are free for NHS staff during the pandemic, and we are going to get on with our manifesto commitment to make them free for patients who need them as well.”

Clearly the prime muppet hasn’t thought this through. With hospital car park firms passing their losses from free parking on to those who still have to pay, it will soon cost staff too much to work there.

Richard Burgon, former shadow justice secretary when Jeremy Corbyn led the Labour Party, has called on the Tory government to put a stop to the price rise:

It seems unlikely Johnson will take any notice.

Public opposition to hospital car parking charges is widespread:

The subject was buried over the weekend, beneath the Downing Street soap opera about Dominic Cummings quitting and Boris Johnson self-isolating.

But honestly, who cares about those things? They don’t affect us. Cummings will be replaced by somebody just as bad at the job and Johnson can use Zoom.

But if our doctors and nurses can’t afford to work at a hospital because some greedy private car parking firm wants to keep its profit margins high during a medical emergency, then we’re all in trouble.

Source: Labour MP calls on government to intervene over ‘disgusting’ 200% rise in parking fees for NHS staff

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Loss of free car parking is latest Tory attack on NHS staff who saved us from Covid-19

Tories can be murderously vindictive, can’t they?

They are currently working hard to attack NHS staff for daring to bring down the Covid-19 death toll. It seems clear that Boris Johnson and his cronies were hoping to see many more deaths, considering the way they are penalising the people who helped stem the tide.

They want to cut NHS staff pay as part of a belt-tightening regime to cope with the cost of dealing with the disease (even though the Tories themselves had known it was coming but stopped any preparation for it).

They intend to make Covid-19 testing a taxable benefit-in-kind for employees, meaning NHS staff will have the cost of their regular tests removed from their pay.

And now they are going to impose charges on NHS staff, simply for driving to work; free car parking is to be removed from NHS hospitals in England.

This is not the way to reward people who risked – and sometimes sacrificed – their lives to save the rest of us.

The Mirror reports:

Councils and NHS trusts in England were given cash by the government in March to suspend fees for hospital workers “during this unprecedented time”.

But last week health minister Edward Argar declared the subsidy “cannot continue indefinitely”.

Isn’t it funny that, here in Wales, we don’t have parking charges at our hospitals – because we didn’t invite private companies in to profit from other people’s illnesses?

It seems to This Writer that the answer isn’t ending a subsidy that protects NHS staff from parking charges that should never have been imposed in the first place.

The answer is to clean out the parasites from NHS car parks.

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

If you hear Boris Johnson making a claim, it’s probably a lie – as his PMQs performance proves

Duper’s delight: This is the smile Boris Johnson wears when he is lying. He would have been wearing it in Parliament during PMQs but he was too busy wagging his hands around.

How reassuring it was to hear Boris Johnson claim that the bursary for trainee nurses has been restored and that hospital parking is free.

There’s just one small issue: trainee nurses shouldn’t apply for that bursary and anyone visiting hospital should bring their cash with them.

Because both of Johnson’s claims were lies.

The UK now has a prime minister so dishonourable, so low, that he thinks nothing of telling falsehoods to the nation, wholesale.

In Prime Minister’s Questions, he boasted: “We’ve restored the nurses’ bursary, introduced a bill to ensure a record cash boost for our NHS, and ensured there is free hospital car parking for everybody who attends a hospital.”

That reminds me: adjust the figures for inflation and his “record cash boost for our NHS” turns out to be nothing of the sort.

Here’s Nursing Notes on Johnson’s lies:

While a new educational grant of up to £8,000 per year will be offered to all nursing students on courses from September 2020, it falls significantly short of the bursary system previously scrapped by the Conservative Party as students will graduate with up to £60,000 of debt.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has previously confirmed that from April 2020 some hospital staff and visitors will be entitled to free parking. However, this will be limited to blue badge holders and the parents of sick children staying overnight.

And for those of you who prefer audio-visual records:

Source: ‘Nursing bursary restored and hospital parking is free’, insists PM | NursingNotes

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Changes to ‘blue badge’ mean disabled drivers may be fined in EU countries

No longer valid: New versions of the disabled drivers’ ‘blue badge’ have had the EU artwork removed – but users have yet to be told where it will still be accepted.

Disabled drivers using their ‘blue badge’ in foreign countries after Brexit may find themselves hit with a parking fine – because the Tory government hasn’t told them where it is still valid.

The Tory government has changed the layout of the blue badge, removing the EU symbols – but using nine foreign languages to make it appear to be still valid abroad.

But in fact this will vary from country to country.

The details are available in David Hencke’s article (see the link below).

As a disabled person, Mrs Mike has a ‘blue badge’ – but I know that she has not been informed of any changes to its validity in EU countries.

And while it is unlikely that we will go driving in foreign countries any time soon, the government’s failure to notify us of expected changes is an act of extreme bad faith.

It isn’t quite as bad as a lie – but it might as well be.

The Government has sneakily already decided that Britain has left the EU as far as 2.35 million disabled blue badge holders are concerned.

My new card for my wife issued this week has been stripped of its EU symbols even before we have left the EU. It appears to reassure people by using nine foreign languages to describe it as a disabled parking card.

But investigating the real position of disabled driving post a “No Deal” Brexit this is totally misleading and could easily end up with holiday makers being fined in some European countries for illegal parking.

At present as a member of the EU all UK blue badge holders can get concessionary parking in virtually all European countries. If they hire a car they can take the blue badge with them as it is not tied to a particular vehicle.

Once Britain leaves with a No Deal using this card will vary from country to country.

Source: Ministers pre-empt Brexit by changing disabled drivers blue badges putting holidaymakers at risk of parking fines | Westminster Confidential

Hospital bosses more than DOUBLE parking charges. Labour vows to abolish them

Hospital parking charges are a shameful tax on patients, carers, families – and staff.

Private parking companies are being allowed to hold both the public and medical workers to ransom – and the increase announced in Yorkshire underlines the fact.

People who work and use hospitals have nowhere else to go, and these operators know it. So raising charges by 136 per cent is an unconscionable betrayal of trust.

(If trust is the right word to use.)

Here’s how the Mirror has reported the matter:

“Hard-up hospital staff have slammed bosses over plans to more than double parking charges.

“The monthly cost could rocket from £15.50 to £36.66 – a rise of 136 per cent.

“The new fees are due to be phased in over the next six months at Scarborough and Bridlington hospitals in Yorkshire.

“Hospitals in England made nearly £70million from charging staff to park at work last year.

“But only £30million went to the NHS with much of the windfall going to private parking firms.”

See? These companies are fleecing us.

Fortunately Jeremy Corbyn has seen the way parking companies are exploiting staff and the public, and has vowed to abolish parking charges across the UK, when the Tories are finally overthrown at the ballot box and Labour returns to office.

As a victim of English hospital parking charges, I can honestly say it won’t come a moment too soon.

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Woman with heart defect abused by ignoramus who thought she looked too fit to be disabled

Proof: Jackie Logan with her blue badge.

It is government attitudes to disability that are encouraging gammons like the man in this story to inflict their ignorance on the vulnerable.

Under the Tories it is Department for Work and Pensions policy to try to tell disabled people that they aren’t ill at all.

That has filtered down to the general public and we end up with a man verbally attacking a disabled woman for doing something that is well within her rights.

This story tells me that there should be a legal punishment for people like this man, who waste the authorities’ time with their bigotry.

This ignoramus could cause serious harm to a vulnerable person with his belligerent bullying – and he should be made to pay for it.

A woman who suffers from a serious heart defect was verbally abused in the street for using a disabled parking bay.

Jackie Logan, 29, has three leaking valves and atrial fibrillation in her heart, resulting in increased, irregular heartbeats and as a result she is often left breathless.

She has also suffered from arthritis since the age of just two and has the condition lymphoedema, which results in her legs swelling up and causes her problems walking.

Jackie has a blue badge which allows her to park next to her place of employment in Halfway.

However… she was aggressively approached by a man who criticised her for parking there.

“He told me I wasn’t disabled, that I was breaking the law and that he would be reporting me. He kept saying that I looked awfully fit to be disabled and wouldn’t listen about my blue badge.

“He was there for about 10 minutes, just arguing with me. It was a really upsetting thing to happen and it’s quite intimidating when a man suddenly approaches you out of the blue and starts having a go.”

Source: “You look awfully fit to be disabled” – Cambuslang woman who has heart defect tells of distress at being verbally abused in the street – Daily Record

Visit our JustGiving page to help Vox Political’s Mike Sivier fight anti-Semitism libels in court

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Blue Badge changes were forced on Tories by court case – and they lied about it

This is sterling work from John Pring’s indispensible Disability News Service.

It turns out that the government’s much-trumpeted changes to the list of those who qualify for blue disability badges were forced on the Tories by the courts – and they lied about it to cover up the fact.

The changes mean people with invisible impairments should find it much easier to get a blue badge, which gives concessions to disabled people when they have to pay for parking.

They were heralded as the biggest overhaul of the system in 40 years, following a public consultation – but nobody mentioned the fact that this had been ordered by the courts after a judicial review on behalf of an autistic man with learning difficulties.

According to DNS, the man, who has since died, “had had a blue badge for 30 years but was told by his local council that he no longer qualified because of new [Department for Transport] rules.

“His family took legal action against the government and his local council because of new guidance issued by DfT in October 2014, after the government had begun to replace disability living allowance (DLA) with the new personal independence payment (PIP) disability benefit the previous year.

“DfT was forced to settle the judicial review claim in 2016 by agreeing to review the new blue badge guidance.

“It was that review that led to this year’s consultation – which heard from more than 6,000 individuals and more than 230 organisations – and the announcement of changes to the scheme this week.”

The cover-up was aided by disability charities including the National Autistic Society (NAS), which was quoted in the DfT press release expressing its support for the government and saying it was “thrilled” with the move, according to DNS.

“The support of charities like NAS was then reported by mainstream media including the Independent, the Observer/Guardian online and the BBC, most of which repeated the government’s line that the announcement was the biggest overhaul of the system in 40 years,” the news site dedicated to issues facing disabled people stated.

There’s a big push, at the moment, to have social media sites labelled ‘fake news’, so the mainstream media – like the Independent, Observer/Guardian and the BBC can maintain their supremacy as “reliable” news sources. I wonder how many people would have realised these “reliable” news sources were in fact peddling fake news in this case?

DNS is currently struggling to remain financially viable – but without the site’s excellent work, the government would be able to keep hidden the facts about stories like this.

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS by visiting the source article (link below) and clicking on the ‘Donate’ button at the bottom of the story.

Source: Charities help government with cover-up over blue badge changes

Visit our JustGiving page to help Vox Political’s Mike Sivier fight anti-Semitism libels in court

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Donate Button with Credit Cards

Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.

1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.

2) Follow VP on Twitter @VoxPolitical

3) Like the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VoxPolitical/

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

4) You could even make Vox Political your homepage at http://voxpoliticalonline.com

And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!

If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.

The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

HWG PrintHWG eBook

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:

SWAHTprint SWAHTeBook

Osborne’s ‘Disabled’ parking disgrace

osbornedisabledparking

How low can this man go?

He uses taxpayers’ money to make £1 million for himself by buying a farmhouse and associated land in Cheshire, using public funds to pay the mortgage interest, then selling it for around twice the original price and pocketing the cash.

He buys a standard train ticket, then is caught travelling in First Class.

Now this. After spending three years pummelling the sick and disabled people of the United Kingdom, this arrogant little brat steals one of their parking spaces.

Does this man have no shame at all?

Gideon was famously a member of Oxford University’s restaurant-smashing Bullingdon Club. He got into Oxford on a ‘demyship’ – a special kind of scholarship for “poor scholars of good morals and dispositions, fully equipped for study”.

Poor? He’s the millionaire son of Sir Peter Osborne, 17th Baronet, who co-founded the firm of fabric and wallpapers designers Osborne & Little.

His morals speak for themselves.