Cynical tax on the sick

WHEN Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt issued voluntary guidelines cracking down on hospital parking charges, the Mail led the cheering. It seemed that at last our campaign against this cynical tax on the sick was bearing fruit.

So how profoundly depressing that, three years on, it emerges 47 per cent of hospitals have actually increased charges, with the worst offender fleecing patients and visitors of £4 for as little as an hour.

Next week, former Tory minister Robert Halfon will introduce a Bill seeking to ban hospital parking charges, bringing England into line with the rest of the kingdom. He deserves the support of every MP who values the founding principles of the NHS. SOME say that a century after the Great War, with all the combatants now dead, ceremonies to mark Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday are a pointless anachronism. This paper couldn’t disagree more vehemently. The debt we owe those who died for our freedom in all wars – and the Armed Forces who risk their lives for us to this day – is as immeasurable as ever. We will remember them.