Embrace the private sector to help NHS
IN reply to Margaret Manning’s private health care comments (‘Betrayal of the NHS,’ Viewpoints,
March 14), I can state that I have recently returned to the NHS from BUPA, which should please her social aims very much.
However, I would point out that whilst using the private sector facility, I was taxed heavily (on top of standard tax) for the so-called ‘privilege’ which helped the NHS by not using its resources, and that my NHS place could be allocated to someone else.
On top of this financial burden was the substantial premium to be paid to the company for the service.
Between the government charging considerably on one hand, and the company on the other, it no longer became viable, so I have returned to burden the NHS whilst displacing the person occupying my original position.
How on earth has this helped the NHS, other than to fulfil political dogma?
To those who say ‘free state health care for all regardless of the cost,’ I observe that the bill is already completely out of control and continues upward at an alarming rate.
Instead of massive borrowing (with never an idea how to pay it back!) or tax rises, to use as a sticking plaster (because the bill will never stop rising) how about embracing some of the financial support resources already there, i.e. the private sector, to help ease the burden, instead of taxing it out of existence and then having to pick up the bill yourself.
Sooner or later, political ideology must to be discarded for a neutral debate on how to fund this vital service.
The never-ending funds of government as a solution is a fantasy unless you unfairly take resources from other social budgets.
I believe an unequal partnership, where government remains in control, but private institutions contribute, may help to manage this ever-increasing financial problem more effectively rather than demonising them and cutting your nose off to spite your face. Derek Lyons, Heaton Mersey, Stockport
Raise taxes on polluters
MARGARET Brown makes some good points about the current refuse crisis and extensive reliance on landfill (‘Where should rubbish go?’ Viewpoints, March 20).
This of course takes us back to the overall problem of basing our society on ever-expanding consumerism instead addressing real social need. It can’t have escaped anyone’s notice that this shift in how our society has operated has coincided with the penetration of government by aspects of the corporate retail business lobby.
While Councillor Nigel Murphy beats his chest about the rubbish problem in Manchester he says nothing about the bizarre presence in his party’s last New Labour governments of David Sainsbury.
Top-rate and corporate taxation has been reduced for the globalised polluters and rubbish makers, who are not therefore having to pay the environmental cost of their activities. Simultaneously, taxation has been loaded on to middle and lower income groups via a raising and flattening out of VAT rates. By comparison what we used to do with purchase taxes is keep them low on virtuous and obligatory products and high on socially damaging or unnecessary consumption. For instance, items like children’s clothes have been excluded from taxation. Obviously we can’t return to the era of properly managed and resourced refuse collection while we are held thrall in the dictatorship of the globalised marketeers. Gavin Lewis, Manchester
Questions for new editor...
SO, the former chancellor and ardent Remainer George Osborne has become the new editor of the London Evening Standard, and understandably there are concerns over a conflict of interest between his duty as an MP and his newspaper role.
The parliamentary committee on standards are planning a review over MPs having additional jobs, and there are concerns among his constituents who have raised them with his local association.
Despite losing the argument in last year’s referendum, he is expected to use his new position in the newspaper to continue his ‘Project Fear’ campaign by causing doubt about our future outside the EU and the single market. He may also use it as a way of getting back at Theresa May, who sacked him after becoming PM last year.
Whilst I think that MPs should have jobs that keep them in touch with reality, they also have a duties to their constituents, who elected them. In the case of Mr Osborne, he now has six highly-paid jobs, including his duties as an MP.
Many will now wonder if he can devote sufficient time to each one to the benefit to all involved and question his future as the MP for Tatton. Philip Griffiths, North West President, UKIP
Facing up to facial hair
HIPSTERDOM is getting out of control. I took my four-year-old daughter to a birthday party on Saturday, and on the way home she turned to me and said: “Daddy, why don’t you have a big bushy beard like all the other daddies?”