Tuesday March 4

Blogs

5.50pm, West Midlands
Fiona McEvoy:
The end of the road...?

Tomorrow the seven West Midlands councils involved in the transport and congestion debate are expected to conclude that the plan to introduce unpopular charges on motorists in the area is flawed, and therefore banish the spectre of road pricing. At least for the time being... - Read More

2pm, Economics 101
Mike Denham:
The Lottery Of Life

So what should we make of the schools lottery fiasco? Brighton's attempt to impose Marxist-Leninist principles on school place allocation (originally blogged here) has backfired spectacularly, with an outright reduction in the proportion of kids getting their first choice secondary school... - Read More

11.10am, Better Government
Ben Farrugia:
The lottery for school places

The seaside city of Brighton & Hove suffers an endemic problem; a few excellent, over-subscribed schools, and many poor to average ones. A situation which characterizes state education in this country as a whole... - Read More

10.30am, Campaign
Mark Wallace:
Enlightened Self-interest

There was a very telling poll of political attitudes out over the weekend, commissioned from Yougov by the Daily Telegraph, including some very interesting figures on the question of politicians abusing expenses and allowances. They make pretty sobering reading from an MP's perspective... - Read More

Media Coverage

- New NHS apartheid as free hospital parking to be rolled out in Wales... but not England

Car parking charges at hospitals in Wales were scrapped yesterday...But there are no plans to drop the charges in England, where hospital trusts made at least £100million from parking fees last year...Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers Alliance said: "Making people in need of hospital treatment cough up twice or even three times for their care is very far from the NHS ideal of free at the point of use." - Full Story

- "English hospitals need to get their act together"

THERE was outrage last night as the NHS bragged of a £1.8billion surplus while charging the sick and their visitors £100million to park at hospitals...Matthew Elliot, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said last night: “Welsh taxpayers will welcome this news but the rest of us are scratching our heads as to why English trusts won’t get their act together to do the same. People are sick of paying taxes for the NHS, then being charged a second time to use car parks they have already paid for. These stealth taxes have got to stop.” - Daily Express

Comments

[phyllisbaker]

how come MPs claim food and travel allowances yet in a recent tax inspection the measley £350.00 for the whole year was dissallowed by the inspector. The client was working miles away from home yet when I objected the inspector said they should fill a flask and take sandwiches