Queen’s Speech

I am glad to read we will get Business rate cuts and cuts in NHS parking charges. These were both items I included in my Brexit bonus budget proposals and promised to support in the election.

66 Comments

  1. Martin in Cardiff
    December 19, 2019

    We were led to believe that it took a five week prorogation of Parliament to draft a Queen’s Speech, John.

    I’m glad to see that your party has streamlined the procedure.

    1. Edward2
      December 22, 2019

      It was written weeks ago just with a few post election tweaks.

      1. Martin in Cardiff
        December 22, 2019

        Get away!

  2. Nig l
    December 19, 2019

    Business rate cuts but not high street car parking charges. King Canute. A report this morning sets out the disgrace of millions of people having to care for dementia victims, something I have personal knowledge of.

    As part of the establishment, you should be ashamed. Let’s hope this government finally faces up to its responsibilities.

    1. Bob
      December 19, 2019

      I’ve had an idea.
      Scrap the .7% mandatory overseas aid payment, then use the eye watering amount
      of money saved to provide long term care for dementia sufferers?

      Then scrap the Dept for International Development and use the eye watering amount of money saved from its running costs to set up an emergency aid fund.

      1. Martin in Cardiff
        December 20, 2019

        Modest estimates put the cost of crime in the UK at seven percent of GDP – ten times that amount.

        Our pro-rata – per capita – rate is about twice the European Union average.

        Just think of the savings if we could reduce it only to that?

        1. libertarian
          December 21, 2019

          MiC

          Are you simple minded ? Or just a dealer in fake news? Or both of course

          Ive showed you the official figures that completely disprove this, yet you’ve posted it 3 times now

          How much do you think the French have spent on 59 weeks of rioting ? The rampant crime epidemic in Sweden that is so bad that Denmark had to reintroduce border controls etc etc You live in a fantasy world, you ought to try leaving Wales sometime and visiting another country

          1. Martin in Cardiff
            December 22, 2019

            The figures that you post simply show the costs of the criminal justice system, policing, etc.

            Mine include damage to property, costs of prevention measures, interruption to productive work and so on.

            For instance, £300, 000 worth of damage was caused to an unoccupied property near me by rainwater, following the theft of £100 worth of roofing materials such as lead and stone.

            No, in spite of the hysterical claims that Trump and others make about European countries, the estimates that I cite remain broadly correct.

    2. Peter Wood
      December 19, 2019

      I beg to differ. In many parts of the world, some where I have lived, there is no state care for the aged, it is a family responsibility. I’m sure you would agree that an elderly relative is far happier being cared for by family, if at all possible, rather then by the state.
      This is a difficult issue, it is a societal issue that needs to be addressed; we need to decide where the responsibility lies, and how to provide for it.

    3. Hope
      December 19, 2019

      More left wing quangos! More left wing reviews more bureaucracy! So Blaire’s New Labour keeps rolling on and on. Good grief, hang your heads in shame.

      You were lent votes and already making disparaging remarks and abandoned them! Within two days continues to abuse peerage system by making the totally unworthy Morgan a baroness confirming her reasons to stand down were untrue! Sleaze and abuse of power will not help your left wing govt.

  3. agricola
    December 19, 2019

    Business rates require a different regime. I would suggest one where they are based on turnover, as profit is too easy to manipulate.

    Parking charges at my NHS for long stay patient visits are reduced to £1.00 with a get out of jail card issued by the relevant department. Separate staff parking for free from patient and visitor parking. Ensure that spaces exceed demand. You rarely find problems parking at supermarkets, ergo problems at NHS car parks are unnecessary. Supermarkets only get iffy if you overstay your welcome.

    How about the shopping list I gave you a few days ago. Was it too radical to get moderated.

  4. DOMINIC
    December 19, 2019

    NHS parking charges? Radical changes, not.

    Now is not the time for Tory conviviality but total reform and revenge against Labour’s political state including the cancer that is the BBC

    If Labour had been elected we’d now all be getting kitted out for a trip to the nearest Gulag.

    1. Lifelogic
      December 19, 2019

      Parking charges cut only for the poor. The solution for the NHS is simple charge all those who can pay, give vouchers and tax breaks to people who go privately to reduce the demand and get more money into healthcare over all. Freedom and choose is needed. Not this dire state monopoly incompetent and rationed socialism. It kills far too many and hurts far more still.

    2. steve
      December 19, 2019

      DOMINIC

      “Now is not the time for Tory conviviality but total reform and revenge against Labour’s political state including the cancer that is the BBC”

      Well said.

      Legislation needs to be established that would effectively paralyse Labour, the SNP, greens etc at every turn. They should never again be allowed to hold the country to ransom.

      A good start would be to bring back treason and sedition laws, with life meaning life custodial sentences for the worst offenders.

    3. Martin in Cardiff
      December 19, 2019

      Reasonable people, just read that last paragraph of Dominic’s, and reflect on the fact that he apparently doesn’t mind going public with declarations like that.

      1. Fred H
        December 20, 2019

        Marty – – Dominic’s closing line possibly an element of truth?

        Considering the sort of stuff Andy and yourself have pronounced on here, Dominic’s point seems quite reasonable by comparison.

  5. Derek Henry
    December 19, 2019

    I would have scrapped business rates for small to medium size companies and not sure if the NHS car parks will be able to handle the increased demand if they a cheaper.

    Business rates are a tax that takes spending power away from business in order to control inflation. Stops business from over bidding on the skills and real resources we have that they will use.

    Unfortunately, because we use models that balance a household budget and not the economy. We will not know if scrapping business rates on small to medium size companies will cause inflation or not. That is something we need to know.

    NHS car parking is another tax that takes our spending power away. In this case a tax because the parking is not large enough and getting parked anywhere is a nightmare.

    Neither of these taxes generate income for the government. so it would be good jettison all the macroeconomic theory that construes the government budget constraint as an ex ante financial constraint instead of seeing it as an ex post accounting statement, with no operational relevance.

    Otherwise, prove me wrong show me the accounting that shows these two taxes generate income for the government. Which will be very difficult because it does not exist.

    1. Derek Henry
      December 19, 2019

      These 2 taxes do not end up in a huge shed on the Isle Of Wight that can be used for future use. That she’d would have been empty 300 years ago.

  6. Lifelogic
    December 19, 2019

    Any tax cuts are good but it is the overall tax take that is far too high as a percentage of GDP. This especially when public services are generally so dire, non existent and even declining.

    It is reported that at a Downing Street reception for nurses yesterday, Mr Johnson described the NHS as “the single greatest institution in this country” and promised “the biggest investment in the NHS in living memory”.

    Oh dear. why would Boris describe an anti-competitive, rationed state monopoly with very long delays NHS (with some of the worse outcomes for a developed nation) in this way? True is it better than having no healthcare system at all I suppose.

    The government is totally hopeless at running things so why is it running health care?

    Is this dire state monopoly model something he wants to encourage in other areas as Corbyn does?

    Freedom, choice and fair competition please, not dire, unfairly funded, state monopolies.

    Why on earth do people keep calling Boris “extreme right wing” he is rather too left wing. Singapore on the Thames please. Twice as rich with half as much government and with cheap energy thrown in.

    The entertaining Rod Liddle want us all to join labour for £3 and vote for the dire identities politics David Lammy I see – so as to keep them out of power for ever. Sounds like a good plan.

  7. JoolsB
    December 19, 2019

    Only cuts to NHS parking charges. They should be abolished as they are in the rest of the UK.

    1. Lifelogic
      December 19, 2019

      Difficult to abolish parking fees in say Hampstead or London as the car parks would always be full up if you did. But yes for those with the space for all.

      Charge for the treatments instead for all who can pay and cut taxes.

  8. margaret howard
    December 19, 2019

    Who allowed these greedy companies to run hospital car parks in the first place? There is surely no other EU country that forces not just patients and visitors but their own nursing staff to pay exorbitant sums just to go to work.

    And your party has the cheek to claim that by abolishing these outrageous charges they are doing us a favour?

    Smoke and mirrors.

    1. Edward2
      December 19, 2019

      There was a big problem when hospital car parks were free.
      Shoppers and employees of local companies used to park there all day and genuine hospital visitors often found limited spaces left.
      They brought in charges to get some control over the problem.
      I agree genuine hospital visitors and staff ought to be able to park free.
      However the real solution is to get there without using your car.
      Isn’t that the green way?

    2. Fred H
      December 19, 2019

      mh – I understand your point – BUT recently our major hospital experienced a fault on the barriers (no tickets produced)- meaning allcomers could park all day free. Early shift staff found the multistorey heaving with other workers who had heard about free parking. Then later visitors for clinics, visits to family in wards couldn’t park at all….Perhaps some system where the entry ticket could be validated (free) in the clinics or visiting wards?

    3. Alan Jutson
      December 19, 2019

      Margaret

      I am completely with you on hospital parking charges, but you have to first look at the reason why they were introduced.

      When Parking was free, (and many years ago it was) when hospitals were located near to Town Centres, Railway Stations, office blocks or the like, the hospital car parks were full of outsiders (not attending or working in hospitals) who just wanted to park for free, leaving no space at all for Patients, visitors or staff.

      I can only suggest some sort of permit system could be put in place, but that will still require some sort of administration expense to operate, even if it could be sensibly introduced.

      And yes before you ask, I have also spent over a £1,000 during one period in one year when visiting my Mother, when she was in Hospital for a long stay after a stroke.

      Our Local Hospital does not charge Patients if they are receiving regular treatment for Cancer, and a separate area is reserved for such patients, although it is not large enough for all, so payment is still sometimes required for those attending.

    4. Lifelogic
      December 19, 2019

      The NHS trusts of course they doubtless they spent the money on overpaid admin staff, legal fees to defend negligence claims or rebranding of their trust to tell us how good they are or similar.

    5. Nig l
      December 19, 2019

      Presumably, despite your predictable response, you won’t be insisting on paying full rate nor turning down any other benefits that the Tories give you.

    6. sm
      December 19, 2019

      1. It costs money to run and maintain a car park, including lighting and safety measures. Hospital management contracts parking management to a business that specialises in such matters.

      2. Hospital management has authority over how car parks are designed (subject to local planning laws), and who is charged what. As is usual with most NHS management, the outcomes are frequently appalling, and have been so under both Labour and Tory governments.

      3. When hospitals are sited in busy retail or domestic areas, free parking entices shoppers and commuters, leaving even less space for staff, patients and visitors. There is no reason why some form of ‘season ticket’ could not be arranged for those needing to attend hospital frequently, either as a patient or relative.

    7. a-tracy
      December 19, 2019

      I’d like to know more about hospital parking too, I remember when my youngest was born in 1996 there were no charges at my local hospital but it was difficult to park at peak times.

      Who operates the car parks – Private sector companies or the hospitals themselves? how much does each hospital car park raise and does that money go into that hospitals budget to spend on local services? I think people would feel better about paying for parking if we knew exactly who benefits from them and what the money is used to do! After all lots of people have been banging on about how much MORE they want spending on say A&E and if you ring-fenced parking charges for this purpose then ok. Public transport is none existent to our three hospitals within 35 minute drives outside of office hours and is infrequent Mon-Friday.

      1. libertarian
        December 21, 2019

        a-tracy

        As far as I can find, most hospital car parks are run on behalf of NHS Trusts by private parking companies , in 2018 car parking raised a total of £210 million of which £180 million went to the hospitals concerned and the rest went to operation, collection, ticketing etc

    8. libertarian
      December 19, 2019

      Maggs

      The car parking is run by and for NHS trusts, Labour promised to scrap the parking fees in 2008 but did not . In Scotland where there are no parking fees a report by Scottish Press found that since car park fees were scrapped parking in most hospitals is severely restricted ( i guess because people leave their cars parked there all day whilst shopping etc) . The NHS gets the money from car parking they made £180 million in 2018

    9. steve
      December 19, 2019

      As I recall, your beloved Blair was PM when I first noticed Hospital parking charges.

  9. Newmania
    December 19, 2019

    Any bonus is a borrowing bonus and that is a betrayal of the Brexit voter. The elderly voted Brexit for “communitarian” reasons, to be kind about it. They did not do so to steal from their own grandchildren just to keep a lot of slippery politicians comfortable .

    1. Roy Grainger
      December 19, 2019

      No that’s not why the elderly voted Brexit.

      See, easy, just make stuff up and type it in.

    2. libertarian
      December 19, 2019

      Maggs

      The car parking is run by and for NHS trusts, Labour promised to scrap the parking fees in 2008 but did not . In Scotland where there are no parking fees a report by Scottish Press found that since car park fees were scrapped parking in most hospitals is severely restricted ( i guess because people leave their cars parked there all day whilst shopping etc) . The NHS gets the money from car parking they made £180 million in 2018

    3. libertarian
      December 19, 2019

      Catcha error posted the above post on wrong thread

    4. libertarian
      December 19, 2019

      Newie

      Cant find your in depth analysis of why a mostly remain supporting public ( your analysis) voted a Brexit landslide

      Come on cant wait for your insight into this

    5. Anonymous
      December 19, 2019

      That’s right. Uncontrolled immigration still a taboo.

      Was it all old people who have just given the Brexit Tories their biggest majority since Thatcher ?

      We kept telling you time and again that *uncontrolled* immigration needed to be dealt with or it would cause problems.

  10. ferdinand
    December 19, 2019

    I was impressed and pleased by the number of your followers who wanted repeal of the Climate Change Act

    1. Ian Wragg
      December 19, 2019

      I don’t forsee any Brexit bonus when if as Wfeyland is saying we will have to follow EU rules on goods and match tariffs if we want an FTA by end of 2020.
      France is also insisting on full access to UK fishing waters after Brexit.
      Barnier is saying we must agree our annual contribution to the EU budget.
      This doesn’t sound like leaving to me.

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      December 19, 2019

      Ferdinando bring it on. Some common sense would be welcome.

    3. Martin in Cardiff
      December 19, 2019

      I suspect that a similar number would want the return of the Ducking Stool if it were a possibility, ferdinand.

    4. Lifelogic
      December 19, 2019

      Indeed it is insane. This despite the endless alarmist drivel from the BBC the luvvies and St Greta types. At it again on newsnight last night. No sensible climate realists or proper scientist or engineers to be seen on the BBC ever it seems. Put Matt Ridley, Peter Liiey and piers Corby on to it.

    5. Lifelogic
      December 19, 2019

      Only some scientific illiterates would not want to repeal it! All sensible scientists know it is an exaggerated con trick. Anyway the solutions proposed do not even work anyway.

      1. villaking
        December 20, 2019

        Which scientific illiterates do you refer to? Those of the IPCC? The Royal Meteorological Society? The Arctic Council? The US Global Change Research Program? The European Academy of Sciences & Arts? All of them? Really? That’s quite a global conspiracy. What and whom do you think they are conspiring against and to what end? And which sensible scientists do you know who deny climate change? You and Donald Trump perhaps?

    6. Vanessa Crichton
      December 19, 2019

      I wish -sadly I don’t think this will happen. It would be so good if the UK Government demanded evidence before any action. This lunacy, like so many lies over decades must be demolished. None of their predictions have come true – Duh !!!!!!

    7. acorn
      December 19, 2019

      You will be further impressed by the EU not granting the a UK -EU Association Agreement if the UK reneges on the Paris Climate Agreement.

      1. libertarian
        December 21, 2019

        acorn

        Whatever , get the EU to come back to us when they’ve achieved the same level of co2 reduction as the UK

        Maybe after shutting a few German lignite power stations

  11. Gareth Warren
    December 19, 2019

    I look forward to tackling the BBC too, easy to justify just on freedom of choice.

  12. Christine
    December 19, 2019

    We want big bold policies. Things like cutting the bloated foreign aid budget and making it voluntary. Reforming the House of Lords. Reviewing the climate change policies. Social care improvements.

    You asked for our thoughts on what should be in the Queen’s Speech. Please don’t let your party retreat back into its Westminster bubble.

    It would be nice to hear your views on our suggestions and which, if any, can be taken forward.

    I know you have to get Brexit done as a priority but with so many MPs your party surely has time to debate other things.

    Please don’t let the people down who have put their trust in your party. We want to see real change and reforms.

  13. glen cullen
    December 19, 2019

    I bet the government will increase the relief on the business rate and not actually cut the rate itself

    I also agree with the other comments about scraping car parking charges in NHS

  14. Irene
    December 19, 2019

    I will look forward to hearing about the fundamental improvement in what we currently call ‘social care’ in the Queen’s speech, and I’m looking for more than a one-off cash injection. Tinkering with car park changes is unlikely to help those in need of care and support. Nor will they be supported by a peculiar promise that nobody will have to sell their own home to pay for care, without the detail being made available for all to see.

    As for the NHS, I recommend watching John Pilger’s documentary on Channel 4 the other night. You are mentioned in it, JR, so I guess you may have viewed it. It is called ‘The Dirty War on the NHS” and includes Professor Alyson Pollock who certainly knows what she’s talking about.

  15. Fred H
    December 19, 2019

    OFF TOPIC.
    I gather the Speaker’s wig has not been found, and the new chap would like to wear it!
    The post certainly needs an injection of respect after the panto activities of the last one.

    Was ‘the last one’ frisked for possible removing of articles on being frogmarched out?
    He wasn’t frogmarched out? Well he should have been.

  16. Roy Grainger
    December 19, 2019

    I happened to be at a hospital yesterday – no shortage of medicines apparent. Odd – Andy, what’s going on ?

  17. Iain Moore
    December 19, 2019

    When the NHS sends people an outpatient appointment letter they could at the same time send a parking token/ covering letter, thereby ensuring NHS parking isn’t misused while people needing to park there aren’t financially punished. Simples.

  18. bigneil(newercomp)
    December 19, 2019

    Regarding the cuts in NHS parking charges. Our local hospital is about a mile out of the town centre. It was free. Then people were leaving their cars there all day while catching a bus into town – and their workplace. This left the out-patients with nowhere to park. The hospital then had to charge patients, just to drive the freeloaders away. Any new system presumably must have to be verifiable somehow – within the hospital – or the trouble will start again.

  19. Sea Warrior
    December 19, 2019

    Am I alone in finding the limited availability of parking spaces – even at the more modern hospitals – a bigger annoyance than the parking charges?

    1. Richard1
      December 19, 2019

      You are not. I am fortunate not to have needed to visit hospitals much but I agree the availability of parking is a bigger issue than the charges. If the price of parking falls to zero there will of course be no spaces.

  20. Denis Cooper
    December 19, 2019

    Off topic, the FT has an article today, here:

    https://www.ft.com/content/df716580-217f-11ea-b8a1-584213ee7b2b

    which is headlined:

    “Brussels warns UK will suffer more from lack of EU trade deal”

    but does not provide any quantitative detail.

    One might wonder why that is when:

    a) The new President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, was a member of the German government when it was advised that the UK could suffer a long term loss of just 1.7% of GDP if it left the EU without a trade deal, falling back on WTO rules, and even though that estimate was later adjusted to a loss of 2.8% of GDP that would still be much less than the losses predicted by George Osborne and Philip Hammond:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/12/18/the-bank-of-england-tightens-again/#comment-1078226

    b) Michel Barnier, who spoke in the same session of the EU Parliament, knows from his own 2012 report:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2017/01/07/open-letter-to-sir-andrew-cook/#comment-851063

    that the estimated gross benefit of the EU Single Market , averaged across all member states, is of similar magnitude to those estimates of the loss to the UK from leaving it without a new special trade deal – and the gross benefit to the UK may be only half of that average 2% or so of GDP, and will be offset by the costs of the Single Market.

    It doesn’t matter too much whether we would suffer more or the continuing EU would suffer more, what matters is the likely magnitude of any net loss we would suffer, and basically it would be small and couldwell be a gain rather than a loss.

  21. ADAMS
    December 19, 2019

    and the obsession with Carbon reduction is to continue . Are you happy with that John or just helpless to stop the nonsense ?

    1. Lifelogic
      December 20, 2019

      CO2 is harmless plant food that is greening the planet wonderfully and increasing crop yields with far more beneficial effects than negative ones. There is rather a dearth of CO2 currently and most plants evolved with rather more around.

      The idea that atmospheric CO2 concentration level is some kind of world thermostatic control is pure unscientific lunacy. Millions of other factors affect the climate too and many are unknowable.

  22. libertarian
    December 19, 2019

    The reduction in High street business rates is long overdue, I pay more than £50,000 per annum on my High st premises

    ps If you want to know why the Tories keep losing in Canterbury

    Today I paid £14 to park my car to go to work ( 9 hours) , last night the Tory council announced the closure and sell off of 2 car par parks a 10% increase in car parking charges and wait for it a 20% parking surcharge if you park before 9am ie yet another attack on businesses and workers. These people are insane

  23. Martyn G
    December 19, 2019

    Apologies for being rather OT, but I found this extraordinary interview with David Starkey highly illuminating as to why Boris and the Conservative team were so successful in the GE. It might also inform the Andys’ of this world of some underlying reasons why they are so wrong in so many ways as to their thinking.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Yzy6Rqrmc

  24. Roger Phillips
    December 20, 2019

    Morning John.
    Comment is not related to this post but I feel it is important and needs addressing. Is it now time for the Conservative party to look at the current education system in the UK, it seems that in recent years the left have successfully infiltrated our schools and colleges and are almost brainwashing our children into their Marxist way of thinking, this presents a real danger in coming years where the sheer numbers reaching voting age will eventually make it impossible to keep the left out of power. Food for thought.

    1. Martin in Cardiff
      December 21, 2019

      Good sense and reliable information is what prevents ordinary people from voting for their very own subjugation, de-emancipation, disempowerment, call it what you will, from voting Tory, that is.

      It is not any kind of indoctrination.

      1. Edward2
        December 22, 2019

        Doesn’t seem to be working does it Martin.
        Conservatives now in power for the next 10 or 15 years.

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