MORE CELTIC FRINGE BENEFITS..

I was intrigued by the fuss being made about a number of NHS hospitals increasing their charges for car parking.   Not so much by the increases themselves but by the fact that they should be charging at all. 

I remember when my late mother spent her last few weeks in Basingstoke hospital and each time I visited, quite apart from the stress of the situation itself, I remember being stressed about the need to find enough cash to feed the parking machine and then to make sure I didn`t stay so long as to incur a punitive excess charge.

I confess to being one of those who claim that, having already paid for the NHS through our taxes, we should not then be asked to pay again to park.   It`s bad enough if you`re visiting a friend or relative in hospital, but it must be even worse if you`re unfortunate enough to actually be a patient.

But what really annoys me is the revelation that hospital parking in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is free and it is only if you are visiting a hospital in England that you have to pay for parking.   I`m not complaining about the fact that those in other parts of the UK don`t have to pay - good luck to them - but it really doesn`t help the cause of maintaining a United Kingdom all the time this kind of divisiveness goes on.   And with something as sensitive and important as this, surely a common policy throughout the UK would be welcome - preferably a free parking one!