Things that should be free

pompa technology can cope with 'rogue' parking these days and remember hospital car parking did used to be free. England is the only part of the UK where you still have to pay for prescriptions. Sanitary and incontinence products should be free on the NHS as prescription items. You should also have the choice to buy things instead of going down the prescription road. Again, technology is well able to cope with the kind of abuse we used to see years ago. In many countries school meals are free for all pupils, even in high income countries like Sweden and Finland. All of this should be paid for through taxation like PAYE, keeping it fair.

If our hospital car park was free it would be full of commuters. Cost me £3 to park yesterday for 2 1/2 hrs, that seems reasonable to me.

Free prescriptions, can you imagine the cost to the NHS and the amount of waste. many can already get free prescriptions.

School meals, I like the idea as it prevents stigma, but who is to pay ?

Water rates, I'm OK with them.

Sanitary products, free to those that qualify for free prescriptions (and don't forget us men)

Agree hospital car parks and sanitary products should be free.

I think the amount we pay in water rates is fair enough.

School meals should be free for all pupils.

Prescriptions should also be free.

2 years ago Cancer patients receiving treatment at Bournemouth hospital got free parking, there was a special ticket machine on the ward. When I was an in patient I also got free TV. Didn't realise at first so worth asking.

Don't know if this is still the case, but when DH had to go in for treatment at one hospital in Perth WA, he received a parking permit with his appointment card, and didn't have to pay anything for parking. Since then, he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and has to have regular treatment for it at a different hospital, and it costs us a fortune in parking fees. I can understand visitors having to pay (although I don't think anyone should have to pay for hospital parking really) but surely long time patients should be exempt from this charge.

Casino investment bankers for a start
Yay.....

Welcome NannaBanana - of course I like your name!
Hospital car parks should definitely be free.

I recently spent 4 hours sitting with my daughter in hospital while her partner went home to get much needed sleep and to see their son. My daughter had given birth following pre eclampsia and her partner was concerned about leaving her. The hospital car park cost me £9. I nearly headed back in to A + E for shock treatment. On the other hand I was very fortunate to get a parking space.

We are fortunate in the part of Scotland I live to have free hospital parking but it is seriously abused. When my husband was hospitalised I found it practically impossible to get a parking space. Luckily I could use a bus. It is an enormous car park but used widely for all day parking by folks who then bus or walk into the city. It has also been used by people leaving from the local airport but parking their cars at the hospital and taking taxi to airport!!

Inverness hospital has free parking. Had to park half mile away at Tesco last time we were there. Preferred it when they charged a £1. No station nearby so no commuters, just hospital users.

The Park and Ride service to both the Churchill and the JR are excellent. If you have a bus pass, of course the bus part is free too.
Best of luck to you and your DH.
Plentiful (and free) hospital parking would be a nice thing, but often, especially in cities, is a pipe dream. Many hospitals will issue a "season ticket" if you know a stay is likely to be a lengthy one of course. A frequent shuttle service to and from parking would at least ease many patients' journeys. When DH has been in the Royal Free it cost me around £30 just to visit, and that is using public transport!!

cheapest ones 25p for ten Sainsburys basics!

We are fortunate in this country that we are free to roam, pick blackberries, garlic, whatever happens to be free. Free at the moment to talk to strangers at the bus stop, and if we are old enough travel free on the buses.

Good luck GdnGuru246. I recently took my BiL to the Churchill Hospital in Oxford. We used the Park and Ride. The buses turned up on time, and it was a much less stressful way of getting there than trying to find non-existent parking spaces.

Free car parks at our local hospitals would be targeted by commuters; having spent £5. On parking at one earlier today I applaud the thought, but cannot see how to make it work without a complicated refund system.

I think that car parking at hospitals should be plentiful and free, for patients and visitors. I know someone has to pick up in the inevitable litter strewn around the place but at often stressful times it is very hard to remember to take enough money to get out of the multi storey. My DH has to have a stem cell transplant this summer to combat myeloma (cancer of the bone marrow) and our first 'recce' of the hospital in Oxford is tomorrow. He has been worrying today about the best way to get there - by car but there's a scarcity of parking spaces; by train then bus but the times don't work out; so I expect it will be an early drive to combat the rush hour traffic then find the Park and Ride.... and hope the buses turn up. Having cancer is bad enough without this extra stress!

Last Autumn my DF had a sudden cardiac arrest at home, was effectively dead in front of us but amazingly saved by DD who is a vet.... it was terribly traumatic for everyone, but thankfully he is thriving and back at home. For the 4 weeks he was in hospital the family must have paid a fortune in parking fees!

It costs money to get water out of a holein the wall. There is the grid of water pipes coming to your home. It costs money to build them and keep them in repair, the cost of making sure the water is safe to drink needs to be found and to build the reservoirs and drill the wells. The water may be free, it is the cost of accessing it is expensive - unless you build your own well - and that will cost money, unless you are willing to dig it yourself and just hope the water is safe.

Housing is a straight forward question of supply and demand. If the population suddenly halved the price of houses would plummet, if it doubled house prices would probably double or more. There is a finite supply of land and 70% of a cost of a new house is the price of the land.

I think most people see their home as just that, and always have. There have always been land speculators. Anyone read South Riding by Winifrid Holtby. No new problems, just new versions of them.

But we were never going to have, nor were we comparable to Greece Elegran This was just used by the Conservatives to frighten the children who hadn't done their research so they believed it. (Children as in how the Tories feel they can treat the electorate) The Conservatives only answer to many questions seems to be to go for the fear option.

"If we have a good economy" Nonnie people would not now be starving, homeless, uncared for when they are in need of care or only able to find insecure employment. As for the NHS and education, both appear to be on the tipping point of either crashing round our ears or - the Tory answer to this - not available to all.

I'm afraid telling the lie of a "good" economy often enough just isn't convincing me.

SOMEONE has to pick the blackberries/mushrooms/garlic leaves/nettle tops and package them for sale. They have to be paid a wage, and the premises have to be heated and lit and the rent/mortgage paid. In fact, the blackberries are probably cultivated ones (no thorns, easier to pick) The nettles ar garlic may be picked by someone who then sells them to the farm shop - charging for their time and effortt- and they have to choose patches where dogs haven't peed on them, and wash them before packing them.

As others have said, anyone can pick stuff in places open to the public, but if someone else picks it, they are entitled to recompense. That is the root of "the economy", at least until we achieve Utopia, when everyone does everything for no reward.

Try having a bad economy, like Greece.

Sorry to disagree but I think the economy is very important. If we have a good economy we can afford to pay for things like the NHS, education and welfare. If our economy is poor we have less money to pay for such things.

I once, as a farewell gift from my babysitting group, got a copy of Richard Mabey's book, 'Food for Free' which was then a new publication. It must have remained popular because it's still available and has a high * rating on Amazon. I wonder what happened to my copy...

Gracesgran , oh so true . I am thoroughly sick of hearing about ¬"The economy" we have been brainwashed into thinking it is something the ordinary public should be concerned about above all else .

If you live in a rural area foraging in hedgerows and woodland open to the public is entirely legal and as most run beside footpaths and areas away from roads entirely safe.

I gather blackberries, sloes and greengages and elderflowers and berries from local hedgerows and could also gather rosehips, if I wanted to and crab apples if I did not have a prolific crab apple tree in my garden. There are many other things i could gather if I recognised them or knew what to do with them. I also have a decent rhubarb patch that keeps the household fully supplied.

Foraging is less easy if you live in an urban area, but what a perfect excuse for days out in the country.

smiles