About this blog

This blog covers my efforts as a campainger for the retention, and necessary correction, of equitable access to public services.

Public services should generally be funded by us through taxation, rather than through service charges on users.

There may be exceptions, e.g. publicly managed trading bodies, and cases where it may be appropriate for a service to be self-financing, i.e. funded in full or part through fees paid by users. In such cases however ALL fess and charges must be clearly advised and levied with the maximum emphasis on equity. This will typically include exemption from charges according to the means and level of need of service users - the present structure of NHS charges is a good example. A key feature of such charges is the need for them to be set centrally, rather than at the discretion of contracted providers.

The present focus of my campaigning efforts is on use of revenue sharing telephone numbers, e.g. ALL those beginning 084. These invariably provide subsidy (and in some cases cash revenue) to those who use them. Nothwithstanding certain perverse circustances caused by remaining legacy regulation of the charges levied by BT, this cost is carried by callers who generally incur premium rates.

My efforts on this issue with reference to the NHS are covered in the specific NHS Patient blog.

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