IN defence of the £32m taken in hospital parking charges, a spokesman rather smugly declared that all of this money was invested in the NHS.

This may well be so, but it is still another stealth tax, although one that is extracted only from the English when visiting a hospital for treatment or to comfort the sick.

This is an outstanding example of how the English are exploited to subsidise the rest of the UK.

Hospital parking is free elsewhere in this increasingly unfair country.

Bobby Meynell, Teesside.