While you might think free parking in NHS hospitals is a bit of throwaway populist fluff, it still tells you a lot about how populists think. If they do not see the immediate value in administration then it simply shouldn’t exist.
We then get some confirmation of how Lowe thinks from an interview with David Starkey. Lowe wants to recruit candidates who are accomplished business leaders (basically people like Rupert Lowe).
Regardless of what you think of Lowe’s values (there’s not much I disagree with), the bottom line is that he’s hopelessly naïve and has absolutely no idea what he’s doing. Starkey is right. Politics is not business. Businessmen are often successful because they take risks, and delegate the details to their people. It does not make them experts, and it does not mean their business success is transferrable to politics. Setting things up is a lot different to running things (as Lowe is about to discover).
Very often businessmen have very little understanding of the day to day running of their businesses. They hire people to do that for them so they can think about other things. We saw this during Brexit, where the media was asking CEOs how Brexit might affect their businesses, to find they were no more informed about the complexities of EU customs rules than the man in the street.
Read the whole thing as it is an interesting practical discussion about allocation of scarce resources
As an American who knows neither Pete North, nor Rupert Lowe, it seems to me that Mr. North’s arguments are…um…silly.
The principles of running a business don’t apply to “politics”.
Here’s the problem I have…running the government isn’t politics, it’s administration, organization and leadership. Politics is the art of influence peddling, backroom deals and corruption in an effort to attain or maintain a position of power.
Politicians are good at the things that get them elected…administration, organization and leadership? Often not so much.
Here’s an example directly from the article quoted:
“Now you might think that parking allocations might be straightforward (as did I), but it turns out to be an intensely political job. Spaces are allocated (rationed) on the basis of disability, childcare needs, distance from home, proximity to bus route, length of service, hours worked and seniority. This ended up being quite a complex SQL stored procedure. Once a month we’d run a query into the very slow HR servers to see if anyone had left the company and freed up a parking space, and then we’d re-run the parking allocations script.”
That is the politician’s solution, not the businessman’s (and I don’t care that Mr. North, in this instance, was apparently supposed to be acting in his capacity as a business employee, he was acting as a politician).
These are exactly the types of convoluted “solutions” that invite influence peddling, “favors”, preferential treatment, etc.
It’s only difficult because they made it so. “Parking is allocated based on seniority in the company”. Problem solved.
“Why don’t I get a parking space?”
“What was your hire date?”
“xx/xx/xxxx”
“That’s why.”
Another way is “first come first served”. When the lot’s full, the lot’s full. Should have gotten here earlier. That one isn’t the best solution because you’ll have people missing work or being late every day because they “couldn’t find a parking spot”. Better for them to know ahead of time they need to take the bus. But it is a way less convoluted solution than that cockamamie “to each according to his need” approach outlined in the article. Say…that sounds familiar to me…wonder why?
“Much of what sophisticates loftily refer to as the “complexity” of the real world is in fact the inconsistency in their own minds.”
–Thomas Sowell
This one made me laugh out loud:
“Very often businessmen have very little understanding of the day to day running of their businesses.”
Seriously? He actually thinks politicians have an understanding of the day to day running of the government?
Whatever drugs he’s taking, I want some…that’s some good stuff.
The ability to understand one’s knowledge and skill gaps and delegate responsibilities to qualified people in order to fill those gaps is an indispensable skill in business…and translates extremely well to almost any endeavor in life…including running a government.
Most politician’s defining characteristic is their lack of this ability and their mistaken belief that the peasants aren’t capable of running their own lives and need the guidance and assistance of politicians to make the “correct” decisions and lead successful lives.
Lowe does appear to be effective in the committees. Holding civil servants to account. There is a difference between an entrepreneur and a manager. Begs the question which profession or class of people make good MPs?
So tell me, does it matter more for the operation of a hospital if a heart surgeon is late because he could not find a place to park… or if a janitor is late for shift? Or is everyone just a fungible lump of labour?
It’s probably a typo, but keep it in mind next time a politician campaigns on stopping white supremacists or somesuch.
The proof is a narcissistic POTUS with frontotemporal dementia. Reduce pharmaceutical prices 500-1000%, exporting nations pay the tariffs?
Mr. North just gave a good account of why someone like Trump could never win a political race.
( . . . “libertoryans”?)
Talking about parking allocation reminds me of a story.
At the last gig, the boss said
‘Parking is first-come-first-served. Anyway, if you’re so bloody important that you think you need a reserved parking space, you’d best be here first in the morning anyway’.
There were 4 or 5 prime parking spots right outside the front door. The rest of the employee parking was out back, inbetween piles of used pallets and facing the grow operations in the other buildings of the complex.
Well, I’ve been getting to every job I had for the last 30 years at 6.00 am. So I always parked in Spot #1. Which was fine, until summer comes and I start to show up on the mighty Ducati, which I also parked in Spot #1. This was, apparently, taking the p*ss, and my co-workers began to complain that I was ‘taking’ a parking spot that they would have used if I had not parked there – if you see what I mean. And if you see what I mean, I wish you’d explain it to me, because the logic was lost on me. But it was a burr under some saddles until the day I left.
Circling back – many aspects of the human condition are not driven by logic and reason, but by objective and contrary impulses, often impervious to rational resolution. The successful politician, and to some extent the successful businessman, is the one who can square this circle between rational, logical needs and illogical, irrational human impulses.
llater,
llamas
Ducati-envy. Pure and simple. Still want one.
prediction:
Restore Britain is going to get more votes than Reform UK in the next general election
What makes Rupert Lowe attractive is he is not promising a good time. He has specifically and repeatedly said that “what should be done will be incredibly painful” and similar phrases. He strikes a stern, sober, and serious tone. I don’t trust any of these politicians but he is making better noises than Nigel Farage imo.
Also, I consider Reform UK to be basically be Tories 2.0 – a Conservative Party Lite.
There were some interesting points in the comments. To summarise a couple:
1 – North suffers from Cummingsitis, he not only thinks he is supremely clever, he thinks that anyone who disagrees is thick
2 – Scotland has free parking at hospitals. We do not seem to have tales of horror as a result.
My thoughts on Lowe is that he could have an argument in a phone box and that will cripple his party.
@Sailorcurt Pete North can sometimes come up with insightful analyses, but at other times writes some entertaining bullshit. This is one of those latter occasions. I’m with Lowe here. I’d rather see a successful businessman running a political department like a business than a career politician.
@Llamas. My response to that one is ‘I happen to be on the bike, but if I were in the car, I would be taking up the same space, so no harm done. In the case of local council parking facilities, I pay the same taxes, so why not?’ As you say, logic is a rare commodity.
@Marius: Indeed. I like Lowe, but as a potential PM? Nah.
The post and article seems a bit desperate – after all what Mr Lowe says on this matter is the sort of thing Mr Farage would also say, so if it disqualifies Mr Lowe from government – the same must be true of Mr Farage. Although both would add that the parking would have to be only for staff and for people visiting relatives or friends in hospital – the old “staff car park” and “visitors car park” practice – which would still have to be checked.
Parking at hospitals used to be free (and, as Marius points out, it still is in Scotland), but then the country became grossly overpopulated due to mass immigration – which Mr Lowe wishes to reverse by mass deportations, at least of illegal immigrants (of which there are millions).
Would he be allowed to do that? Of course NOT – the establishment will run a smear campaign against him, or send him to prison on some fake charge or other, or eliminate the “threat” in some other way.
But the establishment will not allow Mr Farage to follow a policy of mass deportations either – which is why Mr Farage has given up talking about such a policy.
Mr Farage wishes to be Prime Minister – and understands that to be allowed to be Prime Minister (and stay Prime Minister – remember how quickly Liz Truss was removed by the establishment – and that was over tax policy, a modern government is not ALLOWED to reduce taxation) he has to follow establishment policies – at least to some extent.
Mr Farage might be allowed to stop mass immigration – this would NOT save the country (natural increase, births, of the hostile populations would still take place – it is too late for just ending mass immigration to save the nation) – but it would buy a few years, so that those of us who are old could live out what remains of our lives in a country that was still sort-of England.
Mr Lowe really does seem to think he can save this nation – not buy a few more years, actually save it. And I agree with Perry and others – that is NOT a realistic position.
As for government generally – is it a business? No it is not – because it is based on force and fear, the “Sword of State”. Do businessmen have a good record as government leaders? Generally NOT – but then no group of people has a good record as government leaders.
Lastly it should also be remembered that the mass immigration and natural increase of hostile populations is NOT the only reason that this nation is dying – the modern economic system (which is create-money-from-nothing and use this “money” to buy food, raw materials and manufactured goods from overseas) does not make sense – indeed it is utterly insane. And there is also a Cultural Decline (turning into a Cultural Collapse) which has been proceeding for more than 60 years – so it is NOT just the mass immigration of hostile populations. These days the English, Scots and Welsh are not even marrying and have enough children to maintain the existence of these nations-peoples.
Seeing as we are making predictions, as the Jews-are-responsible-for-everything & kick-them-out-cos-they’re-wogs elements are disproportionately loud & will get louder, I suspect they will prove to be a major liability when more sane people currently drawn to Lowe’s superficial charms find themselves adjacent.
But if Lowe does manage to badly damage Reform rather than being a flash in the pan, the result won’t be a Restore government, it will be a massive surge of the Greens & Labour, leading to the Labour-Green government from hell, and no introspection from the people who caused it.
Paul,
When defeat is inevitable, it is better to die on your feet than your knees.
Had the vote not been given to parasites, beggars and foreigners none of this would be a problem.
@bobby b – then do like I did. Just get one. Or two. Even if you have to put training wheels on it, it’s still a Ducati 🙂
llater,
llamas
I’ve already noticed that much of Lowe’s vocal support on X is from people who will be an electoral millstone for his party.
The general attitude towards Restore Britain of Reform UK apologists in this thread reminds me of the approach towards MAGA taken by Republican Party loyalists in 2015.
“it can’t be done” “Trump is too radical” “Trump is too uncouth and rude” “MAGA is full of racists and other unsavory characters, which will turn off centrists” “the left will win and rule for a thousand years” “America can’t be saved”
I’ve met Nigel twice in person. He is a nice guy. Now is not the time for nice guys – a fact which escapes most old people, while young men increasingly recognize.
Fine, I’ve met Lowe, chatted with him for over an hour as I was sat at the same table at the Guido Fawkes Paul Staines goodbye dinner at the IoD. My misses was next to him & I was next to her. I started the evening as something of a fan but left with a very different opinion.
And young men have a propensity to be fools.
Perry seems to be accusing Mr Lowe and his associates of antisemitism – “the Jews are responsible for everything”, they may be Jew-haters, but I have seen no evidence of it.
Rour le Jour you are wrong about the vote – the poor opposed mass immigration, it was the wealthy who supported it.
It was the same in the United States – the wealthy Beverly Hills types in California supported mass immigration, it was the “white trash” who were against it.
By the time the wealthy are hit by mass immigration – it is too late. The rich will scream for help – but there will be not enough “white trash” (poor whites) left to help them. The Beverly Hills types have, for decades, made films glorifying the Mexican Revolution of 1910 – they may soon get to experience the plundering, rape and mass murder (which was the Mexican Revolution) up-close-and-personal.
By the way – Zia Yusef was out today saying that (after all) Reform is going back to the mass deportation policy – which Mr Farage seemed to abandon some time ago.
Mr Yusef did NOT quite say “kick the darkies out!” but he came close to it.
It seems that Mr Lowe has had the effect of making the Reform Party adopt the policy of mass deportations – although how sincere they are, I do not know.
I very much doubt the establishment would allow any such policy.
On the economy…..
It is NOT true that Britain has no economy at all – food is grown here, some things are mined, and goods are made.
It is “just” that the British economy is vastly smaller than “GDP” would suggest.
Which means that, poor as many of us are, really our living standards should be a lot lower (a LOT lower) – the country is living on Credit Money on “the never-never” creating “money” (from nothing) to “pay for” imported goods.
President Trump is desperately trying to get the United States back to sanity – back to actually making goods, much to the contempt of “free market” economists who think they are following Adam Smith (they are NOT following Adam Smith – he would have been horrified by the idea of “paying for” endless imports with “money” created from nothing) – President Trump may indeed fail, as every institution (including the Supreme Court) is against him, but at least he is trying.
No one in Britain is trying to restore the economy – this nation is just going to carry on creating “money” from nothing and using it to try and “pay for” endless imports – till this “money” (which is just made-up-nothing) is not accepted any more.
“And then what?”
Then the living will envy the dead – when they are not too busy eating them.
Let us hope that this does NOT happen – that somehow the British economy is restored.
The Economist magazine, which has, for years now, supported more government spending and taxes, has finally found a tax increase it does NOT like.
The proposed tax increases on the super rich in New York City and California – stealing the assets of the super rich was NOT in the plan of the Corporate State (the Economist magazine, Larry Fink of BlackRock and the World Economic Forum, and so on) – not at all, It was just ordinary people who were supposed to be shoved into “15 minute cites” – little flats, and made to live on a “Basic Income” – with what they are to spend this electronic “money” on, decided-for-them – for-their-own-good.
Watching the establishment complain about the prospect of being robbed and treated like cattle is interesting.
“Not us!” – “Everyone else – but not us!”
“So tell me, does it matter more for the operation of a hospital if a heart surgeon is late because he could not find a place to park… or if a janitor is late for shift? Or is everyone just a fungible lump of labour?”
And how, specifically, is allocating parking spaces by seniority going to make the Doc late? If he has to take public transit every day, I’d think he’d have an idea how much time that takes to get to work. If he’s late, that’s called poor planning. Is that really a trait you would excuse in a heart surgeon?
I suppose you may have been referring to the second alternative I offered: “free for all” parking, but I already noted that it wasn’t the ideal solution, just the simplest. Seniority based parking is almost as simple and everyone would know in advance whether they have place to park or should take the bus.
You could also do it by position rather than raw seniority and that would work almost as well…the point is that an objective system with clear guidelines would not be difficult to administer. What makes it difficult is the politician’s modus operandi of trying to create a “system” to satisfy all the potential interest groups that either he needs to get elected or can pay him the most graft…which is what that parking plan to which I was responding sounded eerily like.
And, again, I refer you back to the Thomas Sowell quote I posted above.
Sailorcurt.
Yes – the attack does not make much sense.
Take the example of Kettering General Hospital – it is not in the center of town, people are not going to park there unless they work there or are visiting someone who is ill.
So charging for car parking is NOT about making sure a heart surgeon gets a parking place – or all the rest of that stuff, it is a REVENUE raising thing, perhaps there is nothing wrong with that – but we should be honest about it.
And, of course, “hospital car parking should be free” is exactly the sort of thing that Nigel “send in the auditors” Farage would say himself – not just fellow businessman Rupert Lowe.
For Nigel “send in the auditors” Farage, or a supporter of his, to be complaining about someone else making populist promises, is the pot calling the kettle black.
In case anyone does not know, local authorities spend thousands of Pounds on auditors (internal and external) every year – the idea that “send in the auditors” would “save money” and lead to “lower Council Tax” was a bit of nonsense – and this bit of nonsense was the corner stone of the election campaign for the May 2025 council elections.
A very successful bit of nonsense – it got a lot of votes.
It worked – in terms of winning the council elections.
The problem is NOW – the Council Tax is going up by the maximum, and the roads are falling apart.
This is the problem with making promises – people notice when they are broken.
Your position is that England cannot be saved? It’s dead and over? This is all just post-mortem analysis?
There are Afrikaner communities in South Africa, who despite being in a far worse position than almost any other white population globally, refuse to given in, and instead are collectively organising to protect themselves and advance their interests. They may never rule South Africa again, at least not all of it, but they may well have some success in advancing their interests because almost all politics, including in democracies, is the art of well organised minorities advancing over a disorganised mass. If these Afrikaners haven’t given up, there’s no need for Brits to throw in the towel at all.
One thing which gives me some cautious optimism for Britain is that the justifications and ideological underpinnings of mass immigration and multiculturalism don’t have very strong organic roots in Britain. Much of it is hollow rhetoric borrowed from American left liberals by British left liberals. The mantras about Britain being a nation of immigrants or that immigrants built Britain are very poorly supported by evidence, and pointing to Mary Seacole or a token African at Henry VIII’s court isn’t going to cut it. There’s not really a deep rooted Ellis island like mythology like there is in the USA. The fear of being called a racist or nazi for challenging this nonsense is dissipating.
In Britain at least I can’t think of a large immigration wave the masses favoured. Large scale Irish and Jewish immigration in the 19th and early 20th century were not popular. Carribbean and Indian subcontinent immigration after WW2 was not popular. It was so unpopular that otherwise left-wing working class unionised workers marched in favour of the High Tory-Austrian school-Nationalist hybrid Enoch Powell as their hero. The masses didn’t favour mass immigration from Eastern Europe from 2000s – this probably more than any other thing tipped the scales in favour of the Brexit referendum. Boriswave is even more unpopular than than the pre-Brexit immigration.
@Paul Marks
Mr Lowe really does seem to think he can save this nation – not buy a few more years, actually save it. And I agree with Perry and others – that is NOT a realistic position.
I think that is correct, but we probably disagree about the reasons why. I think there is a glimmer of hope that perhaps Nigel can get rid of NetZero and rescue the nation but the real threat is not Labour nor Tories nor for that matter Mr. Lowe. The real threat is the massive transformation about to take place in the economy due to AI and robotics that will rob Britain of its productive competitiveness entirely. And, because of their obsession with the pointless NetZero, they will not be able to participate and consequently tax these new industries to support the people. I think that future Britain may well have to live off the scraps that fall from their Yankee Doodle master’s table. Which I imagine is quite horrifying to the sensibilities of the late, great British people.
Paul @ 4:35 pm,
Of course the working poor oppose immigration, and high taxes, but the benefit claiming poor, and there are many millions of them, will not vote right for fear of losing their benefits.
We seem to take it as axiomatic in the west that those who spend taxes should have total control while those who pay taxes should have no say in how their money is spent. I do not regard this arrangement as sustainable. Universal suffrage is workable when voters and taxpayers are the same people, but when taxpayers become a minority that is no longer the case.
The elephant in the room is that there shouldn’t be “NHS hospitals”.
Persons or entities wishing to provide health services to those requiring them would automatically create varying solutions to the transport and parking requirements of their staff and customers as part of the deal.
No he isn’t, he is pointing out that Lowe attracts a lot of support from headbangers online. This will damage Restore’s efforts to get elected and Lowe’s prospects for any electoral alliances. Farage understands this, which is why he makes such great efforts to distance himself from Tommy Robinson et al. This is how you get elected, whatever all the dimwits bleating about Reform being “controlled opposition” think.
bobby b – it looks that way. That does NOT mean that we will all be eating each other tomorrow morning – but the United Kingdom is clearly going in the wrong direction, and it seems clear that things will get worse-and-worse over time.
The British economy makes no sense – it just does not. In a far more fundamental way than is true even of the United States – which is also in a far from wonderful position. We used to be able to say “well at least we are a fairly homogeneous community – who will pull together in a crises” – but, to the horror of John Enoch Powell, Britain flung that away – and imported (deliberately imported) racial and ethnic division and conflict – in a crises people will turn on each other in Britain (just as they do in American cities).
Marius – the thing is that the “headbangers” are not Jew haters either – Tommy Robinson is not, Carl Benjamin is not, and so on. So it was hard to know who Perry was talking about – unless Sir “Ed” Davey, the leader of the “Liberal Democrats” – who really is a Jew hater (he is one of the “Israel is committing genocide” liars) has come out a supporter of Rupert Lowe.
Mike Marsh – the National Health Service inherited about half a million hospital beds (most of them free) in 1948 – now, with a vastly larger population, it has just over one hundred thousand hospital beds, so it appears to be abolishing itself – whilst, at the same time, spending more-and-more money.
The wife of a friend of mine went to the NHS with a broken arm – they totally messed it up. And a man a few hundred yards for me had a minor scratch on his leg – but they so delayed (and messed up) treatment, that he may lose his leg.
Fraser Orr – I leave AI to people who understand these matters, as for Net Zero – I agree that it is utterly insane, and I am glad that Mr Farage, and Mr Lowe, are against it.
Rowe le Jour – more people on state benefits vote for the right than you assume, a lot more.
And a lot of people in the “private sector” with high paying jobs in the Corporations, vote Labour or, now, Liberal Democrat (the “Lib Dems” have become an extreme left party) – or even “Green”.
“…the bottom line is that he’s hopelessly naive…”
I’d rather have a politician with benevolent ideals, but no idea how to implement policy, than a politician with horrible and competent to convert them into policy. The former can grow, the latter cannot.
“Also, I consider Reform UK to be basically be Tories 2.0 – a Conservative Party Lite.”
I consider the Tories to be basically be a Labor Party Lite. Which makes Reform a Labor Party Ultra Lite. Essentially like an American beer.
SteveD
People such as Suella Braverman are not “lite” in their beliefs – they are passionate in their beliefs.
But they could achieve nothing in government. And I fear that such good people, try as they might, would not achieve much even if the Reform Party had a majority in the House of Commons.
I suspect you persist in the belief that elected politicians are “in charge” – that they make the decisions.
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss is someone you should listen to on that subject.
Parking spaces at hospitals? Now here’s a thing. I’ve visited a number of hospitals here in Spain. Both here in Andalucia & also in Madrid. I’ve never had the slightest problem parking & never paid for parking at any of them. So it really is hard to see what the problem is. UK is a totally fucked up country? Thank heavens I no longer live there.
bloke in spain
Yes – if (if) a hospital is not in the center of town, then the only people who would want to park there are staff and people visiting patients.
The idea that car parking charges are about “allocating scarce resources” (or some-such) is nonsense.
They are a revenue raising measure – nothing more.
As for elections…..
An interesting case will be tomorrow (Thursday) in the by-election.
If “Advance UK” gets enough votes to give the seat to the Greens then Perry’s case is proved – his real case (which has got nothing to do with hospital car parks).
Perry’s real case is that parties such as “Advance UK” and “Restore Britain” may take enough votes from the Reform Party to give the election to the far left, to totalitarians (and they are totalitarians) such as the Greens.
“Paul, is that also true of the Conservative Party?”
In the case of the Gorton and Denton by-election the Conservative Party should NOT have put up a candidate – Jacob Rees-Mogg said that, and I agree with him. And if typing that gets me expelled – so be it.
Matt Goodwin is a good man – people in the by-election should vote for him, and candidates who have no-chance-of-winning, should not be put up – as that risks handing the election to the Greens.
The William F. Buckley rule applies – vote for the most conservative candidate who has-a-chance-of-wining.