Not often held up as a bastion of common sense, the comments board on the Daily Mails website has been set alight following an admission by columnist Liz Jones that she deliberately parks in disabled bays on principle.Jones described her peculiar moral crusade asa dirty protest against the red tape inflicted by authorities to get a disabled stickerâ€; a cause that the Daily Mail writer evidently deems worthy enough to make the lives of disabled and mobility impaired drivers that bit more difficult as they try to get about in their local area.In a display of exceptional magnanimity even for a Daily Mail columnist Liz Jones justified her actions with an irrefutable rhetorical question;“Have you ever seen seven paraplegics, all at once, at your local cinema?†she asked, irrelevantly, before adding.Im deaf.â€Well thats ok then.Readers of her article were less than convinced by Jones argument, and Phil from London was quick to point out one of her many oversights;Too ignorant to realise the cinema in Richmond, North Yorkshire [where some of Jones infringements took place] is a mile outside Catterick Garrison,†he wrote.Full of soldiers, recently deployed. Do you see where I'm going with this?â€Marita, from Milton Keynes, was more concise but similarly unequivocal;Liz jones is one selfish and self-centred human being,†she said. Its difficult to argue with that.What Jones actions boil down to is nothing as noble nor as dignified as protest, and is certainly nothing as high-minded as championing the causes of people who are, for whatever reason, deemed ineligible for blue badge parking permits. Instead, it is Liz Jones' lazily disguised, and slightly disturbing, attitude of overwhelming self-entitlement that shines through.The sense of one-upmanship is palpable in Jones column, particularly when she revels in scoring the most meaningless of moral victories by successfully deceiving the staff at her local Co-Op into letting her take her dog in.It is this pathetically aggressive attitude ofscrew them over before they do the same to me†that makes Jones column so troubling. If it had been written a week earlier I would have been convinced that it was a poorly thought out April Fools Day prank.If the world was full of people like Liz Jones, punching the air in delight as they watch someone struggling across Waitrose car park with their rollator, while they stride back to their 10mpg Range Rover in the disabled spot, the human race would be doomed. Thankfully, most people are not like Liz Jones. She is simply a member of a loud-mouthed minority who has inexplicably been given a platform by a national newspaper. At least, I hope she is..
By Help Mobility Team