by Sean Gabb
BBC Radio 5 Debate on Disabled Parking: http://www.libertarian.co.uk/?q=node/683
Sean Gabb, speaking on BBC Radio 5 on the 29th December 2011.
This discussion was about the often fraudulent abuse of the disabled parking system. Sean Gabb went on to make these points:
- That there are seriously disabled people, and these deserve some consideration.
- That only those evidently disabled should have any parking privileges.
- But that many evidently able people have acquired disabled parking badges.
- That there are too many disabled parking bays in most car parks – anyone looking at these alone would conclude that there were more seriously disabled people in the country than parents with young children.
This was not a particularly libertarian discussion. Sean was not even that aggressive. From the horrified whining of the callers, however, anyone might have thought he had suggested gassing the disabled. Because he had been told he would be on for just a few minutes, and the Beeb kept him on for about three quarters of an hour, his boredom is understandable – even if at one point in the recording he has been playing with his satellite navigation and is unable to turn it off in time….
Well Sean, you were well and truly “BBC’d”! Given such a potentially emotive subject, there wasn’t much chance of a sensible “grown-up” debate, and the way the BBC chooses the public contributors (see Question Time), you were always likely to be on a hiding to nothing. To be fair to the BBC, I doubt any other broadcaster or news organisation would have conducted the “debate” differently.
Trying to have a logical discussion about any healthcare related subject in this country is virtually impossible, especially when everyone thinks that NHS care is “free”.
You were on the wrong side Sean.
The political scum are upping charges 5 fold (alright 2 pounds to 10 but it is the principal) to pay for the nazi crap. ( “holograms”, secure as a banknote–hah).
You should have made the point that all of this is because of parking being mostly under the control of or at the decision of local and national political scum. If parking were a free market then disabled people could buy a blocks of spaces and make their own arrangements.