To think that blue badge spaces are for people with blue badges?

[Sixweekstowait]

First of all I want to apologise to those people who were offended by the my use of a phrase which I will not, of course, repeat here. It was coined by a very wonderful disability rights campaigner in the 80s and was a tongue in cheek shot across the bows at all the negative labels that were in common use then to describe people with disabilities. Now...my point is that no one should use a disabled space without a blue badge. Is that BU? No one of course should challenge anyone with a blue badge . So I will say again that I was really really angry this morning for the second day running at the disabilist selfish entitled who were abusing these spaces at the station and I was upset that no one came to my support. I was actually trapped in my car by a van as I couldn't open the door to get out. I was going to work . Is it BU to mind that ? It happens over and over again and I am FUCKING fed up with it

Sadly I don't have a jag.

Has MNHQ any idea AT ALL how fucking disabilist our society is and how they are fucking COLLUDING with this? I'm off to post on site stuff

Link here and I'll post when I'm home. I've sent reports and emails this past 2 days and they've ignored those...

We cannot have a discussion on MN about the difficulties of being disabled without an entitled mummy telling us that parenting is hard too, as if we don't know. Most of us are parents!!

Well I've started the thread now - how long will it last before deletion?

It is appalling they deleted your thread and are leaving certain others to stand.

YANBU, OP. And FWIW, as an able-bodied person, I didn't find your term on the other thread offensive. I thought it was wit under extreme pressure.

I'm often challenged when I use my blue badge, always by elderly people who think (a) I obviously look too young to be disabled, or (b) they've got God-given fucking sole and exclusive use of blue badge spaces in preference to everyone else. The number of dirty looks I get whilst sitting parked with my badge on show is sickening, not to mention downright fucking offensive.

On one occasion, it was because I managed to get the last available bay before her and that didn't go down well. On another occasion, a man was pleading that his wife was more disabled than me and I should "have to" move. Even folks with a disability are now turning on each other!

Yep, me too Lady. I once had a little old lady flag me down as I left a BB space and aggressively tell me I shouldn't be parking there. My (horrible, but at this point quite useful, now ex) dp took great pleasure in waving my BB at her and asking her rather loudly if she was blind, or something like that, which was rude and not a little inappropriate, but honestly, I get fed up with it.

One woman started battering my car with her brolly because I wouldn't explain myself to her.

At one point years ago I was a disabled single parent and the benefits system nearly melted

This is disingenuous.

You used a horrendous phrase. Enough people commented on it that MNHQ would have to delete 40% of the posts to get rid of the reference and stop people coming on to ask what was said. It was completely derailed and it wasn't worth keeping. Your point was hugely lost by the response to your phrase.

The same would happen on any thread where the primary purpose was lost to a large amount of posts which require deletion. Essentially, it became a bun fight.

I do agree that blue badge spaces should only be used by holders. I imagine most people here do. I also think its atrocious that your MP has ignored you. Maybe a thunderclap in their direction would be a better use of time then goading MNHQ? I can understand the frustration but I don't think this warrants it.

Anchor - my MP has just about the biggest Tory majority in the country . If you can think of a way to deliver him a thunderclap I'd be very grateful - I'm afraid that unless you use a blue badge regularly and need it to access the station to get to work and are constantly faced wth abusers, then you really can't understand for a nano second what my life is like. Why was the phrase horrendous - do you know its origins?

I had a blue badge until recently - I don't have a car now; I'm not allowed to drive. I didn't intend to come across as judgy and I hope I didn't. I won't say I understand, I think we all have our battles - but I use the tube regularly and that's pretty nightmarish, and I can imagine station parking being bad enough anyway.

I didn't want you to feel that your thread was treated unfairly though. Any thread that went off on a tangent like that and required a high percentage of deletions would be the same.

Re thunderclap; I'll PM you some info if you like? It's easy enough to do and it seems to be effective. Mostly because MPs tend to value their reputation, I suppose, but a win is a win! At least you should then get a reply and be able to open a dialogue.

Anchor - that's a nice offer so I'd be grateful - I don't want to play the 'why don't you...yes but ' game so - there must be strategies I haven't tried

Op i agree with you completely. What you called people on your last thread was vile and i reported, just as i would if someone used disgusting terms about disabled people.

You used a horrendous phrase

You know, I really think this is an overstatement. It wasn't "horrendous" - it was obviously an extreme activist's response to centuries of abusive treatment and naming, and seeing those with disabilities as less than human.

I don't like the ease with which some people use the phrase "Check your privilege" but I do think this is a case in which those of us who are offended by that phrase might want to reflect on the daily privilege of not living with a disability.

And the examples the OP gives of small incidents in her daily life give a moving description of what that lack of privilege means.

On a practical level, I wonder whether it would be possible to create a name and shame website, where you post pictures of the car which has parked in the wrong space, and location pictures. And to then seek support from MPs and Councils to recognise it and issue extremely heavy fines on the basis of it. You would need to somehow verify location, but apart from that, given that it would take a huge effort to fake a pic, it would be fairly robust.

Or a hotline to a roving traffic warden...

I had a blue badge until recently - I don't have a car now; I'm not allowed to drive

The Blue Badge is for you personally - you could still have a Blue Badge which you could use if you were getting a taxi/lift.

And are able-bodied people really offended by being called TABs? which stands for "Temporarily Able Bodied"? It's a true description of most of us, I should have thought. I know from having had a temporary disability (only 18 months, thank goodness) just how true that acronym is, and howe easily able-bodiedness can be converted to disability.

Vile? Horrendous?

Most terms are offensive because they are pejorative. Saying someone walks and talks isn't even pejorative. So can't be complained to terms like the r word.

I agree with you that BB spaces should only be used for BB holders, however, the whole thing around BB can cause so many problems.

Obviously the main problem is that they are abused by non BB holders using them, but other problems seem to be BB holders being verbally abused by others (unfortunately this seems to made by BB holders from the older generation) mainly for 'Not looking disabled' and 'Too young to be disabled'.
My own personal issue that I have is that I have a very tall, strong daughter who suffers from severe autism (2 year old in a 16 year olds body). My dd has zero road sense and suffers from severe knee pain when walking, although she qualifies for higher rate mobility PIP she does not qualify for a BB, where do I park? Too old for a parent and child space but need to be a close as possible to where we are going.

Sorry for my mini rant

I didn't know that about higher mobility PIP not getting a BB, I thought it was the same as DLA. Have you tried appealing it?

Sounds like she should definitely have one.

I commented on your first thread, quite early on I think, as I didn't see anything like a bun fight.
I sincerely apologise if I caused anyone any offence or upset. I did think I'd written sympathetic posts, but I also agreed that it wasn't fair to label all non disabled people as you did, in the manner you did. I also appreciate you were angry and had had a shit morning.
I am truly sorry that you have to put up with this kind of behaviour, on such a regular basis. I cannot understand how hard it must be.
Sorry, again.