New tougher MOTs.

[Vir Campestris]

Not always. MS, for example, comes in waves.

Whether they should be entitled to a blue badge when fit is another question...

Andy

[NY]

I'm sure most disabled people would love to be able to throw away their blue badge and be able to walk again.

You could rely on people's honesty: that people whose disability comes in waves will only use their blue badge on a bad day. I wonder what proportion of people would be that honest, and what proportion would abuse it.

I remember giving a lift to a guy with brittle bone disease who is entitled to a blue badge. We needed to park somewhere so he directed me to a disabled space and displayed his blue badge in my car windscreen. As soon as I got out of the car to get my friend's wheelchair out of the boot, a traffic warden pounced on me and said "you're not disabled". It gave me great pleasure to be able to point to the wheelchair and to my friend, and say "No, but *he* is". With very bad grace, the traffic warden mumbled an apology and walked away, looking as if I'd offended her.

For the record, my friend says he usually tries to not to park where it's otherwise illegal (double yellow lines etc), and only uses disabled spaces for the extra width to get his wheelchair alongside the car: he still pays the normal fee even though he's entitled to a discount.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's rather funny the way so many complain of disabled parking spaces in a supermarket car park not being fully used. Or the possibility of someone using one who perhaps doesn't really need it 100%.

Even at my vast age, I park at the far end of the carpark to leave the spaces near the entrance free for those youngsters who have seems to have problems walking a few hundred yards. And like to fight over the closest space. Perhaps they drive the short distance to the gym too.