Driver Confronts Illegally Parked Deputy Prime Minister
by Dave Reynolds, Inclusion Daily Express
July 27, 2001
This article is reproduced here under special arrangement with Inclusion
Daily Express Email News Service.
LONDON, ENGLAND--When Mark Bagley arrived at Mr. Chu's China Palace for
lunch earlier this week, he had trouble getting into a parking space
reserved for drivers with disabilities. A Jaguar limousine was parked with
two wheels in what is called the orange badge zone.
So Bagley, 41, wheeled into the restaurant and found that the culprit was
none other than Deputy Prime Minster John Prescott.
"I was very polite and said 'Sorry for disturbing your meal, Mr. Prescott,
but is that your Jaguar parked in the orange badge space?'," Bagley later
told the Mirror.
"He looked up, was equally polite and replied 'Yes it is'. I asked him if he
had an orange badge and that was when he said
'Would you like me to move it?' About a minute later, he got up and moved
the car."
"He was very co-operative but never apologized," Bagley said.
"This kind of thing happens every day to wheelchair users and it is so
annoying."
Douglas Campbell, of the Disabled Drivers' Association, was appalled. "It
defies belief that a minister of the crown could be so crass."
"I would not have been as polite as Mark Bagley," explained Campbell. "I'd
have blocked in Mr. Prescott's Jaguar, had my meal and let him know what he
feels like to be inconvenienced."
"Perhaps he should be strapped into a wheelchair for a day, get out and
about and see how difficult life can be."
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