Anyone see it? She said that UK has more mobility scooter users than any other European country… and went on to say something like ‘they are too fat to walk to the chip shop’.
Just exactly the sort of attitude that is so common these days. We are not only benefit scammers… but are now fat and lazy!
IF we do have more mobility scooter users, it’s probably because we have DLA which allows us to have a scooter using mobility payment… which of course will be ending for most people when they bring in PIP.
I’ve always liked her but that comment made my blood boil.
To be fair, I think the comment was directed at people using scooters for reason of laziness, rather than those in genuine need. That was my interpretation anyway.
A friend told me that he had recently read an article about able bodied people using mobility scooters because it was too hard to park in town centers. Is it any wonder that Joe Public is more sympathetic to me when I’m in my in my w/chair
I didnt see the programme but if she said what you have summed up then I am not offended. An off the cuff remark that could be interpreted a million ways (?!)
On a similar note-Michael MacIntyres sketch re blue badges had me in tears-really funny!
Sometimes we (thats anyone with any illness/disability-obvious or not) need to be aware of not taking everything personally-we live in a world where we are all unique, just like everyone else!
I for one would be lost without humour. When the day comes that I cant laugh at myself then I will stop laughing permanently. Those spouting the humour see it as just that, I am sure,with no direct intention of hurting anyone.
Sorry it has upset you-I am-but its just her opinion/flippant remark and I aint going to waste my precious energy in getting upset about it. I see it as she is ‘controlling’ your emotions-dont let her! You decide how you are going to feel/react. Am sure you could think of a more usefeul way to utilise the enrgy? Just trying to help you look at the situation from a different angle…
I didn’t see the programme but agree with much of what you’ve said Ellie. Someone in my support group (who did not have MS) was very offended by Lou and Andy in Little Britain which I found hilarious and felt a bit guilty for laughing, until that is I asked people on this site and found lots of others found Lou and Andy funny too. How man of us say “I want that one” to our family whilst being pushed in a wheelchair. I enjoyed teasing my daughter by saying this when we went to Spain a few years back.
I do agree however that the fact that there are so many scooters about shows that pensioners and the disabled are able to buy them - at the moment anyway. I don’t know where I would be without my scooter, well stuck in doors that’s for sure.
must admitt I took it the way she probably meant it to be taken,joking about people who are not ill and use a scooter,I sometimes think people look at mne,I am 50 years of age and look ok,(imo,lol),people dont know wots wrong with us,and maybe make wrong judgements,as people think all 50 year old are healthy
I’m 37 and I use a mobility scooter to walk my dog - if (when) I get a council house where I want it, I’ll be using the scooter much more often. I look fine when I’m sitting down and not trying to move - but my two walking sticks are visible in their holders on the back of the scooter, so people can usually work out that I do have mobility problems (there are those who are quite dense, but they probably shouldn’t be out on their own). TBH, I don’t particularly care what people think about me - I never have - I know that I have certain aids that I use for a reason - if people ask me, I will tell them.
I didn’t see the programme, but I don’t think that Ms Burke was targetting me with her comment, and I’m certainly not offended - in every aspect of our society, there will be those who abuse the system, it’s just life.
I had HIGNFY on my Virgin Box so I deliberately looked out for the joke. I really took it that it was a poke at those who are using scooters as a lazy way of getting around without having to pay to run a car rather than a go at the disabled. As some on this thread have said there have been a lot of stories recently about an increase in people buying scooters who do not have disabilities but want to avoid increased petrol prices.
I suppose that it is a 2012 version of a classic tabloid story about someone buying a scooter so they could ride home from the pub and not be breathalysed. You used to see that one a lot.
In America it is apparently quite common for people to use scooters rather than their cars to avoid short walks. When we were in Vegas last we saw a company that hired scooters out so that people could go up and down the strip or even just through their casinos and although many people using them had obvious medical issues lots didn’t. Some were obviously people with real but hidden disabilities but a lot, logically, must have been just adverse to walking.
And the name of the business? “Chubby Chariots” We loved it.
I have always had a real gallows humour and, fortunately, so does my husband. Our conversations when no one else is is listening would likely get us hanged, drawn and quartered by some of the people on here! We laugh about when I will need a “Chubby Chariot” or my husband says that I will be called “Davros” if I need a powered wheelchair (one for the Dr Who fans there). I won’t dare tell you what he calls my Blue Badge. Does that mean that we are being abusive about the disabled? Or does it mean that, even though I am becoming increasingly disabled, that I have lost the ability to laugh at myself or my situation?
MS may be turning my brain into Swiss cheese but it hasn’t taken my personality yet, I hope!
I deal with it by taking the micheal out of myself, before anyone else can,my daughter hates me using my scooter,because she says i look like madge from ‘benidorm’ i think its funny because i think i do too (only 20 years younger)
most of the time i dont bother about peoples remarks,but now and then it can get to me,depends on how bad i feel on the day.
l thought Kathy Burke was brilliant on HIGNFY - so good to see her again - as she works ‘behind the scenes’ directing now. l don’t think we are quite as bad as USA - where hugely obese people do use scooter/golf buggies to haul their great weight around. [See them on the Walmart Videos some are so fat that the scooter seat disappears up their ar*es ] One day l went to see a friend who worked in a solicitors - l used a shopmobility scooter to get to her office. Her boss looked out of the window to speak and made a joke about me being too slim to use a scooter. When l looked around me at the other shoppers l understood his remark. l too make fun of myself - with the ‘l want that one’ joke. lt does us good to laugh at ourselves. Laugh - and the world laughs with you
Hi Pat, I didnt see the programme, but would have been as irate as you, with her ignorant comment. She should try living like us for a day, then shed change her mind. She`s hardly stick like is she? GGrrr!
I did see the program and found the whole thing very funny. Sorry I know its easy to be offended and I get sick and tired of comments about my stick but we all need to have a laugh sometimes even if it is at ourselves.