Aspirations and laws
From Dr Eamonn Butler
Sir: Rod Liddle ('Crippling burden', 21 June) makes good points on the Disabled Persons Act, but he underplays the essential hypocrisy of it. Like other governors of my local state school, I'm keen to make it accessible to all. But I started to turn white when we contemplated the costs of restructuring our 30-year-old building to meet the Act's requirements. Not just wheelchair ramps and lifts: we'd be replacing the doors and even the wall telephones and litter bins that blind people might walk into.
I ventured that it might be cheaper simply to dynamite the place and rebuild it. But then we were told — and there's an army of surveyors making big bucks out of this — not to worry. As long as we could show that we were 'making progress', then nobody would prosecute us. In other words, this isn't a law. It is (in New Labour language) merely an 'aspiration'.
The trouble is, some people will get prosecuted and some won't, and such arbitrary enforcement undermines respect for the law. Perhaps it's better for aspirations to remain in party manifestos, and off the statute books.
Eamonn Butler Director, Adam Smith Institute, London SW1
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