EU puts mobility scooters in the fast lane

I would never have imagined bracketing the people who drive mobility scooters with Lewis Hamilton.

But the European Union, having just disengaged itself from the long-standing "wonky" vegetables pickle, is about to immerse itself into a far more serious one concerning the mobility scooters that disabled people ride.

The EU has taken advice from the World Customs Organization that these mobility aids should be taxed at the same rate as Formula 1 cars. Such a move would add 10% to the price of the scooters.

The dodgy rationale is that non-disabled people can use the scooters.

As it happens, non-disabled people can also use wheelchairs, if we so wish, but it is perhaps better not to tell that to the World Customs Organization.

In any case, I don't know of any disabled people on the Formula One circuit. So where is the comparison?

Professor Stephen Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, has joined the fight against the levy, describing it a "disgrace" and the scooters as a "life line" for those who would otherwise be "locked out further from the world around us".

The US has already rejected the World Customs Organization's flawed logic and is refusing to administer the levy. Now the EU must take the wonky vegetables option route and leave these proposals up on bricks in the pit stop.

Outside Left, 1st July 2009