Luciano Busuttil rings back – claims his wife is disabled but that her disability doesn’t prevent her wearing five-inch heels

I sent Luciano Busuttil a message asking him to return my call on the matter of this post. He has just done so, having read the post already, including the bit where I wrote that he hit the call-reject button when I rang.

I will reproduce our telephone conversation as best I can, because I have been rendered almost speechless at the abusive nerve of these people.

LB: “I’m sorry I didn’t answer your call, but bhalissa qieghed naqra busy.”

Me: “Thank you for returning it anyway. It’s about your and your wife’s use of disabled parking badges on your cars.”

LB: “Yes, yes, yes, very easy to explain. My wife has a disabled parking sticker.”

Me: “But she isn’t disabled.”

LB: “Stenna, stenna, let me explain. In May 2013 she had a bad traffic accident and was in a wheelchair for a while. Some of her injuries were permanent. She got a disabled parking sticker in 2013 for two years, and in 2015 it was renewed for another two years.”

Me: “What is her disability? The sort of disability that allows her to spend all day in five-inch heels?”

LB: “Dak m’ghandhux jaqsam. She can wear high heels but she can’t walk.”

Me: “Maybe if she didn’t wear five-inch heels she would be able to walk.”

LB: “She can walk. She just can’t walk long distances.”

Me: “So she can’t walk from a normal parking space to the shops or from the Smart City car park to her office, but then she can spend hours at parties and receptions, standing in pointed shoes with high heels?”

LB: “She can’t stand for a long time. She doesn’t come with me to parties.”

Me: “Maybe she goes to parties with Mark Abela instead. Why do you use her disabled parking badge on your car, and park in disabled parking slots when you’re driving your own car?”

LB: “That’s because she’s with me in the car.”

Me: “What a lousy excuse. That badge is for disabled people driving their own car, or for people too disabled to be dropped off by others at their destination or on the pavement. Why are you blocking a disabled parking space when you could easily deposit her at your destination, go off and park somewhere civilised, and walk back to meet her? You’re not disabled. For example – that anecdote and photo I’ve just uploaded, saying that you parked in the disabled parking spot near Arkadia in Gozo when you had a whole bunch of passengers. Why didn’t you drop your wife off at Arkadia with the other people and go off and park in a normal space, instead of blocking a disabled parking bay that a person who is actually disabled might need to use?”

LB: “It’s because she can’t stand and wait for me.”

Me (resisting the urge to suggest that she buys a pair of sneakers): “You’re joking, right. By that same token, my elderly parents should be using a disabled parking sticker, like many other people’s, so that my father doesn’t have to drop my mother off, go off and park, and then walk back to meet her. But they’re not going to apply for one because they’re not going to block a disabled parking bay when there are wheelchair-bound people driving their own cars. Who are you kidding? It’s not as though people don’t see Mrs Busuttil running around looking anything but disabled. You got that disabled badge abusively because you got it in 2013, and it was renewed abusively because nobody wants to say no to a member of the Labour power brigade.”

LB: “Dak int qed tghidu ghax mohhok fl-abbuz tal-poter. Mhux hekk ktibt, abuse of power?”

Me: “Yes, I think you are totally abusive of your position, as it happens. It’s completely disgusting.”

LB: “I have to go now because I am at a meeting about the presidency.”

Me: “Gosh, you’re very important.”

LB: “Yes, it’s very important.”

Me: “No, I said, you’re very important. And apparently, also disabled.”

He rings off. So now we know: Dorothy Busuttil, who shows absolutely no signs of physical impairment and is never seen without what are known in the business as tart’s trotters, is classified as disabled and has used a disabled parking sticker for the last four years, as has her husband Luciano, blocking disabled parking bays with a bogan disregard for others. Taghna Lkoll.

Dorothy, the disabled woman who has had a disabled parking badge for the last four years, which both she and her husband use. The disability which ‘prevents her walking’ does not prevent her walking in skyscraper heels. This picture was taken in May 2014 (the European Parliament elections) when she had been using a disabled badge for a year already.

Dorothy Busuttil’s car parked yet again in a disabled parking bay.