Melissa Kite Melissa Kite

Real Life | 18 July 2009

Badge of honour

issue 18 July 2009

One of my enduring preoccupations is that somehow, some day, I will figure out a way to ‘beat the system’.

Every now and then I get a little spurt of ‘system-beating’ activity when a particular injustice I am fighting — I have several dozen on the go at any one time — comes to a head. My efforts with one such issue reached fever pitch a few weeks ago when I had a flash of inspiration on the subject of my residential parking permit, which was up for renewal.

They put the price up from £60 to £130 and I was not going to take it lying down. Obviously, the most effective way to win this battle would be to convince the entire population of the London borough in which I live to join me in the mass civil disobedience of not renewing our permits together.

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