Few events in recent history have illustrated the supine, defeated state of the Irish public as comprehensively as the introduction of wheel clamping in Dublin. The public response to this outrage has been characterised by casual submissiveness and an almost sado-masochistic fascination with the clamping device itself.
Those who operate this monstrous insult to public liberty have been informing us, courtesy of the media, that the public's response has been "generally very good". Most people have been understanding, we are told, of the necessity to "free up" the capital's traffic system. Those who have fallen victim to this appalling abuse of their rights have been philosophical, and have taken their medicine with polite resignation.
Judging from the almost total absence of protest at this outrage, it is possible to believe that, if the authorities should decree that illegal parking be punishable by the administration of 50 lashes on the spot, the car drivers of Dublin would be queuing up with their trousers down.
A leaflet distributed to Dublin households by Dublin Corporation, as part of its highly successful public relations campaign to justify the importation of this outrageous practice, describes wheel-clamping as a "traffic-management measure" and claims that "illegal parking restricts traffic movement and causes congestion". But the introduction of wheel clamping in Dublin has nothing at all - repeat, nothing at all - to do with easing traffic congestion.
It has to do, and only to do, with extracting even more money from motorists, who already pay through the nose, ears, eyes and virtually every other bodily orifice for the privilege, or crime, of owning a car. Illegally-parked cars which restrict traffic movement and cause congestion are not the kind of illegally-parked cars which are being clamped.
If traffic congestion is to be avoided, such vehicles have to be towed away. To clamp them where they stand would be absurd. Wheel-clamping, therefore, is not a "traffic-management measure"; it is a form of extortion. The reason there has been no public outcry against this barbarism is because car-owners have been browbeaten into believing they are a class of neo-criminals who poison the atmosphere, endanger public safety and block the roads. That they have been persuaded to believe this, while simultaneously being forced to pay for these selfsame roads, is an awesome feat of indoctrination. Car drivers, especially those who drive in the capital city, have now no expectations other than to be treated as criminals. And the people who have thus reduced their expectations are the same people who, for several decades now, have refused to provide Dublin with any alternative to the private car. I agree with those who argue that the concept of an unrestricted entitlement to a private form of transport, individual to a single citizen, is rapidly approaching the status of absurdity. I agree that issues of traffic gridlock, pollution and public safety make the motor car difficult to defend. I would welcome the arrival of some alternative, which would make it unnecessary for me to spend up to 20 per cent of my income on keeping a car on the road. But, for the most part, there is no other way to get around.
Most of us attempt, where possible, to park legally, and to pay the appropriate tolls. But sometimes it is not possible to have the correct change for the parking meter or to be precise about coming back on time. There are some parking offences - blocking a bus lane or parking in a disabled parking bay - which clearly merit a stiff penalty.
But most so-called parking offences are minor matters of overstaying at meters or short-term stopping at loading bays. Now, it appears, those of us who fall short of perfect adherence to the letter of the law are to have our lives disrupted for several hours, while we pay an extortionate fee and wait to have our sole means of transport returned to us. What about people who have urgent business, deadlines or children to be collected from school? Dublin Corporation says: tough. But the most shocking aspect of this clamping business for those of us who believe in public transport is that, whenever we have put forward arguments about the need for investment in trains, buses and so forth, we have been ignored or shouted down by the same authorities which now add insult to injury by shackling the wheels of the cars we have been forced to invest in.
Wheel-clamping, of course, like so much else of our public policy, is an idea imported from Britain - imitation being the most obvious talent of those who run our affairs. It would never, of course, occur to such people to look at the broader context in which such ideas are implemented in more civilised societies, or to steal also the ideas which make wheel-clamping in, say, London, relatively justifiable.
There is virtually no place in London more than 10 minutes walk from an underground system which renders any area of a vast metropolis reachable within an hour. Even the London Underground Northern Line, which Londoners regard as massively inefficient and unreliable, is three times as user-friendly as the DART - the most efficient transport system in Dublin.
If an Englishman's home is his castle, an Irishman's car is his chariot, his indispensable ally in moving about this benighted land. The very same authorities which have recently introduced wheel-clamping have for decades stonewalled attempts to progress with any form of underground or light rail system for Dublin.
The same people who have wined and dined and winked and nodded with lobbyists for the road and motor industries now lecture us about our dependency on the motor car. Visitors to our capital city stare at me in disbelief when I tell them there is no rail link between Dublin city centre and Dublin airport, a neglect which has led to half of north Dublin being turned into a car park and made the process of parking a car at the airport more time-consuming than the air journey between Dublin and London. All motorists ask for is an even break. The previous system of parking tickets was at least redeemed by elements of humanity. Traffic wardens were often vaguely human. Moreover, they had systems that could be cracked. Once you figured out how a particular beat operated, it was possible to lengthen the odds on obtaining a penalty by various stratagems which are now, sadly, obsolete.
Sometimes you won and sometimes you lost, but generally the system was fair, reasonable and flexible. Now, the stakes are too high and there is little prospect of escape. The clamping system is inhuman not merely in its consequences, but also in its demeanour and in its imperviousness to human intervention. What has always been a blood sport is now akin to hare coursing. Wheel-clamping of cars in Dublin is without any moral justification and should be resisted by all possible lawful means.