The BBC were caught out by the Uber story as 40,000 drivers were put out of work at the stroke of a pen and a highly successful and ‘popular’ company was potentially put out of business in London at the whim of the Mayor, Sadiq Khan…TFL would never have done this without Khan signing it off, this being such a huge and consequential attack on a private company of such significance.
Khan is a Labour Mayor and undoubtedly did this to assuage Labour’s Union paymasters who have long campaigned against Uber….it must be seen as just another prong in the Labour attack on capitalism and Big Business.
As with Grenfell where Khan was practically invisible despite the London Mayor being ultimately responsible and the person who should be responding in a major way to help the local council, the BBC have not put Khan in the frame for the Uber attack and were pretty much onside yesterday about the decision noting on 5 Live that there is ‘a growing reality that rapes are on the increase’ …linking it to Uber.
Trouble is mini cabs have long been associated with sexual assaults and even Black Cab drivers have been caught carrying them out…so why does Khan and Co single out Uber? Political? You’d never guess from the BBC reports.
Who is really to blame…TFL for not regulating and issuing licences properly?….
A separate FOI revealed that in 2014/2015, a staggering 141 drivers were named as suspects in sex offences.
These included 31 in cases of rape, and 110 for other sexual assaults.
The figures relate to a wide range of vehicles, including legally booked and illegal minicabs, rickshaws, chauffer driven cars, and black cabs.
Angela Clarkson, 62, is secretary of the United Cabbies Group, the second largest taxi organisation in London.
Ms Clarkson, who has been a black cab driver for 30 years and lives in Chislehurst, has worked with organisations including the Suzy Lamplugh Trust in a bid to increase women’s safety when travelling in cabs.
She told the Standard: “These figures are absolutely appalling, the blame lies squarely at TfL’s door.
“For every hour that TfL’s offices were open at one point they were handing out one licence every three minutes and 40 seconds – it’s impossible to do the checks and balances.”
London black cab driver jailed for sex attacks on sleeping women
Cab driver John Worboys jailed for rape and sex attacks
London cab driver John Worboys given indeterminate jail sentence after being found guilty of 19 charges of drugging and sexually assaulting 12 women.
The judge said: “Drivers of licensed black cabs in London have a worldwide reputation not only for the reliability of their driving but for their professional trustworthiness. As somebody with an enduring and powerful interest in sexual matters you saw an opportunity through cab driving.
From my own experience, black cabs in London are hugely expensive and uncomfortable, vibrating, rattling vehicles. The locks are constantly banging in and out as the cab stops and starts and the drivers stop at every possible traffic light to increase the fare. I once noted it cost £8.00 to cross one set of lights in London and £7.00 just to get onto the road from the rank at Liverpool Street Station.
Is there any difference between the “demographic” of Uber drivers and minicab drivers ?
No difference in the demographic, but I do happen to notice that a certain group happens to be represented by the GMB – some sort of union I think.
I wonder how this is going down in Caliph Khan’s mosque?
Hail the ‘new’ minicabs from now on.
Citizen Khan has now allowed all sorts of unlicensed cabs to roam the smelly streets of London, peering at pissed up young girls, and hopeless kids wanting to get home somehow.
What an idiot.
So much for an enquiring media !
So London Transport decides to strip Uber of its licence, and I can’t help but think whether there might be something which doesn’t smell right simply being ignored by all of the lying media which purportedly exists to tell us the truth.
There are an awful lot of ethnic Uber drivers, and the statement from LT claims that there is a problem with these drivers committing crimes, some of which have made the papers.
Secondly there are an awful lot of ethnic Taxi drivers in London (and the rest of the country) who stand to gain by this, and yet no one is asking if there was any motivation of a corrupt nature behind this move. The media appear to have concentrated on the white cabbies ignoring the rest.
There have been tales of London licenced Uber drivers picking up fares as far away as Leeds, but again there’s nothing about the ethnicity which as far as I’m concerned is highly relevant.
All in all this is a story which has more than a whiff of something wrong, and a media doing its collective best to turn a blind eye. “Watch the wall my darling while the gentlemen go by”.
40,000 drivers out of work ? um, where did they come from in the first place eh ? and what did they do before then ? All who were interviewed were of ethnic origin from who knows where, so haven’t got an ounce of sympathy for them, sorry. There might be complaints about the price of the black cab, but its been made even worse now because of the congestion caused by these extra 40,000 cars in the centre of London – hardly rocket science is it.
The whole thing stinks of politics, ‘ethnicity’ and a certain ‘religion’.
Expect more of this as the demographics change in our wonderfully diverse mongrel country, with our dodgy mayor and wannabe Prime Minister.
England is more and more like the dystopia in Blade Runner or Total Recall, complete with freaks like the 3-breasted prostitute.
We’ve had it, whatever happens.
Ah, yes the “future,” I remember it well!
Back in 1982 the future predicted by Blade Runner, with its over-populated, acid rain-soaked and perpetually night L.A. of 2019, was thought nightmarish. All things considered, I think I might have preferred that vision to our present reality – at least the streets in that film were only crowded with Chinese and Hare Krishnas. And there were those cool flying cars. . . mind you, followers of a certain faith could do a lot of damage driving one of those!
As a person from the far North (Cumbria) who has never travelled in a London cab, what baffles me is that I would have thought the majority of Uer drivers would be Muslims like Khan, so what is he playing at?
By the way, in August I got a yellow taxi from JFK airport to Manhattan and the driver was a Pakistani immigrant and he was ranting about Uber taking over NYC.
Uber drivers are not all Muslims .As a non driving Londoner ,I have used Uber many times .Its great and broke up the London black cab cartel.They had a monopoly and hiked up their prices it was becoming a joke and driving away tourists .You never see a poor black cab driver.
Khan is going to regret it because over 3 million Londoners use Über regularly and Khan has shown how Unions control things for their members at the expense of the rest of us. .socialism is for the well off.Its only the rich and people with expense accounts like Khan who can afford black cabs .
I think realisation has set in because various Labour bods are trying to defend the decision on grounds of safety ,but that is a total red herring .
I hope they go to court ,win and wipe the floor with Khan and the transport unions .For those who want a Corbyn PM ,expect more of the same once the unions are in Downing Street.
I like the Black cab drivers . They gave free rides to the old folk going to the Bomber Command commemoration.
Their rates are set by the authorities. Maybe that needs looking into .
The Mail is reporting that The Emirs campaign was largely funded by the taxi drivers union the GMB which donated £30K.
TfL also has two veteran trade unionists on its board:
“Kay Carberry is a life-long trade union figure who has held various posts in the Trades Union Congress and was the Assistant General Secretary 2003-2016. Her son Joe is the godson of Lord Mandelson.
Another member, Bronwen Handyside, has been active in London’s trade union movement for more than 30 years. She is vice-chair of Unite and is also chair of Unite’s London Area Activist committee. On her biography on the TfL website it mentions how has always used public transport in the capital.”
Odd though that despite the rising outcry the BBC can’t even bring itself to report the calls of the people, concentrating on the re-election of comrade Merkel, and Andy Burnham’s call for Labour to be less London centric