On 18 Doughty Street last night we showed a ten minute film about how Ken Livingstone is forcing London cabbies out of business. He is making every cab fit a piece of technology which is supposed to reduce exhaust emissions. Not a bad thing in theory, but the technology doesn't work. It doesn't reduce emissions, it actually increases them! Newer cabs have it fitted as standard but older cabs have to have it fitted retrospectively at a cost of £2500. The cabbies are issuing legal challenges but Livingstone won't talk to them and still maintains the technology works despite all the evidence to the contrary. He says it works if they travel at a constant 40 mph. With his experience of travelling in cabs, you'd have thought he would know that travelling at 40 mph isn't really possible in London, and even if it were, you'd get a ticket through a speed camera.
Anyway, watch the film and make up your own mind.
26 comments:
Anything to kill off the independent businessman.
The wheels are coming off the environmental bandwagon!
I'm no fan of Milliband but this is a little harsh.
- work friendly but a bit vicious.
Yes, we know about this situation only too well in Vienna, when a socialist mayor makes technical decisions about which he knows nothing about. We had an overall speed limit of 40MPH enforced on Vienna's roads to "reduce the problem of fine dust" emitted from vehicles. The idiot mayor wouldn't be told by all the transport experts that modern engines are not efficient at that speed and just to support his own idiot theory, sought help from the Greens to justify it. Within weeks he was forced to review the law when massive traffic jams were caused and more pollution than ever was measured. Now 40% of the roads have been returned to sensible limits and the rest will follow shortly. Red Ken is of the same ilk and someone should ask the experts about properly testing this filter (whatever it is!) to establish how it is supposed to work and why it doesn't. Then I suppose one should look to see just who is the manufacturer and whether there are any connections.......
Yes, well he has form when it comes to taxi drivers. The London Public Carriage Office under his direction took the taxi licenses away from all drivers with insulin dependent diabetes - a move that was ridiculous and discriminatory esepcially when you will find insulin dependent diabetics in all the emergency services. He needlessly took the livliehoods away from countless drivers - they were perfectly willing to have annual health checks. Two years of lobbying by Diabetes UK and threats of lawsuits under the Disability Discrimination Act finally forced him to change tack and give the cabbies back their licenses.
Somebody has got to put the brakes on his meglamania.
This is just what you would expect from the London Dictator. In time most Londers that have voted for him will regret it.
This is irrational in a public law sense and surely will be overturned in the High Court.
Its also a classic example of not only arrogance but also the worse sort of way to get people to go green, as anyone unlucky enough to drive in London will tell Commissar Ken. The average speed is 3-5 mph in London and has been for donkey's.
Of course its laudable to encourage people to go green. But it should be done through incentives. So reduce the tax burden on the new greener cabs or give them a benefit which isn't extended to the old. Mind you the Tories have shot themselves in the foot here. Dave's green taxes on air flights being a case in point. People are not going to stop flying. So we need to encourage airlines to use cleaner planes. Which is better lower landing charges etc for greener planes or another tax on Joe Public? You don't need to fly to the Artic Circle/Venezuela and hug a husky/demagogue to work that one out.
I fully support teh cabbies' campaign against this piece of chicanery - an example of ken following good intentions out of the window. Perhaps teh legal challenge will make him see sense.
Meanwhile, can anyone explain why taxis are exempt from teh Congestion Charge? After all, they spend all day driving round London, with either just the driver or one passenger on board. The fares - regulated by TfL - are now so exhorbitant that I wouldn't have thought they'd notice £8 a day. On the basis of 15000 cabs working an average 240-day year this would raise in the region of £29m a year which could be spent on improvements to the Tube and other forms of public transport. After all that's what the C-Charge is there for - to raise revenue. Isn't it??
Most "environmental" legislation is not about doing anything but about being seen to be trying to be seen to be trying to do something, by regulating us into the Middle Ages.
The current PC enthusiasm for greenery will come to be seen as more destructive than the 17th C enthusiasm for burning witches
I'm guessing there is more to this story than the piece shows. All new cabs do not have a load of smoke coming out of the back of them, so there clearly isn't the same problem with them as the ones been fitted retrospectively? As for the old geezer starting up and 18 year old cab and saying there was no pollution coming out of it... come-on! Yes, there obviously seem to be some problems, but i doubt it is quite as clear cut as you make out. A completely one sided piece?
London Cabbies are the salt of the earth. Only a twerp like Livingston could well and truly take up such a Stupid stance. Oh one exception Blair, brown. milli bond, Blears, blunkett. Got to be something with the letter B.
would Ken Barmy Livingston be more fitting!
This blog is becoming a bit Londoncentric.
There's life outside London you know!
Call me cynical, but I really don't think london cabbies will be driven out of business by a piece of tax deductable kit.
Seems to me that there is a clear cut legal challenge on several fronts here, not least of which would be that Livingstone's diktat is in unreasonable restraint of trade. Just goes to show why it is so very very important to London to get the power mad twerp out of office and onto the scrap heap with the other dogmatic socialist tyrants where he belongs.
Wonderful, Dave will save the Cabbies, then make them fit a windmill to their cabs, that'll stop their emissions
sorry, but the film doesn't explain the change to the taxis actually is, or does ? I am sure Ken wouldn't have wanted to increase the smoke in this way, so I am concerned that there is some smoke between us and the truth of the argument.
Please explain WHAT the change is, as we can't make our minds up from this film. If you were fair, balanced and impartial journalists, fine; but you have had a 'kick Ken' campaign before. Not to put too fine a point on it, I don't trust you to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
And I certainly don't trust taxi drivers in London not to have an angle when their monopoly money making scheme is involved.
Lady Finchley said "Somebody has got to put the brakes on his megalomania".
Nobody does LF. Hitler's rise to power was met with indifference as well. Look, I'm not putting Red Ken in the same league as the former German Chancellor but both he(Ken)is in the same camp as the other megalomaniac in number 10.
Another Wizard Wheeze from Ken's Kronies.
Next, take a good look at the schemes for 'cooling' the Tube and buses.
There's bundles of cash in this game. No sense, just cash.
And when all the cabs have gone, there's always the Tube.
From london.fridaycities.com
THE TEN LONDON TRANSPORT COMMANDMENTS
1) Thou shalt walk whenever possible, but always from Charing Cross to Embankment.
2) Thou shalt have thine Oyster Card in thine hand when thou reachest the ticket barriers, and not stand there, rummaging through thine bag for five minutes, like a tool.
3) Thou shalt not consume fragrant foodstuffs or alcohol, unless thou art a vagrant.
4) Thou shalt attend to personal hygiene. In particular, if thou hast been wassailing heartily the night before, thou shalt take special care to brush thine teeth in the morning.
5) Thou shalt talk quietly, or not at all, on thine mobile phone when on the bus – nobody else wants to hear who Emma did last night or how much Liam spent on his sodding shoes. Furthermore, thou shalt endeavour to stop those who wish to share their choice of music on loudspeaker, even though thou risketh being stabbed till thou art dead.
6) Thou shalt not whistle.
7) Thou shalt not press the “open” button on tube doors as this is the mark of the tourist.
8) Thou shalt not duck, dive or bomb. And though shalt most certainly not heavy pet.
9) If thou art not sure how to get off an escalator, or where to stand, thou shalt not get on it.
10) Thou shalt not wear darke glasses underground. Ye nobs.
Jeremy Jacobs: Surely you mean No.11 as well?
Iain,
In your capacity as London mayor-elect why don't you invite him along to No 18 for a quiet chat/debate on all this your sofas - along with a couple of London's finest taximeter cabriolet drivers?
.. on your sofas.. apols
2br... Truly a leader for our times has spoken !!! Step forward the REAL alternative to Ken.
This is a vucking brilliant platform on which to stand - better even than the number 10 platform at Paddington.
Forget Norris, Forget Mike Read - cometh the hour, cometh the man and the voice 2br-whatever-the-heck it is has spoken. Your mission has begun !!
The big improvement in emissions from cabs came from err... new engines. Modern diesel engines cut back massively on the particulates etc in the exhaust....
Nothing to do with Kenny.
The ratty old banger cabs you see about are generally not licesensed cabs, but re-cycled (ha!) minicabs...
40mph in London. That's as funny as the premise of the film Speed....
This mindless destruction of London cabbies' jobs and businesses demonstrates the need for a British Bill Of Rights to protect all of us against the arbitrary actions of politicians.
Until we have such a Bill becomes law, shouldn't the cabbies be able to claim protection of their businesses and livelihood under the The first protocol of article 1 of the dreaded Human Rights Act? This states:
"Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general principles of international law."
Auntie Flo'
David Whitlock:
Don't upset yourself, there's no way that Miliband can become a human sacrifice. He's an android.
He'll simply be carted off to that great recycling depot/ landfill tip in skye.
Auntie Flo'
Jowell's gone down the dog track
Gordon's playing bingo
Mili's on an android course
Learning human lingo
They don't care about us
Isn't it a sin?
what a crazy world we're living in
Blair's off on a freebie
Reid's doing his porridge
Miliband think's he's so grand
Yet he's stiff as Worzel Gummidge
They all want our power and cash
Isn't it a sin?
What a crazy world we're living
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