No surely not shock horror Tory vermin are crooks fekk me well i never would you believe it OMG how awful
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| CRONY CAPITALISM: London's taxi shame http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=21418 |
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| Author: | captain cab [ Tue Feb 26, 2013 3:16 pm ] |
| Post subject: | CRONY CAPITALISM: London's taxi shame |
CRONY CAPITALISM: Boris Johnson, Tim Yeo, conflicts of interest, ignored evidence, and utterly pointless London taxi regulations In 2010, consultations took place about a maximum age limit for London taxis. The main supposed motivation for having a maximum age involved the question of pollutants being emitted by older taxis. In fact, scientific testing showed conclusively that the new generation of London taxis were no better than the old ones: for that reason, the Department of Transport actually advised Local Authorities not to implement an Age Limit on Taxis on the basis of emissions. All evidence and objections on this basis were ignored by Mayor Boris Johnson, and the coming Age Limit for taxis was formally announced. During 2011, further scientifically valid arguments were raised with the Mayor. There were protests by owners of older taxis, but these too were ignored. In January 2012, the Age Limit for taxis was introduced, forcing hundreds of drivers out of work….but doing nothing to reduce pollution. bojothumbBy the passage of this rule, Tim Yeo’s company stands to benefit massively in terms of sales. Tim Yeo is a member of the Conservative Party. Boris Johnson (left) the London Mayor is also a member of the Conservative Party. When at Oxford, Johnson was a member of the infamous Bullingdon Club. Nick Hurd, Tim Yeo’s Chief of Staff while Shadow Minister, also went to Oxford. Nick Hurd was also a member of the Bullingdon Club. In 2005, Boris Johnson and Nick Hurd were founder members of the Conservative Green Chip Club. Tim Yeo was Minister for (nota bene) the Environment from 1992 to 1993 in the government of Prime Minister John Major, and then Shadow Minister in that role while in Opposition. Before the last election, Tim Yeo initiated a debate about lowering London taxi emissions, the positive outcome of which he knew would benefit his company ECV. When the improper involvement of his company in the Mayoral Age Limit consultation was exposed, Tim Yeo and the CEO of Eco City Vehicles Peter Da Costa resigned from the process. No action was taken against them. Asked whether there had been any involvement of ECV and Yeo in the decision making process for London, Boris Johnson wrote to Labour MP Andy Slaughter stating categorically that he had never discussed any of the proposals with Yeo, and that Eco City Vehicles ‘had absolutely no involvement in any way in the consultation process’. The Transport for London minutes appear to suggest that this was simply untrue: Peter Da Costa attended consultation meetings, and is quoted in the TFL minutes several times. Campaigners like ecologist Dave Davies have pressed for the Age Limit to be declared improper and unlawful given the flagrant ignoring of vital evidence. Davies appears to be on sound legal ground here: in a High Court Judicial Review brought by Newport Taxi Drivers, the Judge ruled that the consultation process had been improper there too, and thus the Age Limit that was being introduced was unlawful. Let’s not beat about the Shepherd’s Bush here: Tim Yeo had a massive conflict of interest while Shadow Environment Secretary, and a massive conflict of interest regarding the decision to introduce a London Taxi Age Limit rule. Boris Johnson rode roughshod over entirely reasonable, evidential objections to the taxi cab Age Limit (for which there is no scientific basis whatsoever) and those involved in it all bring with them the unpleasant whiff of crony capitalism. (See the Deliverance inbreeding traced above) In need of more evidence about double-dealing Timmy? Read on. Yeo sits as Chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, while at the same time being Chairman of ECV, a company proclaiming emission advantages that are illusory. He is also pro-fracking. Obviously a man of firm principles. Yeo’s time as Environmental Champion in the Major years was shortlived, as he was forced to resign after siring a love child with Conservative councillor, Julia Stent. Earlier, Yeo had said in a speech to Relate in his constituency, “It is in everyone’s interests to reduce broken families and the number of single parents.” Obviously a case of droit de seigneur, then: or crime passionelle. Or double standards. Or all of them. Well why not eh? We’re the élite, we’re worth it! Want more evidence about political cronyism? In a dramatic U-turn in August 2012, Mr Yeo switched sides on the UK airport debate, saying a decision on expanding airport capacity in the South East was needed urgently to maintain Britain’s competitiveness. This of course put him entirely on message with….London Mayor Boris Johnson, who’d just helped him drive a taxi through the City’s emission laws. But now let us turn to the aforementioned Dave Davies, a man batting for the right to breathe clean air. As he rightly points out, 4267 people a year are dying in London from pollution (the Mayors own statistic from his 2008 campaign). In the 4 ½ years that he has been in office, however, Mayor Johnson has, claims Davies, “implemented improper and failed emissions strategies which have seen no reduction in pollution.” Live, die, sword etc. However, here’s a few more problems Dave is having…with the media. He can’t seem to get the Mail (where Boris’s sister writes) or the Telegraph (where Boris writes) to pay any attention to his concerns. Just fancy that. More details of Mayoral jiggery-pokery as the day proceeds. Stay tuned. Footnote: Guido has covered bits of this in the past, and was instrumental in getting Yeo’s interest outed. source: http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2013/02/25/ ... /#comments |
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| Author: | trotskys twin [ Tue Feb 26, 2013 3:32 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: CRONY CAPITALISM: London's taxi shame |
No surely not shock horror Tory vermin are crooks fekk me well i never would you believe it OMG how awful
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| Author: | Sussex [ Tue Feb 26, 2013 8:30 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: CRONY CAPITALISM: London's taxi shame |
captain cab wrote: In January 2012, the Age Limit for taxis was introduced, forcing hundreds of drivers out of work….but doing nothing to reduce pollution. Really? 
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| Author: | GBC [ Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: CRONY CAPITALISM: London's taxi shame |
Try phoning round to rent a cab for this coming weekend / next week etc, let me know how you get on! There's a shortage, no LTI sales for months, and a £42k Vito as the alternative. If you're a part timer in the smoke, life ain't easy at the moment. |
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| Author: | GBC [ Tue Feb 26, 2013 11:04 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: CRONY CAPITALISM: London's taxi shame |
trotskys twin wrote: No surely not shock horror Tory vermin are crooks fekk me well i never would you believe it OMG how awful Didn't you know that? I'm surprised! ! ! |
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| Author: | trotskys twin [ Wed Feb 27, 2013 10:41 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: CRONY CAPITALISM: London's taxi shame |
GBC wrote: trotskys twin wrote: No surely not shock horror Tory vermin are crooks fekk me well i never would you believe it OMG how awful Didn't you know that? I'm surprised! ! !  see the RMT IS doing you good COMRADE 
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| Author: | captain cab [ Wed Feb 27, 2013 11:08 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: CRONY CAPITALISM: London's taxi shame |
AFC Energy Tim Yeo – Non-executive Chairman Tim YeoTim Yeo has been MP for South Suffolk since 1983. He held various Ministerial posts under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, including Minister of State at the Department of the Environment. Between 1998 and 2005 he was a member of the Shadow Cabinet, shadowing a record seven different departments. Between 2005 and 2010 he was Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee and since 2010 he has been the chairman of the ECC Select Committee. Tim holds a number of non-executive directorships including Group Eurotunnel SA, TMO Renewables Ltd and Eco City Vehicles Plc. He was appointed chairman of AFC Energy in 2007 http://www.afcenergy.com/about/board-of-directors/ Tim Yeo: no headline can do him justice I've just gone and voted for Tim Yeo MP in Bogpaper.com's Slimeball of the Year competition. I hope you will too. The competition is stiff (Ed Balls, Keith Vaz, Lord Deben – truly, with his silver salver of golden-wrapped balls of suppurating ordure the ambassador is spoiling us) but for me the winner is still a no brainer. We've detailed one or two of the Problems With Tim "Trougher" Yeo here several times this year. Just Why Is Tory MP Tim Yeo So Passionate About Green Issues? Tim Yeo: like a cross between Ebola and Chris Huhne? (I was threatened with legal action after that one by the World Ebola Council, which argued I had no business sullying the name of a blameless disease with such dodgy associations) Tim Yeo MP – even when he's right he's wrong. and Tory sleaze is worse than ever: Yeo and Deben must go! Guido had a few good ones this year too. There was the one about Tim Yeo's China Bonanza. and the one about the highly beneficial deal he struck regarding London Taxi legislation which, even Yeo eventually seemed to recognise, might be seen as pushing his conflicts of interest a bit too far. Then there's this one (about fracking) and this one, where Guido spells it out once more: Conflicted Energy and Climate Change select committee chairman Tim Yeo is at it again today: “Lumbering the economy with a centralised power system largely reliant on gas would be like running an office using a fax machine in the age of the iPad. I think the choice facing Britain is clear. We can embrace the technology of the future, set a target to reduce our present heavy dependence on fossil fuels and upgrade our electricity system, or we can cling to the combustion-based technologies of the past, gamble the future on assumptions about the availability of abundant cheap gas and slow down the process of decarbonising our economy.” Tim Yeo’s green interests in full: Chairman of AFC Energy, company developing alkaline fuel cell technology. Wage: £4,340-a-month. Chairman of TMO Renewables, which develops and supplies technology for second generation biofuels. Wage: £5,832-a-month. Director of ITI Energy, manufacturer of environmentally friendly ‘clean’ gasification technology. My main worry about Tim Yeo, though, is that he is not merely routinely unpleasant but actively dangerous. Among the few to have noticed just how dangerous he is Richard North at Eureferendum, who notes the terrifying, eco-fascistic undertones of a speech Yeo gave recently at Bloomberg's HQ. Instead of "lumbering the UK economy with a centralised power system largely reliant on gas", Yeo wants, "super efficient solar cells, anaerobic digestion, wind power, new nuclear reactors, wave and tidal power and carbon capture and storage". These, he declares, are the technologies of the future. "Smart meters, new grid technology and increased interconnection across the continent will lead to a new 'energy internet'". What we then see for our money is, "decentralising electricity generation, giving consumers much more control of their use of energy, and empowering people and businesses, both large and small, to produce and sell electricity back to the grid themselves". But what Yeo then describes should chill the very marrow of your bones. "The dynamic demand management allowed by these new technological developments", he tells us, "will help to address the problem posed by increasing proportions of intermittent generation in the system; gradually reducing the amount of gas back up that is needed". If you can't see what the problem is here, let me explain. Up until now we have all lived in a world where we expect to enjoy electricity on demand. When we want a cup of tea, for example, we take it for granted that we can put on the kettle there and then. It would strike us as barmy beyond measure that we might have to wait for two or three hours until such time as the National Grid deemed it fit to provide us with the electricity we desired. Yet this is the principle behind those "smart meters" and "new grid technology" which Yeo is advocating. Yeo and his fellow green ideologues and eco-profiteers are trying to usher in a new world in which it is the State – through the National Grid – which decides when, where and how much electricity you get to use, not you the consumer. I first cottoned on to this when I was researching Watermelons: You hear "smart" employed in its new meaning quite often by environmental propagandists and technocrats these days, as for example, in an interview on BBC Radio 4 in March 2011 with Steve Holliday, chief executive of Britain's electricity connecting network the National Grid.“The grid is going to be a very different system in 2020, 2030. We keep thinking that we want it to be there and provide power when we need it. It is going to be much smarter than that. We are going to change our own behaviour and consume it when it is available and available cheaply.” Traditionally "smarter" has tended to mean positive things like "more intelligent", "better designed" , "sharper" or "quicker". But not in this context. "The time when consumers were free to use electricity whenever they wanted is coming to an end," Holliday is basically saying. "Now we must prepare ourselves for a new golden age of environmental righteousness, when power is rationed according to the whim of Big Brother." It's no surprise that self-confessed watermelons like Caroline Lucas MP should be four square behind such schemes. But what, you might not unreasonably ask, is a Tory MP doing trying to advance something so inimical to conservative principles as state-controlled energy rationing? This is eco-fascism, pure and simple. It's not about free markets; it's not about consumer choice; it's not about a healthy economy; and it's most definitely not about rationalism or common sense. Remember, we are about to enter a new era of abundant, relatively cheap, home-grown energy – the shale gas revolution. This revolution will make a mockery of all the assumptions behind so-called "smart growth" – ie that scarce resources need to be preserved, that we need "energy security", and that the only way we can achieve this is through "rationing" sexily rebranded as something desirable and "smart." At the moment "smart growth" is just an unpleasant twinkle in the eyes of a few (very well-placed) green ideologues. But just you watch as, with the help of eco-fascist-dominated government departments like DECC, hard-left lobbyists like Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, hairshirt anti-prosperity movements like Transition Towns and their amen corner on the Guardian's Environment pages, the concept slowly mutates from "What? Energy rationing by the government? We'd never stand for it" to linchpin of government energy policy. The single best thing the Conservatives could do in 2013 is boot Tim Yeo out of every position of power he holds and watch as he crosses the floor to his natural home: Caroline Lucas's barmy, misanthropic, anti-capitalist Greens. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/james ... m-justice/ |
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| Author: | trotskys twin [ Wed Feb 27, 2013 3:29 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: CRONY CAPITALISM: London's taxi shame |
Nice fellow lovely party
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