Now this one didn't get published
The Captains Column
People all over the city look to the roads in awe, and ask 'what is happening?'
The answer is simple, Captain Cab has returned
Health warning;
Reading this article you are going to read some politically incorrect views, such as the use of the term deregulation as opposed to delimitation. The writer wishes to point out that if your upset by the article you can go jump off the nearest cliff.
I recently phoned the Disability Rights Commission, after being passed around several times, I spoke to a nice chap who dealt with my query. At the end of the phone call he asked which ethnic minority I came from, I answered ‘Cumbrian is that a problem?’ Now I’m not one for playing the race card, I only wanted information, so why the hell did it matter to the DRC what ethnic group I came from? I was handled reasonable quickly, helpfully and to my satisfaction, so why the dumb ass question? Would he have been quicker with the query and more polite if I’d have been from an ethnic background? Of course not and I sincerely hope that the level of service given to me was the same no matter what the colour of my skin.
Take the recent and current debate about road charging. The liberal prats who wear horrible knitted jumpers and go to the Lake District on a weekend wearing cagoules, the same ones who got foxhunting stopped, think we should all pay by the mile on our roads. Some idiot even suggested it would end fuel tax.
Now as you know, I don’t like paying tax, but if you face facts here, fuel tax is about as good as we are going to get because everyone is charged by the litre (or gallon for you euro sceptics). We are getting taxed because presumably the fuel has to be used invariably in our engines to drive on the roads. The more miles you do, the more fuel you use, the more you pay in fuel duty. Which is exactly the same as road charging, but obviously less politically correct, of course if you drive a gas guzzler you pay more tax, but the chances are if you drive a car with a large engine, you can afford it.
Then the problems, you see if I don’t register my vehicle, like say, a gypsy currently residing in a lay by beside the A1 near Stamford or nutcase on a council estate, whom will the government send the bill to?
Of course, they will be able to send the bill to me, with a fixed abode, job and correctly licensed vehicle. Therefore the people who will pay are the law-abiding majority, we will invariably pay for the minority of people who will dodge the scheme by nook or crook.
I believe that the government have now reached a new low, and as is the way with the taxi trade, we will resolutely and politely grumble, then do sweet FA about it. I recently went to Spain, where they pay about 60p for a litre of derv. Now Spanish hospitals are probably better than ours, their roads are comparable and the standard of living seems decent, they even get more sun than us, yet the Spanish government don’t go around stealing their citizens money by stealth taxes, yet the cost of living and standard of living is cheaper and better than in this country.
The government seem to want to listen to every hair brained scheme out there that is deemed politically correct, be this wind-farms in the Lake District, congestion charging and whatever else the minority can come up with, unfortunately it’s the tax payer that has to pay for these ideas. The country is being led by the proverbials by a minority.
How many times have you been in a supermarket and saw some spoiled little brat being mollycoddled by some inept parent? The one thing the child needs is a cuff around the ear and told to behave, yet the do-gooders will have you sent for anger management if you even suggest such a thing. Of course the do-gooders don’t have kids being more interested in their careers than creating families.
When I was growing up the only places you could get alcohol were either in a pub or at an off license. Now you can buy it anywhere, and the government wonder why kids are hanging around the streets as [edited by admin] as newts! The same government have the idea that 24 hour drinking will solve the late night disorder issue, they want to see the land covered in French style café bars, where people will sit in the sun under an umbrella politely laughing and drinking wine. I just cant see this scheme working here, basically its sunny twice per year, otherwise its minus 5 and secondly the idea behind having alcohol is to get as drunk as possible to forget how good the government are at taking our money from us! You really do have to wonder if the people in power actually venture outside their air-conditioned offices.
Whilst on about p*ssed up people, these half-baked taxi Marshall schemes that were seemingly now expected to pay for. Can anyone explain to me why we have to pay for these Marshall’s? Last time I did a night-shift I didn’t notice any taxi driver selling the alcohol to the p*ssed up yobs making every-one's lives a misery. What’s needed is for the police to get the drunks and put them in drunk tanks, wake them up the next morning, put them in front of a judge and fine them heavily. It’ll sort it out overnight. Ahh, of course we’ll then get some idiot with a plum in his mouth telling us all how the human rights of the drunken yob have been abused. Naturally, the idiot with the plum in his mouth will come from an area where there are no drunken yobs!
Naturally whilst having a general whinge, I should carry forward to the OFT report of a couple of years ago. You see the OFT allegedly spent £250k on a report that was about as much use as a chocolate fireguard, rather than throw the report into the bin, like any sane person would, they actually applauded it. They fail to see that making everything hackney actually robs the consumer of the freedom of choice of vehicle and the freedom of choice in terms of prices charged. The price on a plate issue is irrelevant, and only relevant to those who have nothing to do but phone up local authorities and make enquiries, personally I see them as sad individuals who need locked up for every-one's sake.
There’s one local authority in North Wales, Rhyl. Who deregulated during January of last year, the idiot who cited deregulation stated the DFT letter of June 04 as proof that the government wanted deregulation. Which of course it doesn’t, it wants justification for a limit if you’re going to have a limit. So the misinformed LA delimited basically allowing anything that was private hire to become hackney carriage, again against the very best advice offered in the June 04 letter, who cited LA’s to consider WAV’s.
Then we have another example, an LA from down south, Basildon. They had been collecting money off the hackney trade to pay for a survey. They then decide to deregulate, no survey, no nothing. Now call me ‘Mr. Voice of Anger’, but what was the point in taking all that money from the trade if you were going to deregulate? Unless of course you’re of a suspicious mind and you would think that the money for a survey was a feint into making the trade believe it was safe.
In the cases of Rhyl and Basildon you have a person ultimately in charge whose opinion is that deregulation is the best possible thing for their area, naturally the person making this decision hasn’t got a clue about what its like owning a taxi, driving a taxi or running a taxi business. Indeed, they haven’t got a clue about knowing what its like running any business, sitting in an office guaranteed a weekly or monthly wage, they are paid for up-to six weeks holidays per year and are paid if they’re off work sick, whereas a taxi driver needs fares and brisk business to guarantee his or her wages, holiday pay is non existent and being on the sick equals no pay at all.
So what is my point here? Well, we seem to have people throughout the country sitting in positions of power where they can sway the judgement of councillors and they don’t have the first clue about the job or the consequences of their actions.
Are we operating a transport system here or playing a game. Can you imagine for one moment, a company like Tesco or Asda allowing someone with no qualifications or experience of supply and demand to manage and change the systems in place with how their stores are furnished with goods? I really don’t think so.
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