Good Riddance To Old Rubbish. Osborne to stand down as MP

What they think of the SubStandard at London Taxi Shelters

George Osbourne, the former chancellor, has said he is stepping down as an MP “for now” following his decision to take a job as editor of the Evening Standard and other lucrative roles outside the House of Commons.

Following 24 hours of speculation about his future, he told the Evening Standard he was quitting but hinted he may want to return to frontline politics in future. Fat chance there Georgie boy...

His decision to quit will be a relief for Theresa May, who sacked him as chancellor when she took over last July. Osborne had indicated he was prepared to fight against a hard Brexit taking the UK out of the single market from the backbenches.

He has been under pressure from some Conservative colleagues and the opposition to go since he was revealed as the surprise choice to edit the London newspaper. Labour raised concerns about the potential conflict of interest between his job as a Tory MP and publishing objective news coverage for readers.

Some of his constituents also opposed the idea of having a part-time MP who was editing a London newspaper and four other roles, which collectively made him the highest-earning member of the Commons. 

Since becoming a backbencher, Osborne declared new employment paying £650,000 a year for one day’s work a week for fund manager BlackRock. He has earned £800,000 for 15 speaking engagements in the last year, collects a £120,000 a year stipend from a US thinktank and has a book deal on top of the £75,000 MP’s salary. He will take up his editorship in mid-May.

Almost 200,000 people had signed a petition started by one of his constituents urging him to “pick a job”.

Osbourne can expect to be welcomed on his first day as editor of the Standard by a mass reception of London's Taxi drivers, called by the Independent Taxi Alliance.  

The ex-chancellor sold the London Taxi and Private hire industries down the river in favour of a NonDomicile company that pays no Tax or VAT and treats its workers like slaves. 

Osbourne and former Prime Minister Cameron put pressure on former Mayor Boris Johnson, which saw TfL change statutory legislation to allow licensing of this toxic company by TfL.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2pBzSgR
via IFTTT

Breaking News ... Another Rat Jumps From The Sinking Ship.

Uber's vice president of global vehicle programs leaves company

Uber Technologies said on Monday that its vice president of global vehicle programs, who played a role in the company's self-driving car program, has left the company.

Neither Uber nor the executive, Sherif Marakby, said why he was leaving. The former Ford Motor executive joined Uber just last April to help with its autonomous vehicle project in Pittsburgh.

"Self-driving is one of the most interesting challenges I've worked on in my career, and I'm grateful to have contributed to what will soon be a safer future for everyone," Marakby said in an emailed statement.

The departure is the latest of several high-profile exits from the ride-hailing company.

Uber has been rocked by a number of setbacks lately, including accusations of sexual harassment from a former female employee and a video showing Chief Executive Travis Kalanick harshly berating an Uber driver.

It has also been sued by Alphabet's Waymo unit for stealing some of its self-driving technology, an accusation Uber denies.

The company is seeking a chief operating officer to help Kalanick manage it, repair its tarnished image and improve its culture.

Separately, the privately held company made public some of its financials on Friday, revealing that it was generating more revenue but still making large losses.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2pw6QC5
via IFTTT

---1851, The Great Exhibition ---- 2017, The World Turned Upside Down? By I'm Spartacus

So let's cast our minds back to the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851, imagine the millennium dome (but successful) times ten with millions and millions of visitors, anyhow some (they are always with us!) unscrupulous operators took advantage of passengers and charged double or treble the usual fares.

Nowadays that chicanery is all done electronically by others!

Anyhow the authorities decided to introduce a fare chart which became the meter to mandate the fare based on the running costs and a fair return for the driver and the horse of course.

THE METER IS THERE TO PROTECT THE PASSENGER AND SECONDLY THE VIABILITY OF THE INDUSTRY.

Now as fools join the race to the bottom against others who subsidise fares as the rider only pays 41% of the true cost, why is this done, they're not a charity?

It is of course to exterminate the competition aided and abetted by morally (but not financially) bankrupt politicIans who favour offshore predators against the interests of their own citizens!

This is a scandal that should make any right thinking person sick to the pit of their stomach, let's hope those involved are shown for what they are, it's not about 'technology' it's about greed, tax avoidance and immorality, nothing new under the sun there!

Anyhow now we have so called supporters of the cab trade offering fixed fares below any kind of economic return, it can only end one way as we engage in a Dutch Auction, you can bet these 'supporters' won't have their income cut.

One Taxi Trade union has taken a stand and its members voted unanimously to boycott these fares, I urge you to do the same. 

Ask your org to set aside any shilling your organisation takes in advertising, it ain't worth it, don't act like the politicians we condemn please?

EITHER YOU DEFEND YOUR TRADE OR YOU BECOME A COMMODITY TO BE SOLD TO THE  LOWEST BIDDER.

          THE RACE TO THE BOTTOM 

Last week's C4 inspirational documentary of The Knowledge should remind us of what we have and what we have to defend.

STAND STRONG.

I'm Spartacus

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2pvgZiA
via IFTTT

Open Letter Calling For The Resignation Of TfL's Leon Daniels ... from Sean Paul Day.

Please treat this correspondence as a statement calling on the resignation of Mr. Leon Alistair Daniels (Managing Director, Surface Transport)

Mr. Daniels  wilfully facilitates a covert political agenda against the licensed taxi trade & Private Hire industry,  inflicting immeasurable harm. 

The policy, which has left the taxi trade in a place of excruciating incertitude for over four yeas has caused chronic economic and emotional damage- to many.  TfL has never collated data on the detrimental effects sustained  by tens of thousands of individuals as a result of policy direction

The  interminable haemorrhaging of PH licenses has decimated environmental and economic sustainability and embedded great uncertainty into a comparatively harmonious market. 

TfL is a weird and grotesquely unaccountable arrangement that has never questioned  investment (from institutes with gross human atrocity records) to fund an aggressive predatory pricing policy. 

A corporation only fixes prices artificially low to annihilate the opposition and with that I conclude, TfL cultured an environment for the taxi trade to become unviable. 

I am aggrieved that Mr. Leon Daniels is still in public office and/or sharing a Directors position on London Buses LTD. By remaining, Mr. Daniels ridged adherence to policy constitutes a dereliction of care to ensure public safety. TfL has never afforded due diligence on safety. 

To  disambiguate, I meet all statutory licensing regulations to work as a taxi driver and fulfil the criteria of a ‘fit and proper’ person. 

With this, I question the ability and efficacy of senior management at TPH to regulate with discernment  after inflicting on it such irreparable damage. 

If senior management at Transport for London believe this comment to be unjust or injurious to an employee or brand, then I invite Mr Mike Brown (Commissioner) or Peter Blake (Director Of Service Operations) to file a lawsuit against me. 

I conclude, the only solution to the dire situation (experienced across the whole of surface transport) to to fully dismantle TfL. Nothing has convinced me that TfL can take an objective stance and make decisions in the interest of the trade. 

TfL needs to disband at the earliest possible moment. But Mr. Daniels needs to go now. Malfeasance in public office is being committed. 

Sean Paul Day

Editorial Extra :

Statement From The ITA : 

Want to know who's side Mayor Khan is on, why not come along with the ITA and ask him.

May 18 at 10pm.

   

 

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2oQFbet
via IFTTT

ON TAXIAPP THE METER FARE DOES AND WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL.

Our 363 year old trade is at the most crucial juncture in its entire history.  Our mantra may well be 'BE LUCKY' but there are going to be choices on individual, as well as collective levels that cannot be left to luck or chance.

 

TAXIAPP was formed a year ago by working Taxi drivers who couldn't stand by and witness the trade’s struggles any longer.  'The Knowledge' and 'Meter', bedrocks of our industry have become endangered.

 

Every licensed Taxi driver embarked on the Knowledge and sacrificed plenty of years to attain self-employment and independence.  Only then were we able to ply for hire and work a meter.  A privilege accorded exclusively to proud recipients of Green and Yellow badges.

 

TAXIAPP have come to the opinion that it's time this trade, CIRCLED ITS WAGONS and started to fight back.  

 

At TAXIAPP we are opposing the competition, whether it is from within or out of the trade.  We don't do "If you can't beat them, join them" defeatism.

 

THE METER RULES 

 

TAXIAPP believes the meter is a great equaliser affording drivers and customers protection and transparency.  We also believe in not devaluing the professional World class service that we offer.  Only individual drivers at their discretion should consider 'fixed prices'.

 

ON TAXIAPP THE METER FARE DOES AND WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL.

 

NO COMMISSIONS ON TAXIAPP

WE have faith in our own technological structure and altruistic business model that can collectively insulate ourselves from the corporate inspired takeover of our industry.  Far off mercenary money men 'wrongly' think our trades’ future belongs to them.

 

Now, more than ever, we need to work cohesively together to ward off their aggressive drive to control 'OUR' work, and force us down to a one tier system. 

 

The corporates lobbyists, with government collusion and facilitation, have been pushing the American tech firm hard.  Even so, their mega budgets have been unable to polish that turd!

 

TAXIAPP represents the best our proud trade offers.  Safety, instantly recognisable, knowledgeable drivers.

 

Only by banding together can we protect ourselves from whatever the gig economy may throw at us.

 

WE HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES.  WE CANNOT AFFORD NOT TO.

 

GET YOUR FRIENDS TO JOIN US AND RECLAIM OUR WORK.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2pHt9RE
via IFTTT

Oh What A Tangled Web They Weave...It Just Gets Worse... By Jim Thomas

In criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime at some time in the future. Criminal law in some countries or for some conspiracies may require that at least one over act must also have been undertaken in furtherance of that agreement, to constitute an offense. 

There is no limit on the number participating in the conspiracy and, in most countries, no requirement that any steps have been taken to put the plan into effect (compare attempts which require proximity to the full offence). 

For the purposes of concurrence, the actus reus is a continuing one and parties may join the plot later and incur joint liability and conspiracy can be charged where the co-conspirators have been acquitted or cannot be traced. 

THE TRANSPORT FOR LONDON AND UBER CONNECTION.

 

Rules have been bent, relaxed and changed to smooth the way for Uber to be licensed. 

Lies were told by TfL directors, at transport committee investigations conducted by members of the Greater London Authority.

We've recently been informed by a nation newspaper that certain government members including a former Prime Minister and Chancellor leaned on former Mayor Boris Johnson, to "go easy on Uber".

We are now informed by the GBM that in June 2015, Transport for London move their £3.8bn pension fund in to the hands of Uber's biggest investor. 

Conflict of interests? 

Below is an article posted on Black Rocks website

Transport for London ("TfL") Pension Fund selects BlackRock for £3.8bn investment mandate

London – June 11, 2015 – TfL Pension Fund ('The Fund') has appointed BlackRock to manage liability-driven investing (LDI) and passive equity portfolios totaling £3.8bn assets.

The £1.6bn LDI mandate will include measures to protect the Fund from market uncertainties, including inflation as well as interest rate and equity volatility, whist having measured exposure to risk to achieve excess positive returns. The Fund's £2.2bn passive equity exposure will include investments across a range of index funds. The primary objective is for the Fund to hold sufficient assets to meet its member liabilities.

This new mandate follows an initial £100m commitment made by the Fund into the BlackRock Renewable Income in March 2014 - a UK-focused fund that invests in onshore wind, offshore wind and solar projects - which is part of a strategy to introduce new asset classes into the Fund's alternatives portfolio.

The Fund has over 82,000 members with assets of £7.3bn as at March 31 2014, across multi-asset index strategies, enhanced index funds, bonds, global equities and alternatives.

Editorial Extra: 

With all this evidence on the table, our trade should be on the cusp of a major victory, and yet forces are at work to deflect efforts away from total victory ... simply because of egos and ulterior agendas.

Instead of all orgs and unions fully uniting as a force complete, against the people very who would seek our destruction...yet again, we see exclusions and secret deals with the chosen ones around the folding table. 

Instead of drawing a line and leaving past histories behind, certain people have had a line drawn around them, akin to a forcefield and are being targeted in revenge for scores that have been festering over many years.

Fake Twitter and FaceBook accounts abound, commissioned to spread malicious gossip on social media, in attempts to blacken names and reputations of targeted trade figures. 

The reasoning behind the fake rumours and PR spin is simply greed, the massaging of egos and the pursuit of glory.

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2okQkQN
via IFTTT

How Much Does It Cost To Buy A Judge In Italy?

A Rome court on Friday suspended a lower court ruling that had blocked the use of smart phone apps for Uber cars [UBER.UL] in Italy.

The court accepted an appeal by Uber against the first ruling, made a week ago, which said Uber could not use its Black, Lux, Suv, X, XL, Select and Van phone applications nor could it promote or advertise its services in Italy.

The first court had ruled in favour of a suit filed by Italy's major traditional taxi associations, taking the view that the apps constituted unfair competition.

Sorce : Rueters 

from Taxi Leaks http://ift.tt/2pDelns
via IFTTT