Opinion:  As with Elvis, many claim that Martin Luther King isn't really dead.  Indeed, it was recently suggested that he is driving a private hire car somewhere in the UK, and the text of a speech recently sent to us would seem to suggest that this is indeed the case.  Judge for yourself:

Seven score and 17 years ago, a great Britain, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Town and Police Clauses Act 1847. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to thousands of licensed drivers who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their poor regulations.

But one hundred and fifty years later, the licensed taxi trade still is not free; one hundred and fifty years later, the lives of  some licensed drivers are still sadly crippled by the manacles of poor regulation and the chains of discrimination; one hundred and fifty years later, some licensed drivers live on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity; one hundred and fifty years later, some licensed drivers are still languished in the corners of British society and find themselves discriminated against in their own land.

So we've come to Taxi Driver Online today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to this website to cash a cheque. When the architects of our trade wrote the magnificent words of our regulations and the Human Right’s Act, they were signing a promissory note to which every Britain was to fall heir. This note was the promise that all men, yes, PH drivers as well as taxi drivers, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that Britain has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as some of her licensed drivers are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, Britain has given PH drivers a bad cheque; a cheque which has come back marked "insufficient funds." We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

And so we've come to this website to remind Britain of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy; now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of discrimination to the sunlit path of driver equality; now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of driver inequality to the solid rock of brotherhood; now is the time to make equality a reality for all licensed drivers. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the movement. This sweltering time of the PH driver’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.

Two thousand and four is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the PH drivers needed to blow off steam and will now be content, will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.

There will be neither rest nor tranquility in Britain until PH drivers are granted their equal rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of equality emerges.

But there is something that I must say to PH drivers who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of equality. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.

Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the PH driver community must not lead us to distrust of all taxi drivers, for many of our taxi colleagues, as evidenced by their presence on Taxi Driver Online, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. This offense we share mounted to storm the battlements of inequality must be carried forth by a combined trade army. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of Human Rights, "When will you be satisfied?": We can never be satisfied as long as the PH driver is the victim of the unreasonable horrors of out-dated dogma.

We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the saloon taxis of the highways and the purpose-builts of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the PH driver’s basic mobility is from a minicab to jockeying a taxi.

We can never be satisfied as long as licensed drivers are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for taxis only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a licensed driver cannot ply in Manchester and a taxi jockey in Glasgow believes he has nothing for which to hope for. No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until equality rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of excessive trials and tribulation. Some of you have come fresh from being called scab and scum. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for equality left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of council discrimination. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Manchester; go back to Liverpool; go back to Glasgow; go back to the slums and ghettos of the restricted cities, knowing that somehow this situation can, and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the British dream that one day this country will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all cab drivers are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the hills of Edinburgh, sons of former PH drivers and sons of former taxi drivers will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day, even the council of Brighton and Hove, a council sweltering with the heat of inequality, sweltering with the heat of discrimination, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and equality.

I have a dream that our kind will one day work in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their plate but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is my hope. This is the faith that I go back to the work with.

With this faith we will be able to hear out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.

With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to go to jail together, knowing that we will be equal one day. This will be the day when all licensed drivers will be able to sing with new meaning - "my trade 'tis of thee; sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the pride; from every coastal beach, let freedom ring" - and if Britain is to be a great nation again, this must become true.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of Scotland.

Let freedom ring from the hills and dales of Yorkshire.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped mountains of Snowdon.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of the Downs

But not only that.

Let freedom ring from the beauty of Cornwall.

Let freedom ring from the North East of England.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Britain, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every council and city, we will be able to speed up that day when all licensed drivers – PH owners and journeymen, mini-cab owners and drivers, taxi journeymen and women - will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old spiritual, "equal at last, equal at last; thank God Almighty, we are equal at last."

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