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The Reiver December 2010 http://taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15400	Page 1 of 1

Author:	captain cab [ Wed Nov 24, 2010 8:49 pm ]
Post subject:	The Reiver December 2010
The Reiver It’s down right rude Rudeness takes many different forms, the online dictionary I chose describes it in many different ways, but ‘discourteous or impolite, esp. in a deliberate way’ seems quite apt. Jeremy Clarkson, for example, believes the very essence of being rude is being late, a case of someone else’s time being more important than yours, he colourfully described being late as being as bad as dropping your trousers at the dinner table and leaving a rather whiffy number two, steaming, in front of dinner guests. I tend to agree with Jezza on this one, however, if turning up late is being rude, how rude is not turning up at all? Following Jezza’s enthusiastic description, not turning up at all must be something along the lines of eventually turning up for dinner, goosing your wife just before hacking her, your children and your pet hamster to death with your meat cleaver, not having the common courtesy to clean it afterwards, then sending you the cleaning bill for the bloodstained shirt. So where am I going to with this. Well, the NTA were advised that the Minister couldn’t attend their conference, this came with little surprise, he was probably still arguing with that cab driver in Liverpool. But he did kindly prepare a video presentation, in which he suggested the DFT could answer any of the points raised. He was obviously delusional, mistakenly under the impression the DFT would actually turn up. Well, I suppose he would, he’s the boss. I also suppose he’d naturally be shocked to find out they couldn’t be ased either. They advised the NTA on the Friday prior to the conference of their non attendance, giving the association no time to arrange alternative speakers. Will the minister do anything about it? Very probably not, indeed, I’d be surprised if he actually read the NTA email of complaint let alone answer it with a snivelling apology. The NTA, and I’m a member so I know about these things, always pay the bed and board of speakers, the lateness of the DFT decision to snub (or was it Sunderland is an awful long way), actually cost the NTA, and ergo ‘me’, as a paying member, somewhere in the region of £150. So not only have they snubbed the entire taxi trade, they actually cost me my hard earned cash. I don't know if the government has ever organised a conference, I presume they have, but let’s suppose they haven’t and instead are organising a children’s party. One hour before the event starts they receive a phone call, ‘Pedo the Clown’ has been arrested and can’t make it. What is the organiser supposed to do? Yes they could call Paul Gadd, he likes children’s parties a lot, but that wouldn’t be appropriate. They could of asked Casey, but he’s about as entertaining as a bad case of piles, his address to the AGM this year resulted in numerous phone calls to the Samaritans hotline. If the DFT don't want to speak to the taxi trade, fine by me, I can declare open warfare and be allowed off the leash by taxitalk. Indeed, our national bodies could fire in so many useless FOI requests about paper clip usage that the DFT wouldn’t know their arse from their Sunderland. In short, going to work at the DFT wouldn’t be any fun at all. Furthermore, they could quite simply cut out correspondence to the DFT officials and go directly to the minister. The NTA membership shouldn’t feel too bad about being snubbed, the government didn’t turn up in person for the NALEO conference either, but they did send the new head of the DFT, who nicely refused to do a Q&A session for the assembled audience. This begs the question, why did the DFT bother going at all, when arguably all they did was put a DVD into a DVD player? Is it being suggested the gathered whoop of licensing officers couldn’t work out the instructions on a DVD player?.......perhaps they are human after all. Even Sadiq Khan turned up for the NTA conference in Eastbourne back in 2009, he was bound to have known his government of demented warmongers would struggle to get elected, but he still turned up telling us how good we were and giving the impression his government gave a sht. The question we should ask is what has the DFT ever done for us? The best practice guidance? Pah!!! that document is cherry picked more than Rowntrees assortments, its wetter than Keswick and weaker than urine. I firmly believe the current anarchy in certain areas of the country is a result of DFT negligence, they could for example have came out at the very beginning of the Berwick saga and gave all local authorities the view of their legal team in respect of Hackney carriages from one area working in another, they were quick enough to give LA’s their advice following Wathan vs. Neath Port Talbot, why not Berwick? In actual fact, you’d think the pss poor BPG would actually mention that the flawed OFT report was roundly condemned by the transport select committee, yet they take the words of the flawed report and use them as guidance? There’s something very smelly afoot in Marsham Street, very smelly indeed. The DFT do not, like so many of their cohorts in local government, appear give a tuppenny damn about the cab trade, and their snub to the NTA is yet more proof of the contempt we are held in. So there you have it, neither the government or the DFT appear to give a hoot about the taxi trade, in actual fact they appear to treat it how most of us treat our mother in laws. Its a shortened Reiver this month, because I’ve got a taxitalk exclusive on another page......until January, have a great Christmas, and a lucrative New Year.

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