Reported today in the Edinburgh Evening News
150 criminal cabbies told they can stay on the road
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinb ... 6682904.jp
You reported the above biased, one sided news story, a blatant attack on Edinburgh's taxi trade and an assault on those trying to scrape a living in the face of continued attacks by you.
You censored my post on the web site making legitimate response to your unbalanced report, despite the truths contained in it which you ignore.
By doing so you seek to perpetuate the injustices perpetrated on those in the trade assaulted by the council/police processes which abrogate our Human Rights.
Following is my letter to the editor.
Your challenge is whether you continue to choose to ignore the real issues here by not publishing theletter. Then we'll all know where we stand.
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Sir/Madam
Your report claiming, “150 criminal cabbies told they can stay on the road”, takes no account of how “complaints” about private hire and taxi drivers are processed (News, January 7 2011).
Cab Inspector, Frank Smith regularly reports drivers based on uncorroborated, unsubstantiated, frivolous and malicious complaints made by the public.
In a current “incident” the threat of referral to the council - livelihood in jeopardy - was asserted by him to intimidate the driver. (note to ed. – see below)
Smith's tactic is to take an uncorroborated complaint, haul the driver before him and, in the presence of a police witness and without reading him his “rights”, encourage the intimidated individual to “give up” information that he will use against him – a breach of fundamental Human Rights.
Is this how a Police Inspector is supposed to conduct himself?
In a recent case the then Cab Inspector made complaint against an individual embroiled in an unrelated incident who was “charged” but neither prosecuted nor even “warned” concerning it. Yet, licensing convener Cllr Keir still took away his licence and his livelihood, 6 weeks before a Christmas ruined for his young family.
Cab Inspectors make complaint that an individual is not a "fit and proper person" to hold a licence. Yet no one – Cab Inspector, Chief Constable or the council - can tell what a fit and proper person is. There are NO definitions, NO guidelines and NO precedent observed.
But you’d think they’d have a fair idea, given that while over 150 of Lothian and Borders “finest” have criminal convictions ranging from breach of the peace, fraud, wilful fire raising and theft, to serious assault, they remain as serving officers.
How can it be right and proper for a higher standard to be applied to private hire and taxi drivers than police officers?
No record of this “quasi-judicial” process is published; it’s all conducted in secret. They can just make it up as they go along. And they do.
Doesn’t this highlight the urgent need for a full and public inquiry into the whole process?
Yours etc.
Note to editor:-
Re above:- In one current incident the threat of referral to the council - livelihood in jeopardy - was asserted by him to intimidate the driver.
For details of this incident, see:-
http://taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15647
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The challenge for the trade is, where are the trade reps who should be protecting us? And the Scottish Taxi Federation? Were they even asked for an opinion, a chance of rebuttal.
Or is this just the News hitting on our trade once again, which they regularly do with impunity. And by making no protest we let them.
And given that PH have been painted as paragons here, are they paying the News to get stories printed?
And if the News is going to give the system blanket, unquestioning support in the face of our rights being breached then what relevance does it have in protecting public interest?
Have we already entered the fascist state, with the News a key pillar of it?
So, what is it Evening News, what is it?
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