March 2012Mountv

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See Boris, Ken and Brian interviewedby Geoffrey Riesel on video at:www.youtube.com/RadioTaxisGroup

See Boris, Ken and Brian interviewedby Geoffrey Riesel on video at:www.youtube.com/RadioTaxisGroup

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THIS EDITION OF MOUNTVIEW NEWS FOCUSES ON THEforthcoming London elections when the capital will decidewho its next Mayor will be and also chooses 25 membersof the Greater London Assembly.The elections take place on Thursday 3 May 2012. They are the fourth set of elections since theoffice of Mayor of London was created in 2000. Conservative candidate Boris Johnson isseeking re-election for a second term as Mayor. The Mayor from 2000 to 2008, LabourCandidate Ken Livingstone is seeking a third term as the Labour candidate. Brian Paddick isstanding for the Liberal Democrats.

The Assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. There are fourteen directly electedconstituencies. An additional eleven members are allocated by a London wide top-up vote withthe proviso that parties must win at least five percent of the vote to qualify for the seats. This partPR system has in the past seen candidates from the Green Party and UK Independence Partyelected to the Assembly.

Geoffrey Riesel, Chairman of Radio Taxis, says “These elections are extremely important for thedrivers, employees and customers of Radio Taxis. The position of Mayor has direct responsibility forthe taxi and private hire industry and the road network in London. In this edition Mountview Newsbrings to you our interviews with each of the main Party Candidates. I am very grateful to all ofthem for giving up their time and it is a demonstration that all of them recognise the importance ofour industry to London and why we must ensure it thrives in the years ahead.

We hope that this helps you get a better understanding of who to vote for. We also expand on ourTwitter feature on page 33 by explaining who to follow if you want to keep in touch with all of theelection news. Don’t forget to place your vote on 3rd May 2012.”

Geoffrey Riesel, Chairman & CEO.

Who Runs London?

London Election SpecialMountviewNews

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CANDIDATES VISITBoris Johnson, Conservative: www.backboris2012.com

Ken Livingstone, Labour: www.kenlivingstone.com/aboutBrian Paddick, Liberal Democrat: www.brianpaddick.com

Jenny Jones, Green Party: www.jennyforlondon.org

4 This Month’s Latest NewsRoger Sligo RTG’s roving reporter… reports

6 Radio Taxis Wins Against Addison LeeGeoffrey Riesel gives you the latest score

8 The 2012 Olympics Transport ChallengesRoger Sligo races to tell you all about it

10 The RTG Zeus & Chip & Pin UpdateSteve Cooper reveals even more

11 A Kind Mystery DriverAlan Franks asks who was the good Samaritan?

12 Curiosity CornerRoger Sligo on baths, umbrellas and a weather vane

14 Get SmartPeter Gibson – private hire, mini cabs & credit cards

15 Budgeting in a RecessionGordon Brown – uncertainty in the year ahead?

16 Hockney at the Royal AcademyRobert MacDonald Watson looks at David Hockney

17 Keep Calm and Carry OnRoy Hughes tries to maintain a stiff upper lip

18 The Queen of DiamondsRoger Sligo and the Queen’s 60 year reign

19 Mountview Amusing Caption CompetitionThink one up and win a bottle of Champers!

20 Candidate for Mayor of London (1)Geoffrey Riesel interviews Boris Johnson

22 Candidate for Mayor of London (2)Geoffrey Riesel interviews Ken Livingstone

24 Candidate for Mayor of London (3)Geoffrey Riesel interviews Brian Paddick

26 A Tale of Two CenturiesRoger Sligo on Charles Dickens 200 years on

29 The Smarter Driving CourseRoger Sligo finds out if he can hack it

30 Join the Credit UnionAlan Wolf tells you why you should

31 The Last Post at St John’s WoodRoger Sligo on the demise of St John’s Wood Barracks

32 Interview with Sabit TopcuTracey Fuller talks to the owner of Cudworth Taxis

33 Who Gets Your Twitter Vote?Geoffrey Riesel – London Mayoral Elections on Twitter!

34 Letters to The EditorThe page to have your rage – or anything else topical

35 The Mountview Puzzler PageGet your pen out and take some time out

MountviewNewsCONTENTS

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MOUNTVIEW NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM IS:Roger Sligo – Editor & photos / Penny Cuckston – AdministrationDoug Canning, DC-Graphics – Design, layout, artwork, print & distributionGeoffrey Riesel & Peter Gibson – Board productionDesign: © 2012 / DC-Graphics / Barnet / Herts / EN5 5TP

T: 0208 440 1155 / W: www.dc-graphics.co.ukContent: © 2012 / Radio Taxis Group Ltd / Lennox Road / London / N4 3TXThe information and images contained in this Newsletter are subject to copyright.Unauthorised use, disclosure or copying without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Now who the

Dickens is this?

The answer is on page 26

Now who the

Dickens is this?

The answer is on page 26

JOOLS’ ANNUALHOOTENANNY –Happy New Year!

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This month’s

NEWSSOMETIME DURING LAST OCTOBER I picked upJools Holland and took him on a short ride fromBuckingham Gate to Victoria. I told him the onlytime I get to see him nowadays is every New Year’sEve on his TV show when he is bidding everyone“Happy New Year” this caused him to repeat“Happy New Year” twice to me.

When he got out and was paying the fare he again,jokingly, repeated his Hootenanny greetings. I said to him“Don’t forget to say it again to me this New Year’s Eve on your‘Hootenanny’ television programme.”

On his introduction on this New Year’s Eve TV programmehe opened the show by saying “a special greeting to all taxidrivers; especially London black cab drivers.” Could he haveremembered me?

STRATFORD STATION DEMOThursday 9th February, during the evening rush, around fiftysuburban taxi-drivers held a drive in demo around the GreatEastern Road one-way system in Stratford. Although the protestreceived no publicity within the trade, it did however causesome major disruptions for about an hour, with gridlockreported within a mile radius. It looks like the demo worked ason the following Monday the TPH called a meeting with theorganiser and some of the drivers.

The reason behind the protest is the lack of spaces to rank atStratford Station. Construction works have led to the closure ofa taxi rank in Meridian Square and the relocation of anotherrank at Station Street.

At one time, before the rebuilding of the forecourt, therewere dozens of space in a more prominent position in front ofthe station exit. These days the rank is broken up into littlesections, hidden away from public view. The main rank, if youcan call it that, has only eight spaces and even this rank is adistance from the station and not easy to find.

The drivers who work this station are not at all happy withthat way they are being pushed around and more protests arelikely to happen with more drivers taking part and morepublicity within the trade.

Helen Chapman, Deputy Director for London Taxi &Private Hire, said: “The temporary rank is necessary whilstimprovements are made to the permanent rank at MeridianSquare which includes an increase in the number of rank spaces.”

Ms Chapman added: “We have now been contacted by thedrivers and are in the process of setting up a meeting with them tolisten to their concerns.”

Ms Chapman went on to say “Any demonstration only resultsin disrupting the travelling public, including potential taxipassengers and the threat of a demonstration was completelyunnecessary, particularly given that we had already committed tomeeting with these drivers to listen to their concerns.”

Our reports are that many yellow badge drivers say that they

are leaving the LTDA because they feel they are being badly letdown, and are turning to join the RMT. With the Olympics justa few months away and Stratford being the nearest Station(Pudding Mill Lane DLR Station will be closed throughout theOlympics as being too small to handle the large amounts ofpeople). We suggest that TfL, LOCOG and the RanksCommittee had better sought things out and quickly!

IDENTIFIERS AND THE URBAN MYTH

Since the first of March it has been a requirement that allLondon taxi-drivers both yellow and green badges, display theiridentifiers, both in the front and rear windows of their taxis.

Whether you agree with them or not is beside the point,they are there to do a job and if you are working you must havethem displayed in the appropriate place at all times.

There have been a lot of concerns from drivers using socialmedia networking blogs and it would seem the conspiracytheorists are alive and kicking. Reading through some of theseblogs you could imagine some poor drivers becoming paranoidabout displaying their identifiers, so I would like to put therecord straight.

Firstly, green badge drivers in Bromley and Welling are not

being targeted for their identifiers and there is not an epidemicof crime caused by their introduction. There is also the mythbeing spread that if you lose your identifier you will need tobuy a new badge, with a new number and this in turn is causingsome drivers to photocopy their identifiers, so they can keep theoriginal safe and display the fake instead. Don’t do it, there’s nopoint in risking your livelihood because even though it’s yourown badge number you would still be committing fraud!

The simple thing to do is to remove your identifier when youare leaving the cab for any length of time, like at a repair garageor over night outside your house for example – after all youwouldn’t leave your metal badge on your dashboard would you?

To find out if there is any truth in the stolen identifiersrumour I ask Helen Chapman Deputy Director of TPH for hercomments and she replied: “We have heard of one incident witha taxi being broken into and the identifiers stolen however I amnot aware of whether the vehicle was specifically broken into forthe ID’s or it was a general break-in and the ID’s were takenbecause they were there. I suspect the latter. I personally haven’theard of any other incidents.”

So what about those who might be tempted to photocopytheir identifiers? Helen suggests; “Drivers should not bedisplaying photocopies and if we find any incidents of this throughour compliance activity then we will take the appropriate action.If identifiers are lost or stolen then the process will be for us toissue replacement identifiers with their existing badge number.The only time a new badge number will be issued will be if thebadge itself is lost or stolen.” Helen concluded by saying;“Thank you for reminding your drivers to remove them from theirtaxi when left unattended. We have taken great care to encouragedrivers to treat these identifiers as an extension of their badge andso they should remove them from the vehicle when it is leftunattended whether this is at home, the taxi is booked into thegarage or any other reason.”

So if you’re into social networking don’t forget to informthe bloggers their urban myth has just been put to rest!

THE OCEAN MEETS THE THAMES

You might recall in the December issue of Mountview News, myvisit to the Marine Police Museum and just how seriously theywere taking the security of the River Thames during this year’sOlympics. Over the next few months the Royal Navy’s largest ship,HMS Ocean is to be deployed, stationed close to the ThamesBarrier. HMS Ocean, which led the attacks against ColonelGaddafi, is an amphibious assault ship and capable of sending inRoyal Marines in helicopters in the event of a terrorist attack.

Specialist units will also be able to respond to anywaterborne attack on London. Capable of carrying 800 marines

it will be seen as a sign of how seriously Britain is takingOlympic security.

RECIPE OF HOW TO MAKE A JAMDuring the last mayoral elections, Boris Johnson pledged to re-phase some of London’s traffic signals to speed up the trafficflow. I don’t recall any of the junctions that are causing usserious hold ups like Shaftsbury Avenue – High Holbornjunction being altered in any way.

One small piece of road which is only about 100 yards intotal, and confusingly named Long Lane, in Smithfield haschanged twice, once for the better and then again for the worse!

About a year ago lengthy jams caused by traffic turningright into Aldersgate Street, were an everyday occurrence, untilthe re-phasing of the traffic lights, whereby traffic from BeechStreet would operate independently from those in Long lanethus allowing more traffic to get past.

Within the last couple of weeks some bright spark trafficplanner has reverted back to the bad old days, where we sit andwait, whilst traffic turning right blocks everyone as they wait tocross the flow coming through from the opposite direction.No matter if you want to go forwards or turn left, the rightturning traffic blocks you all. This allows only two cars over at atime, whilst all other traffic is stuck behind. Why did theychange something which worked perfectly well? It just goes toshow they haven’t a clue what they are doing!

FLOUTING THE LAW

Some Private Hire companies think nothing of disregarding thelaw and why not? It seems that no one ever bothers to takethem to task. The recent new laws governing advertisingstandards are there to enforce misleading advertising includingwebsites which should not be calling themselves something theyare not. A prime example is a Private Hire company callingthemselves “taxis” – so how about this PH company?Taxi-London To fight back and regain our good name, maybewe should start a petition? We are losing out to some PHcompanies claiming to be “taxis.”

Also, I was under the impression that Private Hire cannotcarry any form of advertising on their cars! So is having anadvertisement for Heathrow from £22 or Gatwick from £32classed as advertising? The car in our picture seems to flout thelaw – or am I mistaken?

Any TPH Licensed Private Hire company website callingitself “Taxi-London” is breaking the law and must be stopped.Any TPH Licensed PH company advertising its price list, Ibelieve is in breach of the law. We have to abide by the law andso should they!

� Geoffrey Riesel has passed Roger’s complaint on to JohnMason at TPH and he informs us that compliance is dealingwith this “unlawful” advertising.

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WHO WILL RUN LONDON? London Mayoral Election Interviews:

A major coup for Radio TaxisI had that Boris, Ken and Brian in my cabs, I don’t quite knowhow it happened but someone came up with the bright idea thatwe should interview the three main party mayoral candidates, tosee what they are prepared to commit to the taxi trade.

Then we thought, wouldn’t it work well if we videoed theinterview in the back of a taxi? The concept being that we wouldpost the interviews first on “You Tube” and then also onto ourown Radio Taxis website.

So we first asked former Deputy Assistant Commissioner ofthe Met Police officer Brian Paddick, who is the Lib DemMayoral candidate and he kindly agreed.

Then we asked Boris and Ken and to our pleasant surprisethey both agreed too.

So off we went and interviewed them in the back of a RadioTaxis cab, with Penny Cuckston of the Finance department as“cameraman” and Ganesh who is a data analyst, also fromFinance, acting as “lighting man.” I became the Jeremy Paxmanor should I say Andrew Marr as the interviews were notconfrontational, simply probing?

SUPPORT FOR THE TRADEWhat shone through from all three candidates was their totaland unequivocal support of the London taxi trade. I know thatwill surprise many London taxi drivers, but all the maincandidates recognise how vital it is for a world class city likeLondon to have a top notch taxi service.

Mr Paddick was quite explicit in his interview; he said“If I become Mayor, London Taxis will be able to use the OlympicRoute Network.”

He also said that he would ban pedi-cabs because they were adangerous nuisance and that as far as parking fines for taxis isconcerned, he felt that “prosecuting taxi drivers because theyhave gone for a pee is just outrageous.”

NOT LONG AFTER RE-WINNING THE LONDONUNDERGROUND ACCOUNT we received a notificationfrom the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that theassertions we make on our website, in terms of our “Green”credentials as a company, had been challenged by none otherthan Addison Lee.

We think that after winning LUL again Addison Lee (AL)asked LUL, why RTG had been awarded the contract again?Among all of the reasons, we imagine, included service,experience, knowledgeable drivers and a competitive price; butalso the fact that we have a CarbonNeutral® status and that weare a “green” company with a well-known and recognised sociallyresponsible attitude.

Could it have been Mr John Griffin himself who complainedto the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as he has oftenmade claims about how he thinks London taxis are dirty andterrible polluters?

Well the ASA have heard the case and they don’t agree.They ruled that Radio Taxis is indeed a Green company.

Here are the issues and the ASA’s judgements which ALcomplained about from Radio Taxis website:

ISSUEAddison Lee Plc. believed the advert implied taxis were anenvironmentally friendly transport option, and challengedwhether the following claims were misleading:

1. “World’s first Carbon Neutral taxi company”, – ASA Resultcomplaint not upheld… ie. Radio Taxis assertions are true.

2. “Why not reduce your own Carbon footprint by using RadioTaxis Group services” – ASA, Result complaint not upheld…ie. Radio Taxis assertions are true.

3. “Radio Taxis operates a constant and on-going Carbonreduction strategy, then offsets the whole of the remainder,emitted during the delivery of our services” – ASA Resultcomplaint not upheld- i.e. Radio Taxis assertions are true.

4. And “Constant renewal and upgrading of taxi fleet”.On a minor technicality – only the final claim was upheldbecause although our records prove that around 15% of the fleetis renewed every year it might seem or be inferred that RadioTaxis owns the vehicles and of course we do not; our LicensedLondon taxi drivers are franchisees and either own theirvehicles themselves or use a fleet owned vehicle. We agreed veryearly on with the ASA to slightly amend this statement so as toremove any unintentional misunderstanding.

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Radio Taxis CarbonNeutral® status endorsedby the Advertising Standards Authority.

Radio Taxis wins againstAddison Lee – Complaintsare Rejected

ComCab are owned by City Fleet, a subsidiary of theSingaporean Comfort-Delgro. City Fleet also owns Comfort Cars(Formerly called Flightlink). I have heard said before that seniorComfort-Delgro executives believe that “London taxi drivers areoverpaid.” One must draw one’s own conclusions on that.

Suffice to say, the UBS taxi account will, in the future be, amuch smaller one than it has been previously and that processhas already begun; however should the migration not go well, wewill always be pleased to help out. Professionalism at all times

In the meantime our sales department is winning newaccounts (Standard Chartered among many others) and ourmunicipal clients are holding their own (London Underground,City of Westminster for example) and our consumer business(credit cards etc.) has grown by about 15% during the last year.Also our account clients’ mobile booking “App” is about to belaunched so although we understand it’s not raving busy outthere, there are lots of positives and being on Radio Taxis willalways help you earn a better living. The radio will more oftenthan not “get you out of trouble.”

On the subject of pedi-cabs, Boris Johnson said that hewould love to ban them, but that he does not have the statutorypower to do so. My view is that the Mayor of London with astrong electoral mandate should push government hard (they dohave the statutory power) to legislate against pedi-cabs.The Mayor should be a voice for influence.

Mr Johnson also said that last year the Met Police arrestedaround 1,300 illegal mini cab touts.

Ken Livingstone also said that he would like to ban pedi-cabsand also pointed out that as Mayor he wouldn’t have the statutorypower to do so. However on the subject of illegal touts, he said thatthis is not the time for the Police to be reducing their numbers byabout 1700 officers, as will happen under Boris Johnson.

Both Ken and Boris are keen to improve traffic flow byintroducing Lane Rental, which essentially means that anyonewho digs up the road will have to pay for the privilege and paymore if they take longer to clear the road. The idea of that is toimprove the standard of contractors which all the utilitycompanies use.

You can read transcripts of my interviews with these threeMayoral candidates in this issue and also you can see theinterviews themselves on Radio Taxis website and on You Tubeat: www.youtube.com/RadioTaxisGroup

UBSBy the time you read this, it is likely that our client UBS(formerly SG Warburg & Co) will have left us after around 40years as a client.

Rarely over the years was there a client and a supplier with abetter relationship, we worked with Warburg’s to ensure thatthey were successful over many decades. Not only did we (atMountview House) have a great working relationship but you,our drivers had an excellent operating relationship as well.

Of course over the years Warburg’s were taken over by UBSand yet our great relationship and our supply of a top classservice continued. Indeed we provided a great service over many,many years.

MERCHANT BANKS’ HEAVY LOSSESOf course once the downturn came and Merchant Banks ingeneral started to suffer their well-publicised difficulties, thingsstarted to change. New facilities teams were appointed in severalof our clients and for many of these people it was about being anew broom and about making changes.

Much of our traditional taxi work (for all the main taxicompanies) is being pushed into cars, because the belief formany new-to-the-job facility managers is that they are alwayscheaper. We know this is simply not true and we know that taxissupply a level of service that Private Hire cannot match by a“country mile.”

Despite my cordial advice to the General Manager of Com Cabnot to start a price war, his staff went in when the account was upfor tender at what I believe are ridiculously unsustainable prices.He claims this is to win work back off the minicabs. I can only seethat this means we are now only fighting amongst ourselves and inthe end I doubt that this will do any of us any good.

My long years of experience in this industry tells me, weknow that; by doing away with run-ins, or gratuities or evenadmin fees completely, (either all or any of these) you end up ina situation when it becomes difficult to supply a good service.

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MAD HATTERS TEA PARTYIn January the London Taxi Drivers Fund forUnderprivileged children, whom we are proud to havebeen sponsors of for many years, invited me and myGrandchildren, yet again to their Mad Hatters TeaParty held at the Grosvenor House Hotel. It was a greatevent with lots of celebrities giving of their time as wellas the emergency services and the army who literally(gently) manhandled kids in wheelchairs down thestairs into the ballroom.

It is a heart-warming event and I would like tothank the LTFUC committee for their kind andphilanthropic work and for the good name that givesto the whole taxi trade.

Geoffrey Riesel – Chairman & CEO.

The Cheeky Girls

Diversity

Stavros Flatley

I WAS INVITED ALONG WITH OTHER MEMBERS OFthe trade press for a meeting with Graham Jones (TfL)and John Mason (director of TPH) at Palestra shortlybefore Christmas. It was a briefing to enlighten usabout the transport challenges TfL will have to facewith the Olympics traffic in the coming year.

Firstly Radio Taxis were congratulated by John Mason forconducting a poll showing 90% of drivers within the Radio TaxisGroup would be working during the Olympic Games, with theEvening Standard printing the results thus dispelling rumoursthat 40% of taxi-drivers would not be working.

There are expected to be 9 million spectators (equivalent to26 simultaneous world championships) during the mainOlympics, with a further 2 million for the Paralympic Games, allneeding to take public transport, walk or cycle. In addition therewill also be 300,000 athletes, officials, media, other games familymembers and workforce.

CAN LONDON’S TRANSPORT SYSTEM COPE?There are already 1.1 billion tube journeys per year, whichcompares to the rest of the UK rail network combined. Half ofall bus journeys within the UK take place in London.The Olympic Park is also connected to four LondonUnderground lines, national rail services and a dedicated ‘Javelin’shuttle service to and from St Pancras International.

TfL are highly experienced in major events such as RoyalWeddings, the London Marathon and New Year’s Eve

celebrations, which makes them capable of handling largepassenger transportation within the capital.

£40m is being invested in state-of-the-art intelligent signalcontrol technology, installed at 350 extra junctions for thegames, making 2,350 in total.

OLYMPIC ROUTE NETWORK MYTHSMYTH: “The ORN will be full of VIPs travelling in limousines

in special ‘Zil Lanes’”� Any vehicle can use the vast majority of the ORN.� In London, it covers just 1% of the road network – and only

one third of that is ‘Games Lanes’ for games traffic only.� Games Lanes are only implemented where more than one lane

is available, are in the offside lane and some replace bus lanes.� Most users will be media, athletes, officials and workers and

only after that sponsors and IOC members.

MYTH: “There will be 100 days of disruption due to the ORNand road restrictions.”

� The ORN comes into operation just a couple of days beforethe Games start and will cease to operate as soon as it is nolonger required.

� The PRN (Paralympic Route Network), which is smaller, willalso only operate when needed.

SO THEN, WHAT IS THE ORN?It has been a feature of the Host City contract and in place atevery Olympic Games since Sydney 2000 – and is needed toensure reliable journeys for athletes, officials, workers and media.The vast majority of journeys will be by bus and coach andactually helping to minimise Games traffic on the roads.Traffic measures are proportionate and will be removed whennot needed. They include: changes to traffic signal timings,banned turns to and from some side roads, removal of someparking and loading bays and pedestrian crossings, ban onplanned road works on the ORN from March 2012, and frommost A and B roads in London during the games.

Provision of Games Lanes for the sole use of Games Family;and emergency vehicles where absolutely necessary: They willcomprise of just one third of the whole ORN in London or 0.3%of London’s road network.

INFORMATION PACKSTfL will be sending all taxi-drivers information packs sometimeduring the spring. These include daily traffic hotspot maps,which start two days before the start and throughout theOlympics.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERSDuring the meeting we were invited to ask questions – here are some of them:Q: Is there going to be any adjustment to fares during the

Olympics? A: No – there has been no desire from within the trade to add

anything extra to the fares.

Q: Are there to be additional marshalled ranks and where? A: Yes, where ever possible at all major pick-up points.

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The 2012 Olympics TransportChallengesBy Roger Sligo(No, that’s not me in this picture)!

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Q: Will there be more cab sharing facilities, if so where?A: Yes, and again where ever possible at all key locations.

Q: Will TfL be able to use media such as the EveningStandard for further updates for taxi and private hiredrivers over and above the info packs being sent out?

A: Yes, we will be using local radio such as LBC and RadioLondon. Also social media sites such as Twitter and Facebookfor any updates when needed.

Q: Can a flyer be created to fix to the rear partition windowwarning passengers that routes may differ from normaldue to road closures?

A: This is something we had not really thought of – it’s a goodidea so we will take note of it.

Q: Will TfL open up communications channels with radiocircuits to fast track information during the Olympics?

A: Yes, we plan to inform all radio circuits, Apps and SocialMedia where there are any unmet demands and any problemswith roads.

Q: Could contraflow bus lanes be opened up for taxis to useduring the Olympics to help with compensating for roadclosures and diversions.

A: Again this is something we had not thought about. We cancertainly look into the possibility of some temporary use ofsome contraflow bus lanes.

Q: Will the bus lanes along Marylebone Road and EustonRoad be decommissioned during the Olympics?

A: Yes, as the outside lane will be used as a games lane leaving thetwo inside lanes for all traffic.

Q: Will Russell Square be closed off and used as hub for themedia with their coaches and buses parked up?

A: Yes, just the south of the square will be partially open with all thenorth section closed off.

BE POSITIVE AFTER ALL IT’S OUR LONDON TfL and TPH are doing all that is necessary to make sure Londonkeeps moving in spite of the games. Another 16 extra staff arebeing trained in the traffic management control centre.

Variable Messaging Signs are to be deployed at the side of someroads to announce when traffic can and can’t use the Games lanes.

Let’s try to remember we are all ambassadors for London andLondon taxi-drivers are the best in the world. The gaze of theworld’s media will be upon us all. Let us show just howprofessional we are and whatever situations might occur on theroads, we can still get our passengers where they want to go!

If we talk negatively all the time, the world press will pick upon it and we will be portrayed as a bunch of amateurs. Unlike ourcompetitors we can fathom routes out in our heads, withouthaving to rely on SatNav’s all the time – which will have theprivate hire trade running around like headless chickens!

Let’s make London 2012 the Olympic showcase, where we canprove to the rest of the world why we are still the best.

Roger Sligo

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The RTG ZeusChip and Pin UpdateBy Steve Cooper, RTG’s DriverServices Manager

THE MIDDLE OF JANUARY was an excitingtime for everyone involved with theZeus/Chip and Pin project. Having obtainedthe required TPH approval just beforeChristmas, we finally got our hands on thefirst release of the complete kit of Zeus,integrated with the Media Screen,Passenger compartment chip and pinreader, with the system running ourbespoke integration software.

Then we eagerly set about the testing processes,which is so vital to the overall success of launchingany new system. With just a couple of minor bugsidentified, to say we were pleased with the resultswould be a massive understatement. The transactionprocess is slick and very user friendly.

With the bench testing done and fixes underway,we began to undertake the installs into a handful ofworking Taxis. Once out on the road the driver’sfeedback and comments were very encouraging andjust as importantly the public like it too, most ofthem adding a gratuity and some asking to “go on”to other destinations once they knew they could payby Chip and Pin. It really is easy for them. Forexample, if at the end of a journey the passengerchooses to pay by card they simply insert the cardinto the reader and press enter and then follow theprompts, all the time the Zeus terminal keeps thedriver informed of the status of the transactionprocess and on completion the receipt prints out.We are now scheduling the workshop toaccommodate the fleet roll-out and are on track tocomplete the task by June. We have additional fitterson hand and extra training slots available so thereshould be no stopping us now.

We have also been busy evaluating MapNavigation and the new look for Zeus. We have a lotof experience designing the functions on MobileData Terminals and the Zeus, with our softwareinstalled, it is by far the most intuitive MDT I knowof. All “buttons” are presented in a logical sequencethat is relevant to the current status of the job cycle.We have some drivers that have been with us longenough to remember our first data terminal, that

relied on drivers booking in to a zone to be offeredwork from only that area,

The Zeus, like its predecessor The MDSI S850,fully exploits the capability of GPS vehicle location.It is difficult to comprehend how far we have comeunless you see for yourself. All in all we now have anindustry leading in-cab despatch solution with chipand pin that will serve us well for the foreseeablefuture. I would like to say that, in my opinion, noneof this would have been achieved without theforesight and the support of all the SeniorManagement team at RTG.

The picture below shows the Zeus running thesoftware for the leading Sat Nav contender, so far.

N.B. Keep an eye on your terminal for messagesregarding exclusive promotional offers fromCudworth Taxis. They are very keen to have yourcustom and are constantly looking for ways to saveyou money.

Lastly, don’t get caught on camera parking acrossany type of footway, including a dropped kerb, youare likely to receive a PCN through the post forwhich there is no defence and no case to appeal.

Be lucky!

Steve Cooper – Driver Services Manager.

This lady contacted us to say thank you to a RadioTaxis driver, who after the snow in the first week ofFebruary, went to her house and cleared all of thesnow and ice that had settled in her front garden andmade it safe for her to leave her house without therisk of falling.

But the amazing thing is that he did this completelyanonymously and left without making himself known toher, so we have not been able to track him down. She sawa Radio Taxis cab outside but didn’t get the number.

Whoever you are, let me tell you that all of us hereat Mountview House think you are a marvellous creditto yourself, to your family, to your industry and ofcourse to Radio Taxis.

A truly wonderful act of kindness.

DON’T CALL US WE’LL CALL YOUAs we are currently rolling out the new Zeus terminal,more and more drivers will lose the ability to use thevoice channel. This has caused a sharp increase in thenumber of calls to the Drivers Query Line. This iscausing some delays at peak times.

It would help us all if you could please try to useyour canned message “Please call my mobile’’ and wewill call you back. Please try to only use the driver

query line: 0207 561 5099 if you have a job relatedquery. And for any other driver services then call:0207 272 2626.

UNSCRUPULOUS ENGINEERSIt seems that we have some would be “engineers” in ourmidst. A driver has been fiddling with our in cabsystem wiring, with the intention of being able to gainan edge on other drivers by appearing to be emptywhen in fact he was POB. Well we caught this driverred-handed and expelled him from the circuit. Besidesthe fact that he was running the risk of setting his cabon fire he was also breaking our code of conduct not tomention PCO regulations.

However, the story doesn’t quite end there.Since leaving, this “clever dick” decides to go intobusiness for himself by charging drivers £50 a go tomake the wiring change for them.

Of course his “ingenious” business plan had a majorflaw in it, and that was the fact that we can easilyidentify this illegal change in the system from theoperation centre and any driver we catch will beexpelled too. Derrrrrrrr!?

Alan Franks – Group Operations Director.

By Alan Franks, RTG’sGroup Operations Director

A Kind Mystery Driver

11

ONE OF OUR RADIO TAXIS DRIVERS reallydeserves a special mention for his kindness to anelderly lady regular rider.

Testimonial for Radio TaxisReplacement Cab Scheme for No Fault Accidents

Radio Taxis driver Bob Luxford, Call Sign C023 left us this Testimonial about theRadio Taxis Replacement Cab Scheme when you are involved in a no fault claim.

We operate this in conjunction with Chief Rentals.

Bob said that the help he received was “very polite and helpful in terms of customer service.”He also said that his replacement taxi was very clean and in good condition.

He also liked the fact that the taxi could either be delivered to his front door or to a convenientplace for him and the bonus was that the cab was fitted with Radio Taxis equipment,

so he was still able to work as per normal.

Bob said he “would highly recommend using this company.”

Roger Sligo on themysteries of hidden London

WITH THE 2012 OLYMPICS COMING toLondon’s Docklands, there are bound tobe thousands of visitors making theirway to Greenwich Park. Many of themwill be visiting Wrens Royal Observatory,The National Maritime Museum and the17th-century Queen’s House, home ofCharles I’s Queen, Henrietta Maria.

One other Queen’s forgotten house which has longsince gone, with just a small piece remaining, will sadlybe overlooked, hidden from tourist’s eyes. I refer to aGeorgian Queen’s walk in bath, which once hosted

some wild parties, and is now left forgotten, except forcuriosity seekers!

Caroline of Brunswick (1768 – 1821) became Princessof Wales on her marriage to George, Prince of Wales in1795. He succeeded to the throne as George IV in 1820.They lived largely separate lives from 1796 and she was

never crowned Queen. When he decided to leave her the decisionmade him very unpopular throughout the kingdom. Caroline wasalready a Brunswick Princess before marrying George; it was said thatthe marriage was arranged to pay off his large gambling debts.When the flamboyant George first set eyes on her he was shocked tosee she was no oil painting. After the marriage, shall we say – of hisfinancial convenience, he was back on his old ways of orgies andgambling. Caroline left the Royal Palace and moved to MontagueHouse between 1798 to 1814; enclosing six hectares (15 acres) of thepark as her private garden. She also had some wild parties just like herhusband George. Bath houses were fashionable in Georgian times forentertaining and for promoting some good fun!

By August 1814, Caroline had had enough and decided to leaveEngland for good and live in exile abroad – which is what George hadbeen waiting for. So as soon as she was gone and to have no remindersof his wife’s pleasurable parties, George ordered the demolition ofMontague House, saying he wanted it razed to the ground. Obeying hiscommand the house was demolished to the ground, although the bathhouse beneath the ground was overlooked.

The land was turned into Greenwich Park in the mid 1800’s, and itwas not until 1909 that the sunken bath was re-discovered and excavated.

CuriosityCornerCuriosityCorner

Queen Caroline’s Bath

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“This bath once

hosted some wild

parties, and is now

left forgotten!”

The Victorian Umbrella Shop

Temple Place

A close up of the weather vaneatop Temple Place. Columbus’s

caravel, the Santa Maria.

“…the most lost item on publictransport including taxis!”

The first thing that catches the eye when looking atTemple Place from the Embankment is the weathervane, of the spectacular golden vessel of Columbus’scaravel, the Santa Maria. Made of beaten copper,perched high above the roof giving the impression of anaval establishment operating below. Nothing could befurther from the truth.

This larger than life home was built on reclaimedland following the embanking of the Thames. Its ownerand builder was the wealthy American William WaldorfAstor, founder of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel nearby inthe Aldwych.

After Moving permanently to England in 1890, atfirst Astor rented Lansdowne House in Mayfair until1893, two years afterwards he built Astor House at2 Temple Place. The building looks very much like thatof a Tudor castle along with its window bays and turrets.Just as well for in 1899 Astor became a British subjectand in 1903 acquired Hever Castle near Edenbridge,Kent about 30 miles south of London. The huge estate,built in 1270, was where Anne Boleyn lived as a child.

First published in E-View Magazine Curiosity Corner March 2010.

James Smith first started umbrella making in 1830 in the rear ofa small shop in Fouberts Place. His son also named James, tookover the business in 1857 and moved the shop to its presentlocation at New Oxford Street. All the umbrellas and sticks weremanufactured in the basement and still are to this day.

Being an acute businessman, James opened six otherbusinesses including Hatters and a Barber Shop. Eventually takingtwo of his eight sons with him for a new life down under inTasmania where they were to take up farming.

James Smith’s umbrellas were made for such dignitaries asGladstone, Bonar Law and Lord Curzon to name but a few.

The business in umbrellas has always thrived – perhapsbecause of the English weather and the fact that they are themost lost item on public transport including taxis.

This shop on New Oxford Street is a legend in itself. It is aperfect example of a Victorian shop front design and hasremained virtually unaltered in 152 years. Inside it is a uniqueexperience; most of the fittings were designed and made by afitter employed by Mr Smith.

Most of us taxi drivers pass by these premises dozens oftimes a day without giving it a second glance, as did theHansom Cab Drivers a century and a half earlier.

First published in E-View Magazine Curiosity Corner, December 2009.

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THE CURRENT ECONOMIC DOWNTURNfeatures every day on TV and newspapers andis almost a permanent, depressing part of life.For us cab drivers, this recession is differentto any other that we may have lived andworked through because this time roundthe corporate account taxi rider, the one thathas been a loyal customer to the licensedtaxi trade for the best part of 40 years,has another licensed, apparently (but notnecessarily) cheaper alternative – PrivateHire or the mini cab.

Very few of the account customers that have usedRadio Taxis, or one of our licensed competitors, overthe past four decades are escaping the ravages of thecurrent downturn and they are looking to cut costslike everybody else. Many of these accounts now usePrivate Hire for pre bookings and longer journeys anduse us for urgent, important (a client being ferriedback to their office or a station) trips and when thePrivate Hire company has let them down.

When the economy picks up again we will be usedmore often as price becomes less of an issue and PrivateHire fails more often because of driver churn (30% of allPrivate Hire drivers do not renew their Private Hiredrivers’ licence) this means that there are always newdrivers that go to the wrong pick up or take the wrongturning to get to the pickup or destination.

The unanswerable question at the moment is when willthe economy pick up? A year, two years or could we be atthe start of a Japanese style decade of stagflation wherethere’s little or no growth? I have no desire to add to thepervasive mood of pessimism but the possibility existsthat 2012, as Olympic year, could be a slight spike in thenext three years of low or no growth and therefore wherewe are is pretty well where we stay – at least until 2015.

If we are to help ourselves during this downturn thenI think that we need to see if we can do what we doeither differently or in a smarter way. Private Hire hasbeen licensed and is now seen as a “cheaper” alternative

to the licensed taxi. They are slaves to theSatNav and most journeyscan take twice as long as in ataxi driven by somebody

who knows where theyare going. I meet a lot ofowners and sales peoplefrom the world ofPrivate Hire and they all

Says Peter Gibson, RTG’s GroupStrategic Director

Get Smarttell me that the standard of driver has never been as badas it is now. In years past the “villains” and the“unemployed” with a four door jalopy did know wherethey were going and could improvise – but they couldn’tor wouldn’t get licensed and are lost to the Private Hireindustry, as is the weekend driver who cannot afford thelicensing of a vehicle or a PH Driver’s Permit.

I think that we can and should exploit this vastdifferential in the standard of driver. Many of you willhave studied The Knowledge for three or more years.We all know the streets of London better than any driverin any capital city in the world. But do we back that“knowledge” up by offering the world’s finest customerservice? Geoffrey Riesel tells astory borne on Twitter about aRadio Taxis driver refusal of acredit card trip from CanaryWharf to Heathrow. I will notecho that story here butI would like to open a debateabout one of the most strikingadvantages on offer to us in theTaxi industry over PrivateHire, that of taking a creditcard in payment for a streethail. Taxis are viewed by someto be expensive, whether youagree that they are expensive or not, some journeys can,and do, go more than some people are normallycarrying on them in cash. A cab from Canary Wharf toHeathrow could go nearly a £100 if caught in traffic andnot everybody has that amount of cash in their wallet.Private Hire can offer prepaid credit card paymentfacilities but not all of them and none can offer thefacility from the vehicle, or off the street, as they have tobe booked through an established licensed office.

If every taxi in London had a credit card acceptingfacility and a matching “that will do nicely” attitude wewould start winning work back from Private Hire overnight. But the first driver that refuses to take a creditcard or offers up “my machine is broke” will mean thatthat passenger will not risk the humiliation of refusalagain and may well use Private Hire with or without acredit card because of the experience on the street witha taxi. We must get smart and exploit any and everyadvantage that we have at our disposal. We need tofacilitate all payment cards and encourage people to usethese payment methods because that way they will useus again and again.

So, if you are offered a credit card, then service witha smile and “that’ll do nicely” is my get smart suggestionto help minimise the effects of the depressing recession.

14

Photo by LaMir.

Budgeting in aRecessionBy Gordon Brown,Chief Operating Officer

15

THINKING AHEAD (at the time ofwriting) TO THE GOVERNMENTBUDGET announced on the 21stof March, I started to think abouthow we put together the RadioTaxis budget for 2012.Just likeGeorge Osborne, there are anumber of uncertainties headinginto the year which for us dictateda cautious approach and willsimilarly do so for Mr Osborne.

For example the Euro crisis – whichwill probably only be fully resolved with asplit into a ‘Club-Med’ Euro and a‘Nordic’ Euro, probably 2 or 3 years away– will have a major impact on confidencein the City and on this

country’s exports (it is 47% of the UK’sexports). As you may have noticed thefinancial sector are laying off staff andthose that remain are being told to usepublic transport more, whilstProcurement Managers start to favour the“perceived cheapness” of private hire,especially with a further 5.3% tariffincrease. Against this backdrop predictingincome is challenging.

The Government is working hard onits costs in an effort to reduce thenational debt, in fact it has probablyover-achieved what it set out to save in2011 – by about £3 billion – giving thepossibility of additional investment inareas such as apprenticeships to startreducing unemployment amongst schoolleavers, plus perhaps, increasing the taxfree allowance further than has alreadybeen stated (currently it’s due to increasethe allowance from £7,475 to £8,105 –with the aim to get it up to £10,000 by2015) to get us all to start spendingmoney to get some growth in theeconomy. This is especially so because the

GDP figures are predicted to be negativein March meaning that we are now in‘double dip’ recession territory with2 quarters of negative growth.Potentially the Chancellor has about£10bn to ‘play with’ to both fosterconfidence in the business communityand to kick-start growth.

As far as Radio Taxis is concerned,through our budget process, we’ve beenlooking at making sure we do things asefficiently as possible and we are ensuringthat we are focused on what customerswant. This includes doing all we can tomaintain and improve customer servicein our operations department, we havedeveloped an account customers ‘App’which is almost ready to roll out and bybecoming more inventive with pricing inthis difficult market. In addition we’veincreased resources in Driver Services tomake sure we get the new Zeus touchscreen terminal and the Chip and Pinmachines out to as many drivers as wecan as quickly as possible especially giventhe excellent feedback we’ve had fromdrivers. Additionally we’ve earmarkedsome cash to make sure we keep onimproving the terminal.

Going back to George Osborne’sbudget, the 50% top tax rate seems like itis here to stay for a while and there willbe measures to stop Stamp Dutyavoidance and also possibly he will takeaway the additional tax relief for pensioncontributions for higher rate tax payers.

To keep Nick Clegg happy he maydecide its time to introduce a ‘MansionsTax’ with the word being it would be atax of 1% per year on the value of aproperty above £2m. So if your house isworth £2.5m it will cost you £5,000… soyou’ve been warned… time to open thatbank account in Geneva… and call inFido2012!

“We’ve earmarked some cash to

make sure we keep on

improving the Zeus terminal.”

16

The reason being is that the “A Bigger Picture” exhibition is at The Royal Academy of Art and that it is anexhibition of the works of David Hockney RA.

Described as our greatest living artist, after this exhibition, David Hockney is certainly going to draw theattention of and admiration from a whole lot more people, as well as those who thought they knew all abouthim before.

Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire in 1937, Hockney attended the Royal College of Art from 1959 to 1962.He then moved to Los Angeles in 1964 and many people recognise this era of his work from such paintings as“A Bigger Splash”. He became a full member of the Royal Academy in 1991.

This exhibition is largely of works between 2004 and 2011 depicting the Yorkshire Wolds in many mediums,including oil and watercolour paintings, charcoal and iPad drawings, sketchbooks and even digital video films.There are also earlier landscapes and paintings which emanated from a long visit he made to be near a dyingfriend in Yorkshire in 1997.

Hockney is then out and about in the roads and woods, acutely aware of the seasons as some of hisancestors would also have been who worked on the land. This is reflected throughout the exhibition, such as hisnumerous paintings of Hawthorne Blossom where the season is short and he needed to be quick to capture itbefore it was gone.

There is an exquisite set of watercolours all mounted together on one large wall. These all come fromdirectly observing and physically rediscovering the landscape and every little thing in it.

The largest gallery contains 51 framed prints originating from iPad drawings which he refers to as an installation.He claims to be the first user of an iPad in the UK and finds its ease of use as an aid after much practice.

Hockney picks on one subject area, whether Thixendale Trees, Woldgate Woods or the farm track called“The Tunnel” and then depicts them through the seasons with all the colour and light changes that they bring.He then examines “trees and totems”, where a tree stump stars as does felled timbers, something we mightnormally just dismiss. He feels that he gets a freer rein in the studio not least, one might think, that it would bewarmer and you can see all the grids together.

The film work shown began with mounting nine cameras on a specially constructed grid attached to thebonnet of a jeep and then controlling the grid filming from the back seat to produce his “drawing of the scene.”In a cinema-like setting, he then pairs the grids together so you view a moving scene 18 screens or livingcanvasses wide. You might find it difficult to believe you are watching the side of a country road with suchinterest but from so many eyes.

Hockney’s parting words at the end of the exhibition are that he hopes the viewer will now find themselvesobserving things in the Countryside when Spring comes. Then to experience the thrill of that observation thatyou might not have had before. You will view landscapes in a new light and look for the changing seasons justas farmers live by them.

How many of us have taken a walk in the country without really seeing or remembering a thing. Not anymore you won’t, after this marvellous exposure to Hockney’s sheer love and dexterity with the use of vision.The exhibition runs to April 9th, I suggest you book now and enjoy or recommend it to friends or passengers.

Hockney at the Royal AcademyBy Company Secretary Robert MacDonald Watson

The chances are that you have been alreadybeen asked to go to, or that you will be

asked to go to The Royal Academysometime this year before the end of April

1. Winter Timber, 2009. Oil on fifteen canvases 274.3 x 609.6cm overall. Private collection. ©David Hockney. Photo credit: Jonathan Wilkinson.2. The Road across the Wolds, 1997, Oil on canvas, 121.9 x 152.4 cm Courtesy of Mrs Margaret Silver ©David Hockney. Photo credit: Steve Oliver.David Hockney RA: A Bigger Picture – 21 January 2012 to 9 April 2012.Exhibition organised by the Royal Academy of Arts, London in collaboration with the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne.

1 2

FOOTNOTE:When we asked the RA

for pictures it turned outthat Simone Sagi, the

young lady who isthe Press Officer, her father

is a taxi driver, soshe was delighted to be

able to help us.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG)has adopted a very un-Drake like, ‘Business as Unusual’ – preparing London for worstcase scenarios. There are certainly horror stories aplenty from Atlanta to Athens, of mass

disruption to public and private transport. Global traffic expertsINRIX, have even referred to the potential for a ‘Perfect Storm’ oftraffic congestion over the first three days of the Games because oftheir coinciding with the start of the school holidays. However isthis all just a clever piece of reverse psychology? Stressing the worsecase scenario, so when things turn out to be less chaotic thanpredicted, (which they inevitably will) LOCOG can claim a majorsuccess; ‘under promise and over deliver!’

Of course, the ‘Olympic Family’ will be spared any trafficdiscomfort as they have exclusive use of the much touted ‘OlympicRoute Network’ (ORN). Up to 80,000 officials, sponsors, politiciansand athletes will be whisked seamlessly along these congestion freelanes. This may or may not be urban myth; allegedly, as part of thebidding process to win the Olympics, the bid team had to commit toa service level delivery of 15 minutes from the main internationalairport to the main VIP hotels; that’s 15 minutes from Heathrow toPark Lane. I’m not sure if the small print specified ‘…at 2am in aPorsche with a police siren.’

LOCOG has been working closely with businesses in London formonths, stressing the potential issues; traffic congestion, impact ondeliveries etc. Generally our clients, other than those directly in theeye of the storm in Docklands, appear to be taking a sanguineapproach.

Fortunately August is traditionally a very quiet month for mostbusinesses in the city and also the Public Sector, thanks to schoolholidays and other factors such as the closure of the major law

courts. In addition, most businesses have responded by encouraging their staff to takeholidays, work from home, cancel appointments over this period or if they have to be inLondon, think about changing their work hours.

There are always exceptions to the rule and two of our more high profile clients willdefinitely find themselves in a situation of ‘business as unusual’ – for London Undergroundand London Overground it is set to be a very busy and stressful summer indeed. Radio Taxiswill of course be on hand to provide every support and assistance to them, so that thetravelling public can keep calm and carry on!

Roy Hughes,RT’s Head ofSales andAccountManagement

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‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON’ is the unofficialmotto of Great Britain Plc; this is how we managein situations of national stress – Sir Francis Drakecompleting his game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe,Sid James refusing to abandon ‘Tiffin’ in ‘Carry OnUp The Khyber’ – this is part of our national psyche.Will the Olympics disturb our national calm?Will Seb Coe become the Captain Mainwaring toBoris’ Private Jones?

Albert’s older brother Edward, Prince of Wales wasnext in line to the throne – so it was never envisagedthat Prince Albert and his family would one dayinherit the crown of King and Emperor and moveinto Buckingham Palace.

When King George V died on 20 January 1936,Edward naturally ascended the throne as KingEdward VIII. Only months into his reign, hecaused a constitutional crisis by proposingmarriage to the American socialite WallisSimpson, who had already divorced herfirst husband and was now seeking adivorce from her second. Againstadvice, rather than end hisrelationship with Simpson, Edwardabdicated. With a reign of only 326days, Edward was one of theshortest-reigning monarchs inBritish and Commonwealth history.He was never crowned.

King Edward was succeeded by hisyounger brother Albert, who chose the“Regnal name” George VI; thus GeorgeVI’s eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth,became first in the line of succession, asheiress presumptive.

George VI’s coronation took place on 12 May1937, the date previously intended for Edward’s coronation.George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth helped to keep up themorale of the nation throughout World War II.

Elizabeth had previously met her future husband, PrincePhilip of Greece and Denmark, in 1934 and then again in1937. After another meeting at the Royal Naval College inDartmouth in July 1939, Princess Elizabeth – though only 13years old – fell in love with Philip, and they began to exchangeletters.

They married on 20 November 1947 at WestminsterAbbey. They are second cousins once removed through King

Christian IX of Denmark and third cousins throughQueen Victoria.

On 31 January 1952, despite advice from those close tohim, the ailing King George went to the airport to see offPrincess Elizabeth, who was going on her tour of Australia via

Kenya. On the morning of 6 February, George VI wasdiscovered dead in bed at Sandringham House in

Norfolk. He had died from a coronarythrombosis in his sleep at the age of 56.

His daughter Elizabeth who was stayingat Treetops in Kenya, immediately flewback to Britain as Queen Elizabeth II.Despite the death of Queen Mary tenweeks before, the coronation ofQueen Elizabeth II went ahead on2 June 1953 as planned. Before shedied, Mary had asked that thecoronation not be delayed.The ceremony in WestminsterAbbey, was televised for the first time,

except for the actual anointing andcommunion; the coverage was

instrumental in boosting the medium’spopularity; the number of television

licences in the United Kingdom doubled to3 million, and more than 20 million British

viewers watched television for the first time in thehomes of their friends or their neighbours. In North

America, approximately 100 million viewers watchedrecorded broadcasts.

In a world where leaders are constantly changing, andwhatever you might think of British Royalty, it is a realtreasure to have such an enduring Monarch as QueenElizabeth II.

THE DIAMOND JUBILEE CELEBRATIONSThe Jubilee Concert is being organised by Gary Barlowfrom “Take That,” and it will showcase the best of pop,rock, classical and musical theatre from each decade ofthe monarch’s 60-year reign.

With an estimated live audience of just over 10,000people, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, andother members of the Royal Family will be in a specialsection to watch the show.

18

The Queenof DiamondsQueen Elizabeth II was born at 17 Bruton Street,Mayfair, on the 21st April, 1926 and she was theeldest of two children, her younger sisterPrincess Margaret, was born in 1930 and theywere the daughters of Prince Albert, Duke ofYork (2nd in line to the throne) and his wife LadyElizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

19

Artists confirmed include: Sir Elton John, Sir PaulMcCartney, Sir Cliff Richard, Annie Lennox, Sir TomJones, Dame Shirley Bassey, Jools Holland, Madnessand Jessie J will all be performing outside BuckinghamPalace in June.

The concert stage has been designed to encircle thestunning gold-encrusted Queen Victoria Memorialwhich stands at the front of the palace with seatingeither side.

Ten thousand tickets are to be given away through apublic ballot for the event, to be held outsideBuckingham Palace on June 4, while millions more will

be able to watch the musical extravaganza live on BBC1or listen in on Radio 2.

It is hoped that giant screens will also be erected inthe nearby Mall for members of the public not luckyenough to secure tickets to watch.

The late May Bank Holiday has been moved toMonday 4 June 2012 and an additional Jubilee BankHoliday will take place on Tuesday 5 June 2012.

It looks like being a great weekend with plenty ofwork for taxi-drivers around town.

Roger Sligo

Queen Victoria was the first and until now the only BritishMonarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee. The Queen, whowill be aged 85 on Accession Day in 2012, will be the oldestmonarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee. Queen Victoria was77 when she celebrated hers in 1897.

The Queen is the second longest serving monarch. Only fiveother Kings and Queens in British history have reigned for 50years or more. They are:

• Victoria (63 years)

• George III (59 years)

• Henry III (56 years)

• Edward III (50 years)

• James VI of Scotland (James I of England) (58 years)

Over the reign, Her Majesty has given regular audiencesto 12 Prime Ministers. They are:

• Winston Churchill 1951 – 55 • Sir Anthony Eden 1955 – 57 • Harold Macmillan 1957 – 63 • Sir Alec Douglas-Home 1963 – 64 • Harold Wilson 1964 – 70 and 1974 – 76 • Edward Heath 1970 – 74 • James Callaghan 1976 – 79 • Margaret Thatcher 1979 – 90 • John Major 1990 – 97 • Tony Blair 1997 – 2007• Gordon Brown 2007 – 2010• David Cameron 2010 – present

QUEEN ELIZABETH II STATISTICS

DECEMBER’SWHERE AM I?WINNER WAS…Robert Dulin, Baker 24,who correctly named

Salamanca Street,London SE1 as the place to find the

wall plaques. Robert will be receiving a £25 Marks &Spencer Gift Voucher. Salamanca is a city in western Spainwhere the Battle of Salamanca was fought on July 22, 1812between Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish armies under the Dukeof Wellington who defeated the French forces.

Can you write an amusing caption for thepicture of the rusting black cabs opposite? A bottle of Champagne will be awarded forthe most amusing caption. Email your entryto mvn.editor@radiotaxis.co.ukGood luck!

The MountviewAmusing CaptionCompetition

Geoffrey Riesel: Thank you very much indeed forcoming to talk to us. What I want to ask you first isabout the taxi industry being well known aroundthe world and seen as one of the enduring symbolsof London. What are your own views of London’staxi service?

Boris Johnson: I think London’staxi service is one of the greattransport services of London andlet’s be absolutely clear, there arehow many buses on the roads?8500 buses, you’ve got somethinglike 30,000 taxis on the streets ofthis city, black cabs, they are anintegral part of the identity of

London and they provide a service that no otherform of transport does. If you can’t get home late atnight because the tube has stopped running or ifyou can’t find a bus or if you don’t know where youare or where to go, there’s a taxi driver that can helpyou and that is an absolutely invaluable resource fora city so my job as mayor is to protect the taxi tradein any way that I can.

GR: Do you use taxis much and if so, have you got afavourite taxi story?

BJ: I use taxis a lot, I don’t tend to do it at a publicexpense which means that I have to be very carefulwith my expenditure and with taxpayers moneybecause obviously a key feature of our electoralcampaign is that we are not wasting your moneyfolks. One of my favourite taxi stories I supposemight be that my predecessor, the newt fancier, usedto take taxis at huge public expense and I don’tthink that any taxi driver would support that, wellthe individual who benefited from a £619 trip toBlackpool I suppose would as he did well out of it,but I think the taxpayer in the end doesn’t do wellby public abuse of taxpayers money.

GR: Taxi drivers spend their working lives aroundthe streets of London, what policies will youpropose in the future that you think will make lifebetter for them and of course for their passengers?

BJ: Well, the key thing that concerns me iscongestion and smoothing traffic flow andeverybody says ‘oh old Johnson’ he’s put in in loadsof these bloody bicycles, blooming bicycleseverywhere, cut them – he’s put in too manybicycles and they’re holding up the traffic. One ofthe most important things that we’ve done recentlyis to get the government after three years of solidwork to agree to lane rental for road works and thatmeans that there are 106 bodies that can dig up theroads without any kind of, virtually any permissionwhatsoever. We have now got a bill beforeparliament which will mean that they have to getpermission and they will have to pay for the timethey occupy the carriageway and that will mean thatall the roadwork companies, there are 106 of them,people who dig up the road, they will have to co-ordinate their activities, they will have to ring eachother up and say ‘listen we have got to take up thesurface now, do you want to come in and do it?’ andthat will mean they will have to reduce the timethey do it and that will reduce congestion.

Don’t forget 36% of delays are caused byroadworks congestion. I will tell you another thingI want to do, going forward in the next term, if I amlucky enough to get back. I think if you look at theother causes of congestion, 41% of delays arecaused by accidents and very often, I have to betotally honest with you and say that I don’t thinkthe accident is cleared away fast enough. I thinkthat we have got an issue with the insurancecompanies, with the procedures, with some of thebureaucracy that prevents the police from simplysaying OK there’s nothing to see, there’s no moreneed to close the carriageway, there’s no more needto close the road, we’re going to open it up. So I amtalking to the Met to see what we can do to speedthat up because that is a huge unacknowledgedcause of delays on our roads. The third thing I wouldsay is that it is high time we had investment in roads.Roads are the kind of unacknowledged cousin of thetransport system in this city. We always talk about thetube, we go on and on about the buses and what weare going to do to make life safer. We have done ahuge amount to make life safer on the tube, but lookat our roads, our roads are the life blood of theLondon economy, 60% of journeys are still made bycar or on the road particularly in outer London,you’ve got to do things to improve traffic flow and tomake life easier for people and I am convinced thatyou can do those things if you get the right investmentwithout prejudicing pedestrians or cyclists and we

20

Geoffrey Riesel intervieConservative Party Can

GR: London’s taxi industry is based upon drivers with highstandards, with knowledge, purpose built vehicles, can theindustry have confidence that you will continue to support theindustry as you have done in your first term, particularly if youare re-elected as Mayor?

BJ: Of course it can, I really think that as Mayor we dideverything we could, I am the man who put representative of thelicensed taxi trade on the board of TfL and as long as I amMayor there will be a representative of the taxi trade on theboard of TfL that tells me what the concerns of the trade are andI have regular meetings, not just with Bob Oddy, but with otherrepresentatives as well. We talk about the issues, I am a believerin London taxis, they are an absolutely invaluable part of ourtransport network, we want to support them.

GR: You are probably aware about the Law Commissioncurrently reviewing a framework for taxi and private hirelicensing standards right across the country. Do you agree withus that this is an issue that should remain in the remit ofTransport for London, the GLA and the Mayor and that thestandards of the taxi industry in London shouldn’t be watereddown to meet the rest of the country?

BJ: Absolutely right and that’s why I weighed in on this businesswith the CRB checks – they were trying to water all that down,I won’t have that. People in London deserve to feel that they’vegot an absolutely world-class service and it is a world-classservice, we’re not going to have any watering down. Peoplerespect the London taxi trade, they know what kind of servicethey are going to get when they get on board a London taxi andit’s vital we don’t have any attempt to water that down.

GR: Boris, you’ve had four years of being the Mayor; you’veobviously enjoyed it because you’re putting your name in the hatagain. Do you have a message for the 2500 drivers of ourcompany; Radio Taxis, but also for the wider community of thetaxi industry and also for all of our customers in other words,Londoners in general?

BJ: Yes, I do. I just want to thank you and everybody for whatyou’re doing to make London a great city, for the service that youprovide which I think is world-class and I would very much likeyou to support me as the guy who’s going to stick up for the taxitrade in our city and a final thought: Don’t write off the Olympicsfolks, it could well be a great opportunity to make money.

GR: Boris – thank you very much indeed.

BJ: Thank you very much for having me on. Thank you.

are going to be bringing forward a package of improvements forthe roads which I think will be of great benefit to taxi driversand to traffic in London.

GR: The Olympic Route Network – taxi drivers’ favourite subject –Why can’t they use it or is there any opportunity that you thinkthey might be able to use the Network?

BJ: Don’t forget this is a network that was going to be 240kilometres long, this is the limit agreed to in the Olympic bidbook and we have got it down to 70 kilometres long. It is onlygoing to be in operation for 16 days in peak operation with acouple of days either side. I really say to taxi drivers wheneverI am talking to them, don’t get this wrong we are expecting 5.5million visitors to London in the Games, don’t pack up, don’tput a tarpaulin over the thing and go off to Marbella, don’t flee,this is going to be an opportunity for everybody to do well andprovided you know where the route network is going to be,provided you understand how it is going to operate, there is anopportunity to make money and it is very, very important thattaxi drivers, like all London businesses, plan, prepare and profitfrom the Games.

GR: Taxi drivers often complain that they think that there isn’tenough enforcement against illegal touts plying for hire andranking up where touts shouldn’t. Can you promise any furtheraction on this and what would you do also about their otherfavourite subject which is (Boris shouts ‘Rickshaws’) pedi-cabs?

BJ: On pedi-cabs, I would love to be able to ban them, I can’t,I don’t have the statutory power, we have looked into thisendlessly, round about a billion times, we do not have the power.I can’t say that what is effectively a non-motorised vehicle on theQueen’s highway, I can’t just ban it. I think they are a danger.I often come into conflict with them when I am cycling, I see theproblems when I am driving, I don’t think they are safe. What weare doing is we are regulating, we are cracking down and thepolice have strict instructions to make sure they go very hard onrickshaw drivers, pedi-cabs who are causing difficulties and I thinkwe’ve had a big surge in that recently. On minicabs and unlicensedminicabs, we have already done a lot and we are going to do more.I think we increased the team, the people who are cracking downon them by 34, from memory in the last year, that’s 2010 – 2011for which we have figures, we’ve arrested 1300 minicab drivers,that’s a massive increase and we are going to keep doing that anddon’t be in any doubt that these people, unlicensed minicabs are amenace to London, they are undermining the taxi trade, they arevery often a threat to women, it is vital that people are aware ofthe risks and that unlicensed minicabs are driven off our streetsand that’s what we are doing.

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ews Boris Johnson,ndidate for Mayor of London

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Geoffrey Riesel: Thank you very much Ken forcoming and talking to us, it’s really appreciated.London’s taxi industry is recognised around theworld and seen as one of the enduring symbols ofLondon. What are your own views about the role ofLondon’s taxi service?

Ken Livingstone: I think it’s mostprobably, as you say, a real icon ofLondon. Everyone who comes toLondon looks for a red bus and ablack cab so I wasn’t happy whensome of the cabs started havingadvertising on the outside, and thestandard that’s set is amazing.I remember getting in a cab in New

York and asking to go to the Natural HistoryMuseum and they dropped me on the wrong side ofCentral Park. The Knowledge, I know it’s difficultand it takes a long time but it gives so much moreconfidence that you’ll get in a cab and the personknows where to go, knows the best and quickest wayto get there and that’s why we fought all theattempts to downgrade The Knowledge or justreplace it with a SatNav or something.

GR: Every taxi driver in London knows who youare. Do you enjoy using taxis and have you got afavourite taxi story?

KL: Well, I use cabs quite a lot, both minicabs andblack cabs. I live in an area where you almost onlysee a black cab parked outside Willesden Greenonce a year in the rank there. I suppose myfavourite story is about a year ago when I got in ablack cab, this was at Finchley Road station with allmy shopping and he went on about ‘I used to hateyou when you were Mayor and I was so glad whenI voted for Boris and you lost… but I’m voting foryou next time’ – (laughing) now that is my favouritestory. I think this was after they closed the carriageoffice. I never recall anyone in TfL coming to meand saying to me ‘we need to close the carriageoffice’. I can’t see why because it was such a focalpoint and part of the culture of the cab trade.

GR: Taxi drivers spend their working lives onLondon’s roads, what policies if you are re-electedwould you introduce that you think would make lifebetter for them and for their passengers?

KL: Well, I think of all that we do to encourage peopleto use public transport and reduce car usage; I meanbasically central London streets are always just belowgridlock point; the congestion charge bought us a bitof time but the scale of road works and the delays.I remember it took something like 8 months on WestEnd Lane on that stretch between the three stations toreplace about 75 metres of gas main. It just seems tome, if you know that you are going to replace a gasmain, you order the gas main pipes, you dig the hole,you put them in and then you put a road back in.I’d go there and day after day and there might be oneperson working on this blocked off bit of road and soI think we need to be absolutely rigorous in this. Thenext most important thing to make London work andfor people to get around is to have a real crackdownon those utilities that just don’t give a damn.

GR: Taxi drivers’ favourite question about thembeing able to or not being able to use the OlympicRoute Network – What are your thoughts on that?

KL: Well, when we bid for the Olympic Games wewere told that there had been a real catastrophe atAtlanta; virtually no public transport in Atlanta;and athletes missed the games and so on and I haveno objection to lanes that are there to allow officialsthat are running the games and athletes gettingthere. We also need to remember that almost all theathletes are actually in the Olympic village.

But what seems to be more the reality is lanesfor the sponsors and the corporates and I thinkthat’s a real resentment, that isn’t justified and it iscertainly, if I hadn’t lost the last election, is one ofthe things I remember saying to myself, ‘I reallywant to talk to the Organising Committee aboutthis.’ It is going to be a potential PR nightmare forthem and certainly it’s only a desperately short timeof 10 weeks but I wonder whether or not we couldhave allowed not just black cabs but buses to usethose Olympic lanes. What I can’t understand iswhy it has all been left to the last minute.I intended in 2009 to sort these issues out, as well aswhat you’re going to pay the tube drivers and busdrivers to work during the Olympics. Leaving it latemeans we are hostages to fortune.

GR: Taxi drivers are concerned about enforcementof touting, illegal touts, illegal minicabs and theother thing they are concerned about is their otherfavourite question about, is there anything youthink we can do about pedi-cabs?

Geoffrey Riesel intervieLabour Party Candidat

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KL: We are a great world city in competition with New York andTokyo and Shanghai and the standard you have to have to be in thatsort of competition of course has a whole range of things, it needsto be better than just the average for cities that aren’t in the centreof local attention and therefore standards we set on things that areabsolutely crucial and one of those is our black cab trade which isknown around the world. The Chinese government has nowbasically adopted the black cab for China and it’s building no doubtmillions of them out there, we should hang on to that. The otherthing is everything I ever had to deal with in central governmentwas slow, indecisive and usually wrong at the end of the day. If itwas up to me, it wouldn’t just be that I’d keep the regulation of thecab trade in the Mayor’s office, I’d actually declare independenceand run the whole city. They can’t even run hospitals in London,everything government does in London it gets wrong.

GR: You’ve already been Mayor for eight years, it’s obvious thatyou enjoyed it because you’ve thrown your hat in the ring again.Do you have a message first of all for Radio Taxis drivers, 2500 ofthem, for the taxi industry in general and of course the widercommunity our customers in other words, Londoners in general.

KL: One small thing which will help the congestion is we aregoing to bring in what San Francisco now does which is peopledriving around San Francisco on their mobile phone will be toldwhere the nearest available parking space is and given what ishappening in Westminster, that’s becoming more and moreimportant. The big multi-storey blocks, slots on the streets, alldone on a simple computer system because the Mayor of SanFrancisco discovered that a fifth of the cars in San Francisco weredriving around looking for somewhere to park so that would beanother small little thing that would help. Secondly, if black cabdrivers vote for me they will live longer because we are going totackle air quality and black cab drivers must be just about themost vulnerable people because they are there breathing in thefumes all the day and there is a real danger that London is goingto be fined £300 million because of our bad air quality by theEU so you’ve just got to tackle this. The government, allgovernments have been hiding just how bad it is and we nowknow that at least 4,000 perhaps 6,000 people die prematurely ayear and by premature you don’t mean a few months, on average11 years, so air quality, we have got to do something about andI want to see cab drivers live as long as possible to complainabout my mayoralty.

GR: Ken – Thank you very much indeed and we wish you thebest of luck.

KL: Thanks very much.

KL: Well, if I had legislative power, I would say we wouldn’t havepedi-cabs. I think they are inherently dangerous, they take up aridiculous amount of space for the passenger miles they actuallyproduce, so I would just simply ban them. It might be that youhave to regulate them so hard that you get rid of them basicallythat way. The touts are a much more serious problem becausethat’s where most of the rapes that happen to women after anight out on the town. Boris has now admitted that they’ve cut1700 police posts over the last two years and I think thecrackdown on touts is always a thing you need to keep pressureon the police to do. There’s always other things; policing theOccupy demonstration and all that and it tends to slip off.I remember if I said I wanted to come on an operation andthey’re all geared up, they’ll keep that pressure on. I suspect withthe loss of the police numbers it’s one of the things that slippeddown the list of priorities and I’d want to reinstate it. I’ve given acommitment that we’ll refill all those 1700 lost posts so there willbe the capacity there for the police to actually do their job.

GR: The taxi industry in London is based as you know on driverswith knowledge and high standards, can the industry have confidencethat if re-elected they can continue to secure your support as Mayor?

KL: The good thing about this election as opposed to the lastone is that people can compare my record with Boris’. Last timehe just promised to match everything I was doing and do better.People can now see we’ve got less police, the tube and bus faresincrease has been horrendous and really hit people and thingslike the carriage office being closed without any warning.Boris didn’t get up and say ‘vote for me, I’ll close the carriageoffice’ and I think that’s why this time he’s going to great lengthsto avoid debates, we had one in front of old age pensioners acouple of weeks ago which he comprehensively lost and he’s dueto do one more in March and one in April – I’m happy to do onea day because I think having records to compare is a good thing.There was a very good article in the Guardian G2 Magazinelooking at Boris’ record and in conclusion; yes you’ve got themost expensive cable car in the world under construction; hepresided over building the helter skelter in the Olympic park;he’s got the cycle hire scheme where each bike and dockingstation comes in at £12,000; and he’s bought the most expensivebus in human history, but that’s about it.

GR: The Government and Law Commission are currentlyreviewing the framework for taxi and private hire licensingstandards across the country. Do you agree with us that this is anissue that should remain within the remit of the Mayor, TfL, theGLA and that London’s very high standards should not bewatered down to those of the rest of the country?

ews Ken Livingstone,te for Mayor of London

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Geoffrey Riesel: Brian, thank you verymuch for agreeing to be interviewed byRadio Taxis. The taxi industry is recognisedaround the world and is seen as one of thegreat icons of London. What are you ownviews of the role of the London taxisindustry?

Brian Paddick: Taxis are as much a part ofLondon as the big double decker bus, that’swhat tourists come to see, that’s whatpeople think of London. Taxis are anabsolutely integral part of London

GR: Do you use taxis much? If so have youa favourite taxi story?

BP: Well, I am a terrible time-keeper and ofcourse I get involved in things and the nextthing you know, you haven’t got enough timeto use public transport to get to where youwant to go. The only option is to come outand hail a cab and I can’t tell you the numberof times black cabs have saved my bacon.

GR: Taxi drivers spend their working liveson the road. If elected Mayor of London,what policies do you propose that will makeor could make life better for them?

BP: We have got to put pressure on localauthorities to be more reasonable aroundparking, particularly parking around publictoilets and, in fact, to increase the numberof public toilets. I am a middle-aged man,I know what it’s like and it must be

absolutely hell for taxi drivers, and toprosecute people just because they arehaving a pee, has got to be beyond what isreasonable. Local authorities seem to be verylenient when it comes to private hire interms of parking on yellow lines and yetblack cabs even if you’re stopping to allow acustomer to get some cash you get a ticket.So I am going to put pressure on localauthorities to be even handed about this andto be fairer to cabs as far as parking isconcerned.

GR: Do you think you might try and putpressure on to help taxis use the OlympicRoute Network?

BP: The Liberal Democrats at the LondonAssembly have been quite clear on this.Caroline Pidgeon, my candidate for deputymayor, has been pressing Boris Johnson totry and get cabs access to the Olympicroutes and we will continue to press forthat. If I become Mayor, Taxis will be able touse the Olympic routes.

GR: Many cab drivers complain that thereisn’t enough enforcement against illegaltouts. What would you do about this, ifanything, and what do you think of thesubject of pedi-cabs?

BP: Well I think there are some great placeswhere pedi-cabs can be used – unfortunatelythey’re all in Asia! We don’t need them,they’re a bloody nuisance and they’redangerous. So I would seek to get whateverlegislation I need to ban pedi-cabscompletely. As far as plying for hire isconcerned, what is the point of doing theknowledge of having very regulated vehiclesif the only difference between a private hireand a licensed taxi is plying for hire and yetthe police don’t enforce and TfL don’tenforce touting minicabs. We have got toenforce that rule otherwise there’s no pointin having that distinction between the twotypes of vehicle.

Geoffrey Riesel intervieLib Dem Party Candida

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GR: Ken Livingston once said that London’s trafficlights are set to deter traffic from coming into London.Is there a possibility you’ll take a more positiveapproach to ensuring that traffic flows?

BP: My favourite stretch is from Thornton Heathcoming up to Streatham Hill. I mean, it’s just absolutelyridiculous: every single phase of traffic lights, every set oftraffic lights you go through, it’s a red. We have got tomake sure taxis and buses run to time and can get totheir destinations quickly. If anything, we should try andget more bus lanes which taxis can use with prioritylights to make sure that the taxis and the buses can getthrough and hold back the private cars.

GR: How would you deal with London’s need forgreater airport capacity?

BP: People are saying we need more to flights to China,and India and to South America, but there isn’t enoughrunway capacity. Well, British Airways have found ananswer; they have put three more flights on to Rioevery week by cutting down on some of the Europeanflights. In terms of overall capacity, it’s not theterminals, new terminal 2 coming online is going to beable handle a couple of million extra passengers everyyear. It’s the runways. Well, we’ve got the Airbus A380and the Boeing Dream-Liner; both can carry a lot morepassengers than even a Jumbo jet can. We can increasecapacity in that way.

GR: Brian, thank you very much, is there anything elseyou would like to add or any statement you would liketo make not just for the taxi trade, but to Radio Taxiscustomers?

BP: What I would say is, we’re tired of the same old,same old in London. The last two people have hadtheir go. Taxis drivers that talk to me say they were fedup with Ken and now they’re fed up of Boris, well nowit’s time for Brian Paddick.

GR: Do you see the taxi industry as part of the publictransport infrastructure and if you do, how wouldensure that the taxi industry has a voice in the publicadministration?

BP: Well, the fact that there are taxis that you canactually go out and hail on the street means,thankfully, thousands of Londoners don’t have to bringtheir own private cars into London because it would begridlock if they do. So we’ve got to have democraticallyelected taxi representatives on the TfL board and infact I think we need to go further than that, nobodyknows London’s roads better than taxi drivers and weneed to inject some common sense into TfL,particularly when it comes to new road layouts, when itcomes to things like road works and diversions.

GR: The taxi industry is based upon drivers withknowledge, with purpose built vehicles and of course,the industry believes that it is important to maintainvery high standards. Can the industry have confidencein you that you’ll ensure that this continues if you areelected as Mayor?

BP: Well, I’ve been toNew York quite a lotrecently and thedifference betweenLondon cabs and NewYork cabs, I mean, you’relucky if you get someonewho can speak English fora kick-off – this is in New

York I’m talking about. The standard of cabs is terrible;they don’t know where they’re going. We really have topreserve what we have in London which has got to bethe best taxi service in the world.

GR: The law commission is currently reviewing thenational framework for taxis and private hire. Do youagree that this is an issue that in the capital, shouldremain within the remit of TfL, and that highstandards in London should not be watered down tomatch those in the rest of the country.

BP: To be honest with you, I think it was better whenthe Met Police ran the whole thing, but I would saythat as a former copper, wouldn’t I? No, there is noproblem in London. The system isn’t broken; we don’tneed to fix it. Thanks very much, take yourcommission elsewhere.

ews Brian Paddick,ate for Mayor of London

except for the description of the Cratchit’s home in ‘A ChristmasCarol’, where the dwelling is undoubtedly modelled from.

His elder sister Fanny was beginning her four years of study atthe Royal Academy of Music, whilst Charles felt his own dejectionof a good education. His debt ridden father had to move thefamily on to another house, this time at number 4 Gower StreetNorth, where Dickens’s mother tried to help with the familyfinance by opening a school; a large brass plate on the doorannounced ‘MRS DICKENS ESTABLISHMENT.’ Unfortunatelynobody ever came and John Dickens with such little skills infinancial management was soon incarcerated within the walls ofthe Marshalsea Prison for Debtors.

HARD TIMESIt was during 1824 whilst John Dickens was imprisoned inSouthwark for about eight months that most of the familyaccompanied him, with the exception of 12 year old Charles, whobroke down in tears from his despair, and rented lodgings weresoon found for him in a nearby attic at Lant Street.

Young Charles was now close enough to the prison for him tohave breakfast and supper with the rest of the family.The incarceration was brought to an end with the sudden death ofElizabeth Dickens, paternal grandmother of Charles, wherebyJohn Dickens inherited £450 and was subsequently released.

The house where Charles lodged in Lant Street belonged to theVestry Clerk of St George’s Church; the church next to theprison is still standing after recently undergoing a fullrestoration. Nothing however of the house in Lant Street remains,

the only reminder ofDickens’s tenancy on thesite, which is now occupiedby an old school building, isa blue plaque.

Part of the Marshalsea Prison wall in Angel Court is still standing(see above).

At the tender age of 12 Charles, a well spoken and well broughtup youngster was plunged into Warren’s Boot Blacking Companyat 30 Hungerford Steps, which stood close to present dayHungerford Railway Bridge, near the Embankment UndergroundStation. The Thames was not embanked in those times, and thewider-river would lap against the wooden steps of Warren’s.

The Blacking factory became the inspiration for Murdstoneand Grinby’s in ‘David Copperfield’. The factory is described in thenovel as ‘a crazy old house with a wharf of its own, abutting on the

“There is no writer, in my opinion, who is so much a painter and ablack-and-white artist as Dickens. His figures are resurrections.” –Vincent Van Gogh.

Immensely popular in his day, Charles Dickens’s stories are stillas relevant and entertaining as ever, his characters are as real andexciting as they always have been. Dickens name will forever belinked to London although he wasn’t born there, he didn’t diethere; however he did spend most of his working life as a writer inthe metropolis of this great city. His association as a Londoner arethrough his many novels dealing with the squalor, hardships andeveryday life of the underclass in Victorian London. Dickens andLondon are forever bound together, one of the same. Today, 200years after his birth, Charles Dickens is acknowledged as the mostfamous London writer of all time.

“IT IS A SILENT, SHADY PLACE” – (Charles Dickens, Master Humphrey’s Clock”)The Charles Dickens story is one of rags to riches. He was born onFriday the 7th February 1812 at Portsea, a suburb of Portsmouth.His father John was a clerk in the Navy pay-office attached toPortsmouth dockyard. At the age of three, Charles and theDickens family moved to London.

Their first home in the capital was at number 10 NorfolkStreet, (present day – 22 Cleveland Street) where Charles was tospend the next two years of his life. Just a few yards from theirhome, in the same street, stood a workhouse, which surprisinglyenough, still remains (recently reprieved from demolition) it issaid to be where Master Oliver Twist’s workhouse was based on.

Just two years after moving in, John Dickens was posted to theChatham Dockyards. It was whilst at Chatham that Dickens hadthe happiest years of his childhood, much of which he laterrecalled in his writings.

The next time young Dickens set eyes on London again was inthe winter of 1822, when his father was transferred to SomersetHouse in the Strand. The family arrived back in London by stagecoach, arriving at the Golden Cross, where Charing Cross standstoday. They would have had to walk to their new home, as therewas no other transport in those days and a cab ride was out oftheir price range. Walking through Charing Cross Road, thenthrough Tottenham Court Road and Hampstead Road they wouldhave finally finished their journey at 16 Bayham Street; enteringinto one of the smallest houses in Camden Town, in one of thepoorest parts of London. Nothing of this property has survived;

26

A Tale of Two Centuries – The Bic

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water when the tide was in, and on the mud when the tide was out,and literally overrun with rats’.

The journey to and from work, from the families temporarylodgings near Kentish Town, was done on foot. Literally hundredsof people would walk in the same direction each morning on theirway to their various workplaces. Walking was the only way to getanywhere, as there were no trains, buses, or even bicycles. HackneyCoaches were only for the very affluent in society, or for specialoccasions such as weddings.

Dickens suffered humiliation blackening boots in front of thewindow. Whilst working, his mind must have been soaking up thevarious characters he would see every day. An older boy he workedalongside, and who took him under his wing, was Bob Fagin – hisname would be used for the boss of a den of young thieves – livingin a hovel off Shoe Lane.

One day Dickens got into some trouble with his bosses andwas sent home, only to be taken back to Warren’s the nextmorning by his mother. His six shillings wages each week was stillneeded to help with the rent and therefore his boot blackeningdays needed to continue.

With unconcealed detestation, he describes the premises atHungerford Stairs (below) where the blacking factory was located.

He called it: ‘A crazy,tumbledown house withrotten floors and staircase,dirty and decaying, with ratsswarming down in the cellar.’

He describes the miseryof a child with a vividimagination carrying out adirty, repetitive, dreary jobfrom morning till night,

eight o’clock in the morning to six o’clock at night, ten hours aday, Monday to Saturday, washing and putting labels onthousands of pots of blacking.

Better times were on the way however, and before too longCharles found himself eventually attending the Wellington HouseAcademy, on the corner of Granby Terrace and Hampstead Road,where he was to be given an education.

The Wellington House Academy was not a good school.The headmaster’s sadistic brutality, the seedy ushers and generalrun-down atmosphere, are embodied in Mr Creakle’sEstablishment in ‘David Copperfield’.

Dickens worked at the law office of Ellis & Blackmore,attorneys, at Grays Inn, as a junior clerk from May 1827 toNovember 1828. Then, having learned Gurney’s system ofshorthand in his spare time, he left to become afreelance reporter. A distant relative, ThomasCharlton, was a freelance reporter at Doctors’Commons, and Dickens was able to share his boxthere to report the legal proceedings for nearlyfour years. This education informed works such as‘Nicholas Nickleby’, ‘Dombey and Son’, andespecially ‘Bleak House’ – whose vivid portrayal ofthe machinations and bureaucracy of the legalsystem did much to enlighten the general publicand was a vehicle for dissemination of Dickens’sown views regarding, particularly, the heavyburden on the poor who were forced bycircumstances to “go to law”.

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entenary of Charles DickensIT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES; IT WAS

THE WORST OF TIMESIn 1830, Dickens met his first love, Maria Beadnell, thought tohave been the model for the character Dora in ‘David Copperfield’.Maria’s parents disapproved of the courtship and effectively endedthe relationship by sending her to school in Paris.

In 1833 Dickens’s first story, ‘A Dinner at Poplar Walk’ waspublished in the London periodical, Monthly Magazine.

The following year he rented rooms at Furnival’s Innbecoming a political journalist, reporting on parliamentary debateand travelling across Britain to cover election campaigns for theMorning Chronicle. His journalism, in the form of sketches inperiodicals, formed his first collection of pieces Sketches by Bozpublished in 1836. This led to the serialisation of his first novel,‘The Pickwick Papers’, in March 1836. He continued to contributeto and edit journals throughout his literary career.

On 2 April 1836, he married Catherine Thomson Hogarththe daughter of George Hogarth, editor ofthe Evening Chronicle, at St Luke’s Church,Sydney Street Chelsea. After a briefhoneymoon at Chalk in Kent, they set uphome for a short time at number 11 SelwoodTerrace, Chelsea – before moving ontoDoughty Street, Bloomsbury and variousother London addresses. They were to haveten children together – although their

marriage was not a happy one; however it endured for twenty-twoyears. Dickens formed a bond with the actresses, Ellen Ternan(left), which was to last the rest of his life. He separated from hiswife, Catherine, in 1858 – divorce was still unthinkable forsomeone as famous as he was.

THE FINAL YEARSDickens fame grew internationally with visits to many parts of theworld including America. Like a pop star of his day he was touringand doing book readings to audiences in packed theatres.

While returning from Paris on 9 June 1865, with his mistressEllen Ternan, Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst (in Kent)rail crash. The first seven carriages of the train plunged off a castiron bridge undergoing repair. The only first-class carriage toremain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travellingin. Dickens tried to help the wounded and the dying beforerescuers arrived. As he was leaving the train, he remembered theunfinished manuscript for ‘Our Mutual Friend’, and he returnedto his carriage to retrieve it.

Dickens managed to avoid an appearance at the inquest, and thushaving to disclose details of him travelling with Ternan

and her mother, which would have caused a scandal.Although physically unharmed, Dickens never reallyrecovered from the trauma of the Staplehurst crash,and his normally prolific writing shrank tocompleting ‘Our Mutual Friend’ and starting theunfinished ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’.

Much of his time was taken up with publicreadings from his best-loved novels. Dickens wasfascinated by the theatre as an escape from theworld; theatres and theatrical people appear in‘Nicholas Nickleby’. The travelling shows wereextremely popular. In 1866, a series of publicreadings were undertaken in England and Scotland.

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The following year saw more readings in England and Ireland.On 8 June 1870, Dickens suffered a stroke at his at home Gad’s

Hill Place. He had been working all day on ‘Edwin Drood’.He came downstairs to his sitting room complaining of atoothache, and then fell unconscious on the floor. The next day,on 9 June, exactly five years to the day after the Staplehurst railcrash, he died, never having regained consciousness.

Contrary to his wish to be buried at Rochester Cathedral“in an inexpensive, unostentatious, and strictly private manner,”he was laid to rest in the Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey.

THE MUSEUM OF LONDON – CHARLES DICKENS EXHIBITION

To celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, theMuseum of London has recreated the atmosphere of VictorianLondon through sound and projections; here you’ll be taken on ahaunting journey to discover the city that inspired his writings.

Paintings, photographs, costumes and objects illustrate themesthat Dickens wove into his works, while rarely seen manuscriptsincluding ‘Bleak House’ and ‘David Copperfield’ – written inthe author’s own hand – offer clues to his creative genius.

I went one Friday afternoon in January and wasstruck by the amount of Dickens artefacts whichwere on display. There is everything from a nightwatchman’s box; a door from Newgate Prison;bollards from Fenchurch Street; his leather boundchair and writing desk; signed cheques andmanuscripts with proof reader’s alterations.

During my visit I discovered how Dickens’schildhood experiences of London, working in a blackingfactory while his father was locked away in a debtor’sprison, were introduced into the stories he wrote. The greatsocial questions of the 19th century, including wealth and poverty,prostitution, childhood mortality and philanthropy, is alsoexamined, all of which set the scene for Dickens’ greatest works.

There is also the painting; Dickens’ Dream, 1875 by RobertWilliam Buss, (on loan from The Dickens Museum) on display bythe side of his writing desk.

Buss’s painting has placed Dickens asleep in his study at Gad’sHill Place, Higham, Kent. Despite being rejected by Dickens as anillustrator of ‘The Pickwick Papers’ in 1836, Buss began this workin homage to the author after his death in 1870. Buss in turn diedin 1875, leaving the work unfinished, just as Dickens had failed tocomplete ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’. Scenes and charactersfrom this novel feature prominently near Dickens in the paintingand have been coloured in. The watercolour has become perhapsthe most famous visual interpretation of the imagination ofDickens and his fictional creations.

Best of all I would say is the commissioned film by one ofthe UK’s leading documentary filmmakers, William Raban, whichexplores the similarities between London after dark today and the

night time city described byDickens over 150 years ago.The narrative from Dickens as hewalks Victorian London show howlittle things have changed.

Dickens was an insomniacwho thought nothing of walkingthe London streets all night long.Through these regular excursions,he developed an encyclopedicknowledge of London. He hadwhat we would describe today as aphotographic memory. As he

walked, he outlined the intricate storylines, just how his fictionalcharacters would walk from street to street, as he followed in theirfootsteps across the city.

As a young lad Dickens had wanted to become an actor andhad made arrangements for an audition, although unfortunately abad cold prevented him from taking part. All his life he was anactor at heart. He loved Shakespeare and in the late 1840’s Dickens

helped raise funds to save Shakespeare’s house in Stratfordon Avon.

Dickens creations leap off the pages – you onlyhave to call somebody a ‘Scrooge’ and everyone willknow exactly what you mean. Some of the names heinvented came from people he knew – a neighbour,known to be a miser by the name of Goodge, and alocal cheesemonger called Marley became Scroogeand Marley in ‘A Christmas Carol’.

William Sykes sold tallow and oil for lampsfrom a shop at 11 Cleveland Street just a few doors

away from Dickens house at 22 Cleveland Street.Opposite was a cobbler named Dan Weller – who appears

as Sam Weller in ‘The Pickwick Papers.’After he became famous, Dickens helped popularise the term

“red tape” to describe the bureaucracy in positions of power thatparticularly hurt the weak and poor.

One of the things Dickens cared about most was those at thebottom. He was one of the first to offer an unflinching look at theunderclass and the poverty stricken in Victorian London. It was notuntil after his death that the worldwas made aware of his humble startin life.

If you have never read any ofDickens’s books and would like tostart with an easy one whichyou can pick up and put down,then ‘Sketches by Boz’ (£8.83 fromAmazon) is a good one to buy.Every chapter is a short lookat London life. ‘Hackney-CoachStands’ is an ideal chapter to startyou off with.

Roger Sligo

Key to the images in this article:� Dickens Dream, 1875 by Robert William Buss ©Charles Dickens Museum.

� Hungerford Stairs, 1830 by John Harley ©Museum of London.

� Ellen Ternan ©Charles Dickens Museum.

� Portrait of Charles Dickens c.1849 ©Museum of London

� Dickens with his daughters Mary & Kate in the garden at Gad’s Hill Place, 1865 ©Charles Dickens Museum.

Charles Dickens’s chair, c.1858 ©Museum of London. (Charles Dickens’s chair, at which he wrote‘A Tale of Two Cities’. Upholstered & buttoned leather chair with turned legs decorated with acanthus leaves,formerly belonged to Charles Dickens. Dickens was photographed at this chair several times around 1859.The chair carries a silver plate engraved with its history).

Coutts bank order signed by Charles Dickens ©Museum of London.

� Charles Dickens in his study, 1859 by William Powell Frith, London, ©Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

�

�

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YOU MIGHT RECALL IN LASTDecember’s issue ofMountview News, whilst Iwas visiting the Eco FriendlyMarshalls at St PancrasStation, where, I was offereda chance to take up theSmarter Driving Course.

I was invited along to M&O’s showrooms in BreweryRoad, for my drive, which took place at the beginning ofFebruary.

I met up with my instructor Mervin Walker in thereception area, where he explained a little about hisbackground and what the aim of the driving course isall about.

Mervin told me he has been a driving instructor for thepast 25 years and for the last 4 or 5 years, he has been doingthe smarter driving course. “Basically I have been doing posttest training, especially eco training, getting people to learnhow to drive in a more fuel efficient way” he told me.

He went on to say; “What it is we are looking for is waysto show you new ideas that you can add to your driving skillsthat is going to enhance your awareness and save you fuel.It has worked on every single person I have taken out so far.I have been able to save drivers anything from 2 miles pergallon upwards to 12 miles per gallon. What we are lookingfor is driving style and how we can enhance it.”

“What does the driving course entail?” I asked. “Let meexplain how we are going to run this course, we are going todo 3 laps in a route just under 5 miles; on the first driveI would like you to drive as you normally do, treat me as afare if you like – don’t charge me – but treat me like a fare.”He said jokingly.

“When we return I will take an overview of your drivingas it is, and then discuss something we can do to save on fuel.We will then go on a second run exactly the same route asbefore, where I will be coaching you, and then we will do thefinal run, where you can put the ideas into practice yourself,with less input from me, and see how well you’ve improved.”

As we walked into the parking area I got my first sightof the ‘Energy Saving Trusts’ taxi I was about to drive –a brand new TX4 Euro Five, fully plated and ready to go.I got into the driving seat with the smell of a brand newcab interior filling the air! It felt a little like it did all thoseyears ago, when I was doing my drive at Southgate Road,with PCO driving examiner the late Mr Parker.

My first lap driven in my own style was I must admit,a little more careful than I would have driven in my ownfamiliar cab. After the journey Mervin invited me to chatwith him in the back of the cab.

Mervin checked my data from his meter in the back,

and announcing an average speed of 14 miles an hourand 23.4 miles to the gallon. “What I say at this stage”said Mervin “is what I’ve said to every other driver is

thanks for a nice drive.”“What did I do wrong?” I asked. “You did nothing

wrong, your driving was everything I would expect from aLondon cabby, absolutely fine” he said reassuringly. He thenwent on to explain how I could improve my fuelconsumption before I was back in the driving seat for lap2 and under the watchful eyes of my instructor.

This lap was like a driver’s awareness exercise, withMelvin teaching me how to read ahead of the road andhow to keep moving without having to stop unless reallynecessary. When a vehicle keeps moving it uses up less fuelthan when pulling off from a stationary position. I mustadmit, I found this was the hardest thing of all to master.Crawling along Hillmartin Road at such a slow speed,with the red traffic lights still some distance away, whilstusing my rear mirror, making me concerned of possiblyirritating other drivers behind us. Reassuring words fromMervin like; “it doesn’t matter how long it takes to arrive atthe red traffic lights, as long as you leave on the green it isthe same time as you would have moved off anyway”.I couldn’t argue with his reasoning and did my best tokeep moving. At one point along Seven Sisters Road,Melvin asked if I had some kind of unit with me whichmade traffic signals change red as we approached.We caught so many red lights, and the traffic was getting alittle heavier then on my first lap I thought my fuelconsumption would be greater than before.

Back at Brewery Road and I was once again in theback of the cab to find out my latest score.

The reading really surprised me with 27.5 miles tothe gallon and average speed of 14mph – doing thesame speed as before I had saved 4 miles per gallon.

The last lap I was once again left to my own devicesand came back about 2 miles a gallon shorter thanbefore, but – 2 miles a gallon better than the first time.

The Smarter Drivers Course is planned to runthroughout March and there is the possibility of itrunning even longer. The course is free of charge and wellworth discovering how to save some of the cost of fuel.

If nothing else it is a good chance to drive a brandnew Euro 5 Taxi without anyone trying to sell you one!

Mervin Walker

The Smarter Driving CourseBy Roger Sligo

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Well Christmas and New Year arenow behind us and I hope you had agreat Christmas, a happy andprosperous New Year to all, I hopethe thought of finding money to payyour tax bill in January did not spoilthe festivities.

For many of you who had to find the money to pay yourtax bill I hope you didn’t have to struggle too hard.Members of the Credit Union do not have to worry aboutsuch things as loans or withdrawals from their savings topay for this, in fact at the time of writing we are only partway through January and the request for loans has been at

an all time high, I can assure you that nobody has been disappointed. Ask any of your friends whoare members just how easy it is to raise money for whatever reason you may have.

For example if you joined now, by the time your next tax bill is due or if you wanted to book aholiday you would be eligible for a loan as there is a qualifying period of three months.Remember you do not have to take a loan, you can just save for anything you may need, there isnothing to lose.

A typical loan from Radio Taxicabs (London) Credit Union Ltd is as follows:£1,000 over 12 months will cost you £88.85 a month, total loan repayment is £1,066.20, interest payableis only £66.20, beat that if you can. In addition to this all loans and savings are insured and fullyprotected in the event of an untimely death, this normally costs a great deal more with other lenders.

For any information, or if you just want to discuss anything relating to the Credit Union, just giveme a call and I would be happy to discuss this with you.

Alan Woolf on 020 7561 5148 (direct line) Tuesdays or Wednesdays before 13.00 hours or leave yourname and telephone number and I will return your call or email: alan.woolf@radiotaxis.co.uk

Why not join theCredit Union now!

CreditUnionRadio Taxicabs ( London) Credit Union Ltd No. 90C

Mountview House, Lennox Road, London N4 3TX

Tel: 020 7561 5148 Fax: 020 7561 5166

Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Services Authority FRN. 213232

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FOR THE PAST TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTyears, St John’s Wood has been the home ofan army barracks. Starting back in 1804with the Corps of Gunner Drivers, being thefirst occupants of what was then St John’sWood Farm. The farm was a simple Board ofOrdnance hiring, (from whence OrdnanceHill derives its name) used only for thepurpose of quartering and stabling thedrivers and their horses.

St Marylebone and St Pancras consisted of largedairy farms leased by tenants from a variety oflandowners, among them the Eyre’s, who ownedSt John’s Wood.

By 1810, the Board of Ordnance proposed to base thewhole brigade at the farm and to this end they securedthe lease of a piece of land just north of the farmyard,the present-day barrack site.

On this site the board built a long, two-storeybarrack block, running north to south in a line roughlyparallel with the present-day Ordnance Hill, designated“New Artillery Barracks”and completed in 1812.

During the rundownof the Army followingthe Battle of Waterloo,the brigade at St John’sWood was ordered toWoolwich and notreplaced. The barracksstood empty for the nextthree years.

The vacant site at StJohn’s Wood was chosento become the new home ofthe Cavalry Riding Establishment and so the Treasurygranted approval for the construction of a new ridingschool there.

In 1825, the Riding School, designed by the RoyalEngineers was completed and is now one of the oldestbuildings in St John’s Wood.

In 1835, the Cavalry Riding Establishment wasmoved to Maidstone in Kent, and the Barracks atSt John’s Wood stood empty once again.

Next to enter the barracks was the Guards recruitsdepot which stayed for little more than a year.

For the next two decades various detachments of FootGuards and sometimes infantry of the line were in residence.

By 1870, the Guards had departed St John’s Woodand the barracks became the temporary home to thevarious regiments of the Household Cavalry whileKnightsbridge Barracks was rebuilt.

In early 1880, Knightsbridge Barracks was ready forreoccupation and on May 5 the 1st Life Guards left the Wood.

Six weeks later, on June 24, “A Battery Brigade RoyalHorse Artillery” arrived from Aldershot.

With only a few interruptions, successive RoyalHorse Artillery batteries were stationed at the Woodover the next 20 years, culminating with V Battery at theturn of the century.

The departure of the King’s Troop from St John’sWood Barracks on February

6th is the end of an eraspanning more than 200years, and almostcontinuously occupied bymilitary units.

Sadly the Royal HorseArtillery has left theirSt John’s Wood Barracks forthe last time, and took upresidence in a new purposebuilt equestrian trainingfacility and accommodationcentre in the Woolwich

Garrison, just as their Battle of Waterloo counterpartsdid two-centuries earlier – history repeating itself...

Westminster Council recently approved proposals toredevelop the barracks site, at St John’s Wood.

Ananda Krishnan, the second richest man in SouthEast Asia, has acquired the site through his Usaha TegasGroup and has appointed UK property group LondonSquare as project manager.

Adam Lawrence, chief executive of London Square,said: “St John’s Wood Barracks is the jewel in the crown ofLondon development sites.”

The project consists of 12 apartment blocks andwill create 133 new homes, 59 of which will beaffordable housing. The development will also convertthe site’s Grade II-listed riding school building into anew leisure centre.Roger Sligo

St John’s Wood Barracks

The Last Post at St John’s Wood

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� How long have you held a taxi licence for? “For 8 years.”

� Do you ever drive a cab these days?“Not as often as I would like to.”

� What is your association with Radio Taxis – how longwere you on the circuit? “I’ve known Tracey in Driver Services for a long time andI was on the circuit for a year as a driver.”

� What made you open up a taxi garage? “There is a lack of communication within the taxi/garageindustry, and as a driver I knew exactly what driverswanted from a garage. I felt there was a market for me toopen up my own garage as the drivers would have moretrust in me and my Company being a taxi driver myself”.

� What would you like to say to Radio Taxis and Xetadrivers to get them to come along and sample yourgarage?“We are a genuine garage. We don’t charge over the topprices and our service is second to none. We look after ourcustomers in every respect, we are honest, reliable andhave a great team of mechanics and staff.”

� Do you run a ‘loyalty’ scheme for you customers?“Yes we do”

� What hours is your garage open for business?“Monday to Friday 8.00am until 17.00pm and Saturday8.00am until 12.30pm.”

� Do you work on Mercedes cabs? “We do, we also have our own fleet that we rent out,which includes Vito’s & TX style taxis.”

� Do you have a price menu for servicing etc?“Yes we do.”

� Do you do bodywork?“We are one of the leading body work garages in theTaxi Trade, I have contracts with other companies forbodywork, such as Taxi Media and VeriFone Media.”

� Do you have accident recovery?“We do, we have a 24 hour helpline and recovery service”

� Do you have any introductory offers?“A further 10% discount on top of our current Feb/Marchdiscounts.”

� Do you have website?“http://www.cudworthtaxis.co.uk”

� Anything else that you would like to say?“We are a cab garage, run by cabbies, all we want is foryou to come try us out and decide for yourself.”

Sabit Topcu Ex Radio Taxis Driver R105,Owner of Cudworth Taxis interview with Tracey Fuller

Follow the London Mayoral Elections on Twitter!

Who gets yourTwitter vote?By @RadioTaxis_Boss

LONDON IS NOW ENTERING the final stageof its fourth elections to choose a Mayor,and the first that will be fought out overTwitter.

Twitter is a good way for politicians to communicatedirectly with the electorate by sending short 140 charactermessages known as tweets. All of the main candidates forMayor are now using Twitter and as we get nearer theelection date we can expect all the major news channelsand political commentators to step up their tweeting aboutwho will win the right to be Mayor when London stagesthe Olympics.

In other articles in Mountview news we have set outfurther information on the candidates and their views onthe taxi industry for you to consider. Here we advise onsome of the twitter accounts you might want to follow to

stay on top of all that is happening and to help you makeup your mind on how to vote.

I have also become a regular user of Twitter and findthat following all of the Mayoral candidates allows me toknow what they are thinking so that when I have a chanceto meet them in my various capacities as Chairman ofRadio Taxis or as a member of the London ChamberBoard, or as a Council member of the CBI London, in allof those things it ensures that I am up to date with whatthey are saying.

I am also a regular Twitter user as it is an importantbusiness tool for communicating with drivers, clients andother key stakeholders. I hope readers of Mountview Newswill find my Twitter account a good way of getting moreinformation about what’s important for our industry andof course the work of Radio Taxis.

33

LONDON ELECTION TWITTER ACCOUNTSTwitter Name Twitter Account Description

@MayorofLondon Boris Johnson City Government for Greater London (Mayor & ConservativeParty candidate) under the auspices of the Mayor of London

@brianpaddick Brian Paddick Liberal Democrat candidate for (Liberal DemocratParty Candidate) Mayor of London in 2012

@ken4london Ken Livingstone Tweets from Ken’s campaign team – (Labour Party Candidate) Labour’s candidate for Mayor 2012

Tweets from Ken start with a K:

@standardnews Evening Standard News desk Breaking news & updates ontop London stories from the newsdesk

of the Evening Standard

@joemurphylondon Joe Murphy Political Editor of the Evening Standard

@londonelects London Elects Official tweets from London Elects, the team responsible for the 2012 elections for the Mayor of London

& London Assembly. Have your say, vote 3rd May

@iaindale Iain Dale, Conservative LBC 97.3 Radio presenter (Mon – Fri, 7 – 10pm),blogger & radio presenter Editor of Dale & Co, West Ham fanatic

@londonlibdems Liberal Democratic tweet account Team London: Lib Dems working together to win

@greenjennyjones Jenny Jones Green Party Mayoral Candidate(Green Party candidate for Mayor) for the May 2012 elections, but already

an elected Green helping to save the planet,starting with London – have given up on Boris

@glaintelligence — Intelligence Unit at Greater London Authority

34

Carriage Road Fund Licence.In the meantime you might be

please to learn the new TX4(Euro five) and I believe the latestMercedes Vito taxi (also Euro five)with their lower emissions, have aroad tax charge of only £150.

Our Chairman Geoffrey Riesel told methat although the engines of newer taxis are generallycleaner in terms of “NOx” and “Particulates” (ie thegases that damage your health and the smoke that can beCarcinogenic) they do not necessarily put out less Carbon(greenhouse gases) which long term, is thought to be thecause of global warming and thus climate change.Euro five vehicles do emit less greenhouse gas and thusthere is a road tax duty saving.

Re-printed from February’s E-View Magazine.

GRAHAM HILL’S MARATHON RACE

Dear Roger,My name is Graham Hill, and I am running in this year’sVirgin London Marathon on behalf of the Albany TaxiCharity. The fund is run by a groupof licensed London taxi drivers,to help the lives of mentallyhandicapped children.

As a long serving London taxidriver, with over 18 years on RadioTaxis, I know how important thetrade charities are, with driversonly too pleased to help raise somemuch needed funds in this way.I am hoping to raise around onethousand pounds.

If drivers would like to help support me with adonation or find out more about the Albany Taxi Trustplease go to: www.justgiving.com/runningforthealbany

Thank you for taking the time to read this andmany thanks.

Be lucky, Graham Hill, Z042.

Ed; Good luck Graham with running the Marathon andreaching your target.

Letters & Emailsto the Editor...AM I THAT GREEN?

Dear Roger,If, as we are constantly told, new cabs are cleaner thanold ones, why is it that the yearly road fund license fora new TX4 is more than double the price of a TX1 –and is anybody within the Cab trade trying to have thisexplained?From Michael Beckingham, J111 via email.

Ed’s response:Thank you for your question Michael. I must admit it isa strange way of rewarding drivers with cleaneremissions. As you are most likely aware, taxis and privatecars nowadays come under the same rulings; thereforethis is the answer to your question:

How road tax is now calculated –Whereas car tax on all models registered before 1st March2001 is based on engine size, cars registered on or afterthat date are taxed according to their emissions.

So, for older cars, there’s one rate for engines smallerthan and including 1549cc and one for engine sizes largerthan 1549cc.

With newer models, annual car tax rates are based oncars’ green credentials and currently there are 13 taxbands. Cars in band A are greener (and therefore cheaperto tax) than band M.

Essentially, the lower the emissions, the cheaper thetax disc. You can find your car’s emission information inthe log book (also called a V5 document).

Ed: Still mystified?Me too! Buy a newer model taxi and you will pay more.I do certainly agree with Michael – our trade should beasking for the reinstating of the half price Hackney

SEND YOUR LETTERS BY:Email: mvn.editor@radiotaxis.co.uk

Or by ‘snail mail’ to:The EditorMountview NewsRadio Taxis GroupMountview HouseLennox RoadLONDONN4 3TX

@

The Mountview Puzzler PageCLUES ACROSS6. Ray of sunlight (7)7. Tropical eel (5)8. Indian of Mexico (5)10. Weirdest (7)12. Flowering shrubs (6)13. Tree-like grass (6)15. Scolding (6)17. Make hard (6)20. Stiff and formal (7)22. Class of Indian society (5)24. Burdened (5)25. In the place of (7)

CLUES DOWN1. Informal test (4)2. Swordsman (6)3. Yellowish brown colour (5)4. Lectern (6)5. Ventilates (4)8. Eternal (7)9. English royal house (5)11. Thrash (7)14. Waits (5)16. Person who operates a farm (6)18. Right to enter (6)19. Sarcastic doubter of sincerity & merit (5)21. Small dabbling duck (4)23. Conjunction (4)

Jotting space

MOUNTVIEW SUDOKUThe object is to write in the missing numbers in the empty boxesbelow. But to satisfy only one condition: each row, column and3 x 3 box must contain the digits 1 through to 9 exactly once.What could be simpler?

Hooked? You can find more Sudoko online at: www.sudoku.cc

?

And the Winner is...Steve Hardy, Tango76who came up with thecaption of “PortalooStation??” and so winshimself a bottle ofChampagne to celebrate!

The Mountview News AmusingCaption Competition –If you spot something funny yourself,take a picture of it and email it to themvn.editor@radiotaxis.co.uk and wemay use it in the next edition.

The MountviewAmusing CaptionCompetition

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Mountview News – Graphic design, layout, print and distribution by DC-Graphics: 0208 440 1155 | www.dc-graphics.co.uk

CHIEF RENTALS is proud to announce that theyhave joined forces with Radio Taxis as their mainsupplier of replacement licensed Radio Taxis fortheir drivers who find themselves involved in theunfortunate circumstance of a non-fault accident.

This specialist service enables Radio Taxis drivers who areinvolved in such an incident to get straight back to work andmore importantly, back on the Radio Taxis circuit as allreplacement vehicles supplied by Chief Rentals are fitted witha Radio Taxis terminal.

Other aspects of this exceptional service also include repairmanagement of the driver’s own vehicle as well as the handlingof all personal injury claims, either from injured drivers ortheir injured passengers.

Not only are these services available to Radio Taxis drivers,but Chief Rentals has also agreed to expand them to drivers’

families and friends who may also find themselves in a similarpredicament following a non-fault accident and requiring alike-for-like replacement vehicle.

Chief Rentals look forward to working with both RadioTaxis and their drivers long-term into the future and endeavourto provide them with an outstanding service that will keepeveryone ‘on-circuit’ and at work during difficult times.

To find out more with no obligation, please call us FREEon the number above.