Mountview News 7 March 2012 by DC-Graphics Design & Print

MountviewNews

Who Runs London? ——

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— — — N — O I — T ELECTION EDI——— ——

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

March 2012

Who Runs London? MountviewNews

London Election Special THIS EDITION OF MOUNTVIEW NEWS FOCUSES ON THE forthcoming London elections when the capital will decide who its next Mayor will be and also chooses 25 members of the Greater London Assembly. The elections take place on Thursday 3 May 2012. They are the fourth set of elections since the office of Mayor of London was created in 2000. Conservative candidate Boris Johnson is seeking re-election for a second term as Mayor. The Mayor from 2000 to 2008, Labour Candidate Ken Livingstone is seeking a third term as the Labour candidate. Brian Paddick is standing for the Liberal Democrats. The Assembly is elected by the Additional Member System. There are fourteen directly elected constituencies. An additional eleven members are allocated by a London wide top-up vote with the proviso that parties must win at least five percent of the vote to qualify for the seats. This part PR system has in the past seen candidates from the Green Party and UK Independence Party elected to the Assembly. Geoffrey Riesel, Chairman of Radio Taxis, says “These elections are extremely important for the drivers, employees and customers of Radio Taxis. The position of Mayor has direct responsibility for the taxi and private hire industry and the road network in London. In this edition Mountview News brings to you our interviews with each of the main Party Candidates. I am very grateful to all of them for giving up their time and it is a demonstration that all of them recognise the importance of our 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 our Twitter feature on page 33 by explaining who to follow if you want to keep in touch with all of the election news. Don’t forget to place your vote on 3rd May 2012.” Geoffrey Riesel, Chairman & CEO.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE CANDIDATES VISIT Boris Johnson, Conservative: www.backboris2012.com Ken Livingstone, Labour: www.kenlivingstone.com/about Brian Paddick, Liberal Democrat: www.brianpaddick.com Jenny Jones, Green Party: www.jennyforlondon.org 2

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 4 This Month’s Latest News Roger Sligo RTG’s roving reporter… reports 6 Radio Taxis Wins Against Addison Lee Geoffrey Riesel gives you the latest score 8 The 2012 Olympics Transport Challenges Roger Sligo races to tell you all about it 10 The RTG Zeus & Chip & Pin Update Steve Cooper reveals even more 11 A Kind Mystery Driver Alan Franks asks who was the good Samaritan? 12 Curiosity Corner Roger Sligo on baths, umbrellas and a weather vane 14 Get Smart Peter Gibson – private hire, mini cabs & credit cards 15 Budgeting in a Recession Gordon Brown – uncertainty in the year ahead? 16 Hockney at the Royal Academy Robert MacDonald Watson looks at David Hockney 17 Keep Calm and Carry On Roy Hughes tries to maintain a stiff upper lip 18 The Queen of Diamonds Roger Sligo and the Queen’s 60 year reign 19 Mountview Amusing Caption Competition Think 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 Centuries Roger Sligo on Charles Dickens 200 years on 29 The Smarter Driving Course Roger Sligo finds out if he can hack it 30 Join the Credit Union Alan Wolf tells you why you should 31 The Last Post at St John’s Wood Roger Sligo on the demise of St John’s Wood Barracks 32 Interview with Sabit Topcu Tracey 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 Editor The page to have your rage – or anything else topical 35 The Mountview Puzzler Page Get your pen out and take some time out

MOUNTVIEW NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM IS: Roger Sligo – Editor & photos / Penny Cuckston – Administration Doug Canning, DC-Graphics – Design, layout, artwork, print & distribution Geoffrey Riesel & Peter Gibson – Board production Design: © 2012 / DC-Graphics / Barnet / Herts / EN5 5TP T: 0208 440 1155 / W: www.dc-graphics.co.uk Content: © 2012 / Radio Taxis Group Ltd / Lennox Road / London / N4 3TX

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The information and images contained in this Newsletter are subject to copyright. Unauthorised use, disclosure or copying without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.

s ’ h JOOLS’ ANNUAL t n o This m S HOOTENANNY –

W E N

Happy New Year!

SOMETIME DURING LAST OCTOBER I picked up Jools Holland and took him on a short ride from Buckingham Gate to Victoria. I told him the only time I get to see him nowadays is every New Year’s Eve 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 programme he opened the show by saying “a special greeting to all taxi drivers; especially London black cab drivers.” Could he have remembered me? STRATFORD STATION DEMO Thursday 9th February, during the evening rush, around fifty suburban taxi-drivers held a drive in demo around the Great Eastern Road one-way system in Stratford. Although the protest received no publicity within the trade, it did however cause some major disruptions for about an hour, with gridlock reported within a mile radius. It looks like the demo worked as on the following Monday the TPH called a meeting with the organiser and some of the drivers. The reason behind the protest is the lack of spaces to rank at Stratford Station. Construction works have led to the closure of a taxi rank in Meridian Square and the relocation of another rank at Station Street. At one time, before the rebuilding of the forecourt, there were dozens of space in a more prominent position in front of the station exit. These days the rank is broken up into little sections, hidden away from public view. The main rank, if you can call it that, has only eight spaces and even this rank is a distance from the station and not easy to find. The drivers who work this station are not at all happy with that way they are being pushed around and more protests are likely to happen with more drivers taking part and more publicity within the trade. Helen Chapman, Deputy Director for London Taxi & Private Hire, said: “The temporary rank is necessary whilst improvements are made to the permanent rank at Meridian Square which includes an increase in the number of rank spaces.” Ms Chapman added: “We have now been contacted by the drivers and are in the process of setting up a meeting with them to listen to their concerns.” Ms Chapman went on to say “Any demonstration only results in disrupting the travelling public, including potential taxi passengers and the threat of a demonstration was completely unnecessary, particularly given that we had already committed to meeting 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 let down, and are turning to join the RMT. With the Olympics just a few months away and Stratford being the nearest Station (Pudding Mill Lane DLR Station will be closed throughout the Olympics as being too small to handle the large amounts of people). We suggest that TfL, LOCOG and the Ranks Committee had better sought things out and quickly! IDENTIFIERS AND THE URBAN MYTH

Since the first of March it has been a requirement that all London taxi-drivers both yellow and green badges, display their identifiers, 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 have them displayed in the appropriate place at all times. There have been a lot of concerns from drivers using social media networking blogs and it would seem the conspiracy theorists are alive and kicking. Reading through some of these blogs you could imagine some poor drivers becoming paranoid about displaying their identifiers, so I would like to put the record straight. Firstly, green badge drivers in Bromley and Welling are not

THE OCEAN MEETS THE THAMES

You might recall in the December issue of Mountview News, my visit to the Marine Police Museum and just how seriously they were taking the security of the River Thames during this year’s Olympics. Over the next few months the Royal Navy’s largest ship, HMS Ocean is to be deployed, stationed close to the Thames Barrier. HMS Ocean, which led the attacks against Colonel Gaddafi, is an amphibious assault ship and capable of sending in Royal Marines in helicopters in the event of a terrorist attack. Specialist units will also be able to respond to any waterborne attack on London. Capable of carrying 800 marines

it will be seen as a sign of how seriously Britain is taking Olympic security. RECIPE OF HOW TO MAKE A JAM During the last mayoral elections, Boris Johnson pledged to rephase some of London’s traffic signals to speed up the traffic flow. I don’t recall any of the junctions that are causing us serious hold ups like Shaftsbury Avenue – High Holborn junction being altered in any way. One small piece of road which is only about 100 yards in total, and confusingly named Long Lane, in Smithfield has changed twice, once for the better and then again for the worse! About a year ago lengthy jams caused by traffic turning right into Aldersgate Street, were an everyday occurrence, until the re-phasing of the traffic lights, whereby traffic from Beech Street would operate independently from those in Long lane thus allowing more traffic to get past. Within the last couple of weeks some bright spark traffic planner has reverted back to the bad old days, where we sit and wait, whilst traffic turning right blocks everyone as they wait to cross the flow coming through from the opposite direction. No matter if you want to go forwards or turn left, the right turning traffic blocks you all. This allows only two cars over at a time, whilst all other traffic is stuck behind. Why did they change something which worked perfectly well? It just goes to show they haven’t a clue what they are doing! FLOUTING THE LAW

Some Private Hire companies think nothing of disregarding the law and why not? It seems that no one ever bothers to take them to task. The recent new laws governing advertising standards are there to enforce misleading advertising including websites which should not be calling themselves something they are not. A prime example is a Private Hire company calling themselves “taxis” – so how about this PH company? Taxi-London To fight back and regain our good name, maybe we should start a petition? We are losing out to some PH companies claiming to be “taxis.” Also, I was under the impression that Private Hire cannot carry any form of advertising on their cars! So is having an advertisement for Heathrow from £22 or Gatwick from £32 classed as advertising? The car in our picture seems to flout the law – or am I mistaken? Any TPH Licensed Private Hire company website calling itself “Taxi-London” is breaking the law and must be stopped. Any TPH Licensed PH company advertising its price list, I believe is in breach of the law. We have to abide by the law and so should they! ■ Geoffrey Riesel has passed Roger’s complaint on to John Mason at TPH and he informs us that compliance is dealing with this “unlawful” advertising.

Re-printed from E-View Magazine Ed Lines February 2012.

being targeted for their identifiers and there is not an epidemic of crime caused by their introduction. There is also the myth being spread that if you lose your identifier you will need to buy a new badge, with a new number and this in turn is causing some drivers to photocopy their identifiers, so they can keep the original safe and display the fake instead. Don’t do it, there’s no point in risking your livelihood because even though it’s your own badge number you would still be committing fraud! The simple thing to do is to remove your identifier when you are leaving the cab for any length of time, like at a repair garage or over night outside your house for example – after all you wouldn’t leave your metal badge on your dashboard would you? To find out if there is any truth in the stolen identifiers rumour I ask Helen Chapman Deputy Director of TPH for her comments and she replied: “We have heard of one incident with a taxi being broken into and the identifiers stolen however I am not aware of whether the vehicle was specifically broken into for the ID’s or it was a general break-in and the ID’s were taken because they were there. I suspect the latter. I personally haven’t heard of any other incidents.” So what about those who might be tempted to photocopy their identifiers? Helen suggests; “Drivers should not be displaying photocopies and if we find any incidents of this through our compliance activity then we will take the appropriate action. If identifiers are lost or stolen then the process will be for us to issue replacement identifiers with their existing badge number. The only time a new badge number will be issued will be if the badge itself is lost or stolen.” Helen concluded by saying; “Thank you for reminding your drivers to remove them from their taxi when left unattended. We have taken great care to encourage drivers to treat these identifiers as an extension of their badge and so they should remove them from the vehicle when it is left unattended whether this is at home, the taxi is booked into the garage or any other reason.” So if you’re into social networking don’t forget to inform the bloggers their urban myth has just been put to rest!

Radio Taxis wins against Addison Lee – Complaints are Rejected Radio Taxis CarbonNeutral® status endorsed by the Advertising Standards Authority. NOT LONG AFTER RE-WINNING THE LONDON UNDERGROUND ACCOUNT we received a notification from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the assertions we make on our website, in terms of our “Green” credentials as a company, had been challenged by none other than 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; but also the fact that we have a CarbonNeutral® status and that we are a “green” company with a well-known and recognised socially responsible attitude. Could it have been Mr John Griffin himself who complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) as he has often made claims about how he thinks London taxis are dirty and terrible 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 AL complained about from Radio Taxis website: ISSUE Addison Lee Plc. believed the advert implied taxis were an environmentally friendly transport option, and challenged whether the following claims were misleading: 1. “World’s first Carbon Neutral taxi company”, – ASA Result complaint not upheld… ie. Radio Taxis assertions are true. 2. “Why not reduce your own Carbon footprint by using Radio Taxis Group services” – ASA, Result complaint not upheld… ie. Radio Taxis assertions are true. 3. “Radio Taxis operates a constant and on-going Carbon reduction strategy, then offsets the whole of the remainder, emitted during the delivery of our services” – ASA Result complaint 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 upheld because although our records prove that around 15% of the fleet is renewed every year it might seem or be inferred that Radio Taxis owns the vehicles and of course we do not; our Licensed London taxi drivers are franchisees and either own their vehicles themselves or use a fleet owned vehicle. We agreed very early on with the ASA to slightly amend this statement so as to remove any unintentional misunderstanding.

WHO WILL RUN LONDON?

London Mayoral Election Interviews: A major coup for Radio Taxis I had that Boris, Ken and Brian in my cabs, I don’t quite know how it happened but someone came up with the bright idea that we should interview the three main party mayoral candidates, to see what they are prepared to commit to the taxi trade. Then we thought, wouldn’t it work well if we videoed the interview in the back of a taxi? The concept being that we would post the interviews first on “You Tube” and then also onto our own Radio Taxis website. So we first asked former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met Police officer Brian Paddick, who is the Lib Dem Mayoral candidate and he kindly agreed. Then we asked Boris and Ken and to our pleasant surprise they both agreed too. So off we went and interviewed them in the back of a Radio Taxis cab, with Penny Cuckston of the Finance department as “cameraman” and Ganesh who is a data analyst, also from Finance, acting as “lighting man.” I became the Jeremy Paxman or should I say Andrew Marr as the interviews were not confrontational, simply probing? SUPPORT FOR THE TRADE What shone through from all three candidates was their total and unequivocal support of the London taxi trade. I know that will surprise many London taxi drivers, but all the main candidates recognise how vital it is for a world class city like London 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 Olympic Route Network.” He also said that he would ban pedi-cabs because they were a dangerous nuisance and that as far as parking fines for taxis is concerned, he felt that “prosecuting taxi drivers because they have gone for a pee is just outrageous.”

On the subject of pedi-cabs, Boris Johnson said that he would love to ban them, but that he does not have the statutory power to do so. My view is that the Mayor of London with a strong electoral mandate should push government hard (they do have 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 arrested around 1,300 illegal mini cab touts. Ken Livingstone also said that he would like to ban pedi-cabs and also pointed out that as Mayor he wouldn’t have the statutory power to do so. However on the subject of illegal touts, he said that this is not the time for the Police to be reducing their numbers by about 1700 officers, as will happen under Boris Johnson. Both Ken and Boris are keen to improve traffic flow by introducing Lane Rental, which essentially means that anyone who digs up the road will have to pay for the privilege and pay more if they take longer to clear the road. The idea of that is to improve the standard of contractors which all the utility companies use. You can read transcripts of my interviews with these three Mayoral candidates in this issue and also you can see the interviews themselves on Radio Taxis website and on You Tube at: www.youtube.com/RadioTaxisGroup UBS By the time you read this, it is likely that our client UBS (formerly SG Warburg & Co) will have left us after around 40 years as a client. Rarely over the years was there a client and a supplier with a better relationship, we worked with Warburg’s to ensure that they were successful over many decades. Not only did we (at Mountview 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 UBS and yet our great relationship and our supply of a top class service continued. Indeed we provided a great service over many, many years. MERCHANT BANKS’ HEAVY LOSSES Of course once the downturn came and Merchant Banks in general started to suffer their well-publicised difficulties, things started to change. New facilities teams were appointed in several of our clients and for many of these people it was about being a new broom and about making changes. Much of our traditional taxi work (for all the main taxi companies) is being pushed into cars, because the belief for many new-to-the-job facility managers is that they are always cheaper. We know this is simply not true and we know that taxis supply a level of service that Private Hire cannot match by a “country mile.” Despite my cordial advice to the General Manager of Com Cab not to start a price war, his staff went in when the account was up for tender at what I believe are ridiculously unsustainable prices. He claims this is to win work back off the minicabs. I can only see that this means we are now only fighting amongst ourselves and in the end I doubt that this will do any of us any good. My long years of experience in this industry tells me, we know that; by doing away with run-ins, or gratuities or even admin fees completely, (either all or any of these) you end up in a situation when it becomes difficult to supply a good service.

ComCab are owned by City Fleet, a subsidiary of the Singaporean Comfort-Delgro. City Fleet also owns Comfort Cars (Formerly called Flightlink). I have heard said before that senior Comfort-Delgro executives believe that “London taxi drivers are overpaid.” One must draw one’s own conclusions on that. Suffice to say, the UBS taxi account will, in the future be, a much smaller one than it has been previously and that process has already begun; however should the migration not go well, we will always be pleased to help out. Professionalism at all times In the meantime our sales department is winning new accounts (Standard Chartered among many others) and our municipal 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 be launched so although we understand it’s not raving busy out there, there are lots of positives and being on Radio Taxis will always help you earn a better living. The radio will more often than not “get you out of trouble.”

Diversity

The Cheeky Girls

Stavros Flatley

MAD HATTERS TEA PARTY In January the London Taxi Drivers Fund for Underprivileged children, whom we are proud to have been sponsors of for many years, invited me and my Grandchildren, yet again to their Mad Hatters Tea Party held at the Grosvenor House Hotel. It was a great event with lots of celebrities giving of their time as well as the emergency services and the army who literally (gently) manhandled kids in wheelchairs down the stairs into the ballroom. It is a heart-warming event and I would like to thank the LTFUC committee for their kind and philanthropic work and for the good name that gives to the whole taxi trade. Geoffrey Riesel – Chairman & CEO.

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

I WAS INVITED ALONG WITH OTHER MEMBERS OF the trade press for a meeting with Graham Jones (TfL) and John Mason (director of TPH) at Palestra shortly before Christmas. It was a briefing to enlighten us about the transport challenges TfL will have to face with the Olympics traffic in the coming year. Firstly Radio Taxis were congratulated by John Mason for conducting a poll showing 90% of drivers within the Radio Taxis Group would be working during the Olympic Games, with the Evening Standard printing the results thus dispelling rumours that 40% of taxi-drivers would not be working. There are expected to be 9 million spectators (equivalent to 26 simultaneous world championships) during the main Olympics, with a further 2 million for the Paralympic Games, all needing to take public transport, walk or cycle. In addition there will also be 300,000 athletes, officials, media, other games family members and workforce. CAN LONDON’S TRANSPORT SYSTEM COPE? There are already 1.1 billion tube journeys per year, which compares to the rest of the UK rail network combined. Half of all bus journeys within the UK take place in London. The Olympic Park is also connected to four London Underground 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 Royal Weddings, the London Marathon and New Year’s Eve

celebrations, which makes them capable of handling large passenger transportation within the capital. £40m is being invested in state-of-the-art intelligent signal control technology, installed at 350 extra junctions for the games, making 2,350 in total. OLYMPIC ROUTE NETWORK MYTHS MYTH: “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 ORN and road restrictions.” ● The ORN comes into operation just a couple of days before the Games start and will cease to operate as soon as it is no longer required. ● The PRN (Paralympic Route Network), which is smaller, will also only operate when needed. SO THEN, WHAT IS THE ORN? It has been a feature of the Host City contract and in place at every Olympic Games since Sydney 2000 – and is needed to ensure reliable journeys for athletes, officials, workers and media. The vast majority of journeys will be by bus and coach and actually helping to minimise Games traffic on the roads. Traffic measures are proportionate and will be removed when not needed. They include: changes to traffic signal timings, banned turns to and from some side roads, removal of some parking and loading bays and pedestrian crossings, ban on planned road works on the ORN from March 2012, and from most 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 will comprise of just one third of the whole ORN in London or 0.3% of London’s road network. INFORMATION PACKS TfL will be sending all taxi-drivers information packs sometime during the spring. These include daily traffic hotspot maps, which start two days before the start and throughout the Olympics. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS During 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.

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 Evening Standard for further updates for taxi and private hire drivers over and above the info packs being sent out? A: Yes, we will be using local radio such as LBC and Radio London. Also social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook for any updates when needed. Q: Can a flyer be created to fix to the rear partition window warning passengers that routes may differ from normal due to road closures? A: This is something we had not really thought of – it’s a good idea so we will take note of it. Q: Will TfL open up communications channels with radio circuits to fast track information during the Olympics? A: Yes, we plan to inform all radio circuits, Apps and Social Media where there are any unmet demands and any problems with roads. Q: Could contraflow bus lanes be opened up for taxis to use during the Olympics to help with compensating for road closures and diversions. A: Again this is something we had not thought about. We can certainly look into the possibility of some temporary use of some contraflow bus lanes.

Q: Will Russell Square be closed off and used as hub for the media with their coaches and buses parked up? A: Yes, just the south of the square will be partially open with all the north section closed off. BE POSITIVE AFTER ALL IT’S OUR LONDON TfL and TPH are doing all that is necessary to make sure London keeps moving in spite of the games. Another 16 extra staff are being trained in the traffic management control centre. Variable Messaging Signs are to be deployed at the side of some roads to announce when traffic can and can’t use the Games lanes. Let’s try to remember we are all ambassadors for London and London taxi-drivers are the best in the world. The gaze of the world’s media will be upon us all. Let us show just how professional we are and whatever situations might occur on the roads, we can still get our passengers where they want to go! If we talk negatively all the time, the world press will pick up on it and we will be portrayed as a bunch of amateurs. Unlike our competitors we can fathom routes out in our heads, without having to rely on SatNav’s all the time – which will have the private hire trade running around like headless chickens! Let’s make London 2012 the Olympic showcase, where we can prove to the rest of the world why we are still the best. Roger Sligo

Q: Will the bus lanes along Marylebone Road and Euston Road be decommissioned during the Olympics? A: Yes, as the outside lane will be used as a games lane leaving the two inside lanes for all traffic.

The RTG Zeus Chip and Pin Update By Steve Cooper, RTG’s Driver Services Manager THE MIDDLE OF JANUARY was an exciting time for everyone involved with the Zeus/Chip and Pin project. Having obtained the required TPH approval just before Christmas, we finally got our hands on the first release of the complete kit of Zeus, integrated with the Media Screen, Passenger compartment chip and pin reader, with the system running our bespoke integration software. Then we eagerly set about the testing processes, which is so vital to the overall success of launching any new system. With just a couple of minor bugs identified, to say we were pleased with the results would be a massive understatement. The transaction process is slick and very user friendly. With the bench testing done and fixes underway, we began to undertake the installs into a handful of working Taxis. Once out on the road the driver’s feedback and comments were very encouraging and just as importantly the public like it too, most of them adding a gratuity and some asking to “go on” to other destinations once they knew they could pay by Chip and Pin. It really is easy for them. For example, if at the end of a journey the passenger chooses to pay by card they simply insert the card into the reader and press enter and then follow the prompts, all the time the Zeus terminal keeps the driver informed of the status of the transaction process and on completion the receipt prints out. We are now scheduling the workshop to accommodate the fleet roll-out and are on track to complete the task by June. We have additional fitters on hand and extra training slots available so there should be no stopping us now. We have also been busy evaluating Map Navigation and the new look for Zeus. We have a lot of experience designing the functions on Mobile Data Terminals and the Zeus, with our software installed, it is by far the most intuitive MDT I know of. All “buttons” are presented in a logical sequence that is relevant to the current status of the job cycle. We have some drivers that have been with us long enough to remember our first data terminal, that

relied on drivers booking in to a zone to be offered work 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 come unless you see for yourself. All in all we now have an industry leading in-cab despatch solution with chip and pin that will serve us well for the foreseeable future. I would like to say that, in my opinion, none of this would have been achieved without the foresight and the support of all the Senior Management team at RTG. The picture below shows the Zeus running the software for the leading Sat Nav contender, so far.

N.B. Keep an eye on your terminal for messages regarding exclusive promotional offers from Cudworth Taxis. They are very keen to have your custom and are constantly looking for ways to save you money. Lastly, don’t get caught on camera parking across any type of footway, including a dropped kerb, you are likely to receive a PCN through the post for which there is no defence and no case to appeal. Be lucky! Steve Cooper – Driver Services Manager.

A Kind Mystery Driver By Alan Franks, RTG’s Group Operations Director ONE OF OUR RADIO TAXIS DRIVERS really deserves a special mention for his kindness to an elderly lady regular rider. This lady contacted us to say thank you to a Radio Taxis driver, who after the snow in the first week of February, went to her house and cleared all of the snow and ice that had settled in her front garden and made it safe for her to leave her house without the risk of falling. But the amazing thing is that he did this completely anonymously and left without making himself known to her, so we have not been able to track him down. She saw a Radio Taxis cab outside but didn’t get the number. Whoever you are, let me tell you that all of us here at Mountview House think you are a marvellous credit to yourself, to your family, to your industry and of course to Radio Taxis. A truly wonderful act of kindness. DON’T CALL US WE’LL CALL YOU As we are currently rolling out the new Zeus terminal, more and more drivers will lose the ability to use the voice channel. This has caused a sharp increase in the number of calls to the Drivers Query Line. This is causing some delays at peak times. It would help us all if you could please try to use your canned message “Please call my mobile’’ and we will call you back. Please try to only use the driver

query line: 0207 561 5099 if you have a job related query. And for any other driver services then call: 0207 272 2626. UNSCRUPULOUS ENGINEERS It seems that we have some would be “engineers” in our midst. A driver has been fiddling with our in cab system wiring, with the intention of being able to gain an edge on other drivers by appearing to be empty when in fact he was POB. Well we caught this driver red-handed and expelled him from the circuit. Besides the fact that he was running the risk of setting his cab on fire he was also breaking our code of conduct not to mention PCO regulations. However, the story doesn’t quite end there. Since leaving, this “clever dick” decides to go into business for himself by charging drivers £50 a go to make the wiring change for them. Of course his “ingenious” business plan had a major flaw in it, and that was the fact that we can easily identify this illegal change in the system from the operation centre and any driver we catch will be expelled too. Derrrrrrrr!? Alan Franks – Group Operations Director.

Testimonial for Radio Taxis Replacement Cab Scheme for No Fault Accidents Radio Taxis driver Bob Luxford, Call Sign C023 left us this Testimonial about the Radio 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 convenient place 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.” 11

Curiosity Corner Roger Sligo on the mysteries of hidden London

Queen Caroline’s Bath WITH THE 2012 OLYMPICS COMING to London’s Docklands, there are bound to be thousands of visitors making their way to Greenwich Park. Many of them will be visiting Wrens Royal Observatory, The National Maritime Museum and the 17th-century Queen’s House, home of Charles I’s Queen, Henrietta Maria. One other Queen’s forgotten house which has long since gone, with just a small piece remaining, will sadly be overlooked, hidden from tourist’s eyes. I refer to a Georgian Queen’s walk in bath, which once hosted some wild parties, and is now left forgotten, except for curiosity seekers! Caroline of Brunswick (1768 – 1821) became Princess of Wales on her marriage to George, Prince of Wales in 1795. 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 decision made him very unpopular throughout the kingdom. Caroline was already a Brunswick Princess before marrying George; it was said that the marriage was arranged to pay off his large gambling debts. When the flamboyant George first set eyes on her he was shocked to see she was no oil painting. After the marriage, shall we say – of his financial convenience, he was back on his old ways of orgies and gambling. Caroline left the Royal Palace and moved to Montague House between 1798 to 1814; enclosing six hectares (15 acres) of the park as her private garden. She also had some wild parties just like her husband George. Bath houses were fashionable in Georgian times for entertaining and for promoting some good fun! By August 1814, Caroline had had enough and decided to leave England for good and live in exile abroad – which is what George had been waiting for. So as soon as she was gone and to have no reminders of his wife’s pleasurable parties, George ordered the demolition of Montague House, saying he wanted it razed to the ground. Obeying his command the house was demolished to the ground, although the bath house beneath the ground was overlooked. The land was turned into Greenwich Park in the mid 1800’s, and it was not until 1909 that the sunken bath was re-discovered and excavated.

“This bath onilcde hosted some wow parties, and isttnen!” left forgo

The Victorian Umbrella Shop James Smith first started umbrella making in 1830 in the rear of a small shop in Fouberts Place. His son also named James, took over the business in 1857 and moved the shop to its present location at New Oxford Street. All the umbrellas and sticks were manufactured in the basement and still are to this day. Being an acute businessman, James opened six other businesses including Hatters and a Barber Shop. Eventually taking two of his eight sons with him for a new life down under in Tasmania where they were to take up farming. James Smith’s umbrellas were made for such dignitaries as Gladstone, Bonar Law and Lord Curzon to name but a few. The business in umbrellas has always thrived – perhaps because of the English weather and the fact that they are the most lost item on public transport including taxis. This shop on New Oxford Street is a legend in itself. It is a perfect example of a Victorian shop front design and has remained virtually unaltered in 152 years. Inside it is a unique experience; most of the fittings were designed and made by a fitter employed by Mr Smith. Most of us taxi drivers pass by these premises dozens of times a day without giving it a second glance, as did the Hansom Cab Drivers a century and a half earlier. First published in E-View Magazine Curiosity Corner, December 2009.

“…the most lost item on public transport including taxis!”

A close up of the weather vane atop Temple Place. Columbus’s caravel, the Santa Maria.

Temple Place The first thing that catches the eye when looking at Temple Place from the Embankment is the weather vane, of the spectacular golden vessel of Columbus’s caravel, the Santa Maria. Made of beaten copper, perched high above the roof giving the impression of a naval establishment operating below. Nothing could be further from the truth. This larger than life home was built on reclaimed land following the embanking of the Thames. Its owner and builder was the wealthy American William Waldorf Astor, founder of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel nearby in the Aldwych. After Moving permanently to England in 1890, at first Astor rented Lansdowne House in Mayfair until 1893, two years afterwards he built Astor House at 2 Temple Place. The building looks very much like that of a Tudor castle along with its window bays and turrets. Just as well for in 1899 Astor became a British subject and 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.

Get Smart

Says Peter Gibson, RTG’s Group Strategic Director THE CURRENT ECONOMIC DOWNTURN features every day on TV and newspapers and is almost a permanent, depressing part of life. For us cab drivers, this recession is different to any other that we may have lived and worked through because this time round the corporate account taxi rider, the one that has been a loyal customer to the licensed taxi trade for the best part of 40 years, has another licensed, apparently (but not necessarily) cheaper alternative – Private Hire or the mini cab. Very few of the account customers that have used Radio Taxis, or one of our licensed competitors, over the past four decades are escaping the ravages of the current downturn and they are looking to cut costs like everybody else. Many of these accounts now use Private Hire for pre bookings and longer journeys and use us for urgent, important (a client being ferried back to their office or a station) trips and when the Private Hire company has let them down. When the economy picks up again we will be used more often as price becomes less of an issue and Private Hire fails more often because of driver churn (30% of all Private Hire drivers do not renew their Private Hire drivers’ licence) this means that there are always new drivers that go to the wrong pick up or take the wrong turning to get to the pickup or destination. The unanswerable question at the moment is when will the economy pick up? A year, two years or could we be at the start of a Japanese style decade of stagflation where there’s little or no growth? I have no desire to add to the pervasive mood of pessimism but the possibility exists that 2012, as Olympic year, could be a slight spike in the next three years of low or no growth and therefore where we are is pretty well where we stay – at least until 2015. If we are to help ourselves during this downturn then I think that we need to see if we can do what we do either differently or in a smarter way. Private Hire has been licensed and is now seen as a “cheaper” alternative to the licensed taxi. They are slaves to the SatNav and most journeys can take twice as long as in a taxi driven by somebody who knows where they are going. I meet a lot of owners and sales people from the world of Private Hire and they all

tell me that the standard of driver has never been as bad as it is now. In years past the “villains” and the “unemployed” with a four door jalopy did know where they were going and could improvise – but they couldn’t or wouldn’t get licensed and are lost to the Private Hire industry, as is the weekend driver who cannot afford the licensing of a vehicle or a PH Driver’s Permit. I think that we can and should exploit this vast differential in the standard of driver. Many of you will have studied The Knowledge for three or more years. We all know the streets of London better than any driver in any capital city in the world. But do we back that “knowledge” up by offering the world’s finest customer service? Geoffrey Riesel tells a story borne on Twitter about a Radio Taxis driver refusal of a credit card trip from Canary Wharf to Heathrow. I will not echo that story here but I would like to open a debate about one of the most striking advantages on offer to us in the Taxi industry over Private Hire, that of taking a credit card in payment for a street hail. Taxis are viewed by some to be expensive, whether you agree that they are expensive or not, some journeys can, and do, go more than some people are normally carrying on them in cash. A cab from Canary Wharf to Heathrow could go nearly a £100 if caught in traffic and not everybody has that amount of cash in their wallet. Private Hire can offer prepaid credit card payment facilities but not all of them and none can offer the facility from the vehicle, or off the street, as they have to be booked through an established licensed office. If every taxi in London had a credit card accepting facility and a matching “that will do nicely” attitude we would start winning work back from Private Hire over night. But the first driver that refuses to take a credit card or offers up “my machine is broke” will mean that that passenger will not risk the humiliation of refusal again and may well use Private Hire with or without a credit card because of the experience on the street with a taxi. We must get smart and exploit any and every advantage that we have at our disposal. We need to facilitate all payment cards and encourage people to use these payment methods because that way they will use us again and again. So, if you are offered a credit card, then service with a smile and “that’ll do nicely” is my get smart suggestion to help minimise the effects of the depressing recession.

Budgeting in a Recession

By Gordon Brown,Chief Operating Officer

Photo by LaMir.

THINKING AHEAD (at the time of writing) TO THE GOVERNMENT BUDGET announced on the 21st of March, I started to think about how we put together the Radio Taxis budget for 2012. Just like George Osborne, there are a number of uncertainties heading into the year which for us dictated a cautious approach and will similarly do so for Mr Osborne. For example the Euro crisis – which will probably only be fully resolved with a split into a ‘Club-Med’ Euro and a ‘Nordic’ Euro, probably 2 or 3 years away – will have a major impact on confidence in the City and on this

some cash to d e k r a m r a e e “We’v eep on make sure we k inal.” us term e Z e th g in v o r imp country’s exports (it is 47% of the UK’s exports). As you may have noticed the financial sector are laying off staff and those that remain are being told to use public transport more, whilst Procurement Managers start to favour the “perceived cheapness” of private hire, especially with a further 5.3% tariff increase. Against this backdrop predicting income is challenging. The Government is working hard on its costs in an effort to reduce the national debt, in fact it has probably over-achieved what it set out to save in 2011 – by about £3 billion – giving the possibility of additional investment in areas such as apprenticeships to start reducing unemployment amongst school leavers, plus perhaps, increasing the tax free allowance further than has already been stated (currently it’s due to increase the allowance from £7,475 to £8,105 – with the aim to get it up to £10,000 by 2015) to get us all to start spending money to get some growth in the economy. This is especially so because the

GDP figures are predicted to be negative in March meaning that we are now in ‘double dip’ recession territory with 2 quarters of negative growth. Potentially the Chancellor has about £10bn to ‘play with’ to both foster confidence in the business community and to kick-start growth. As far as Radio Taxis is concerned, through our budget process, we’ve been looking at making sure we do things as efficiently as possible and we are ensuring that we are focused on what customers want. This includes doing all we can to maintain and improve customer service in our operations department, we have developed an account customers ‘App’ which is almost ready to roll out and by becoming more inventive with pricing in this difficult market. In addition we’ve increased resources in Driver Services to make sure we get the new Zeus touch screen terminal and the Chip and Pin machines out to as many drivers as we can as quickly as possible especially given the excellent feedback we’ve had from drivers. Additionally we’ve earmarked some cash to make sure we keep on improving the terminal. Going back to George Osborne’s budget, the 50% top tax rate seems like it is here to stay for a while and there will be measures to stop Stamp Duty avoidance and also possibly he will take away the additional tax relief for pension contributions for higher rate tax payers. To keep Nick Clegg happy he may decide its time to introduce a ‘Mansions Tax’ with the word being it would be a tax of 1% per year on the value of a property above £2m. So if your house is worth £2.5m it will cost you £5,000… so you’ve been warned… time to open that bank account in Geneva… and call in Fido2012!

Hockney at the Royal Academy By Company Secretary Robert MacDonald Watson The chances are that you have been already been asked to go to, or that you will be asked to go to The Royal Academy sometime this year before the end of April

FOOTNOTE: When we asked the RA for pictures it turned out that Simone Sagi, the young lady who is the Press Officer, her father is a taxi driver, so she was delighted to be able to help us.

The reason being is that the “A Bigger Picture” exhibition is at The Royal Academy of Art and that it is an exhibition of the works of David Hockney RA. Described as our greatest living artist, after this exhibition, David Hockney is certainly going to draw the attention of and admiration from a whole lot more people, as well as those who thought they knew all about him 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 dying friend in Yorkshire in 1997. Hockney is then out and about in the roads and woods, acutely aware of the seasons as some of his ancestors would also have been who worked on the land. This is reflected throughout the exhibition, such as his numerous paintings of Hawthorne Blossom where the season is short and he needed to be quick to capture it before it was gone. There is an exquisite set of watercolours all mounted together on one large wall. These all come from directly 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 might normally just dismiss. He feels that he gets a freer rein in the studio not least, one might think, that it would be warmer and you can see all the grids together. The film work shown began with mounting nine cameras on a specially constructed grid attached to the bonnet 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 living canvasses wide. You might find it difficult to believe you are watching the side of a country road with such interest but from so many eyes. Hockney’s parting words at the end of the exhibition are that he hopes the viewer will now find themselves observing things in the Countryside when Spring comes. Then to experience the thrill of that observation that you might not have had before. You will view landscapes in a new light and look for the changing seasons just as farmers live by them. How many of us have taken a walk in the country without really seeing or remembering a thing. Not any more 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. 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.

Roy Hughes, RT’s Head of Sales and Account Management ‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON’ is the unofficial motto of Great Britain Plc; this is how we manage in situations of national stress – Sir Francis Drake completing his game of bowls on Plymouth Hoe, Sid James refusing to abandon ‘Tiffin’ in ‘Carry On Up The Khyber’ – this is part of our national psyche. Will the Olympics disturb our national calm? Will Seb Coe become the Captain Mainwaring to Boris’ Private Jones? The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) has adopted a very un-Drake like, ‘Business as Unusual’ – preparing London for worst case scenarios. There are certainly horror stories aplenty from Atlanta to Athens, of mass disruption to public and private transport. Global traffic experts INRIX, have even referred to the potential for a ‘Perfect Storm’ of traffic congestion over the first three days of the Games because of their coinciding with the start of the school holidays. However is this all just a clever piece of reverse psychology? Stressing the worse case scenario, so when things turn out to be less chaotic than predicted, (which they inevitably will) LOCOG can claim a major success; ‘under promise and over deliver!’ Of course, the ‘Olympic Family’ will be spared any traffic discomfort as they have exclusive use of the much touted ‘Olympic Route Network’ (ORN). Up to 80,000 officials, sponsors, politicians and athletes will be whisked seamlessly along these congestion free lanes. This may or may not be urban myth; allegedly, as part of the bidding process to win the Olympics, the bid team had to commit to a service level delivery of 15 minutes from the main international airport to the main VIP hotels; that’s 15 minutes from Heathrow to Park Lane. I’m not sure if the small print specified ‘…at 2am in a Porsche with a police siren.’ LOCOG has been working closely with businesses in London for months, stressing the potential issues; traffic congestion, impact on deliveries etc. Generally our clients, other than those directly in the eye of the storm in Docklands, appear to be taking a sanguine approach. Fortunately August is traditionally a very quiet month for most businesses in the city and also the Public Sector, thanks to school holidays and other factors such as the closure of the major law courts. In addition, most businesses have responded by encouraging their staff to take holidays, work from home, cancel appointments over this period or if they have to be in London, think about changing their work hours. There are always exceptions to the rule and two of our more high profile clients will definitely find themselves in a situation of ‘business as unusual’ – for London Underground and London Overground it is set to be a very busy and stressful summer indeed. Radio Taxis will of course be on hand to provide every support and assistance to them, so that the travelling public can keep calm and carry on!

The Queen of Diamonds Queen Elizabeth II was born at 17 Bruton Street, Mayfair, on the 21st April, 1926 and she was the eldest of two children, her younger sister Princess Margaret, was born in 1930 and they were the daughters of Prince Albert, Duke of York (2nd in line to the throne) and his wife Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

Albert’s older brother Edward, Prince of Wales was next in line to the throne – so it was never envisaged that Prince Albert and his family would one day inherit the crown of King and Emperor and move into Buckingham Palace. When King George V died on 20 January 1936, Edward naturally ascended the throne as King Edward VIII. Only months into his reign, he caused a constitutional crisis by proposing marriage to the American socialite Wallis Simpson, who had already divorced her first husband and was now seeking a divorce from her second. Against advice, rather than end his relationship with Simpson, Edward abdicated. With a reign of only 326 days, Edward was one of the shortest-reigning monarchs in British and Commonwealth history. He was never crowned. King Edward was succeeded by his younger brother Albert, who chose the “Regnal name” George VI; thus George VI’s eldest daughter, Princess Elizabeth, became first in the line of succession, as heiress presumptive. George VI’s coronation took place on 12 May 1937, the date previously intended for Edward’s coronation. George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth helped to keep up the morale of the nation throughout World War II. Elizabeth had previously met her future husband, Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, in 1934 and then again in 1937. After another meeting at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth in July 1939, Princess Elizabeth – though only 13 years old – fell in love with Philip, and they began to exchange letters. They married on 20 November 1947 at Westminster Abbey. They are second cousins once removed through King

Christian IX of Denmark and third cousins through Queen Victoria. On 31 January 1952, despite advice from those close to him, the ailing King George went to the airport to see off Princess Elizabeth, who was going on her tour of Australia via Kenya. On the morning of 6 February, George VI was discovered dead in bed at Sandringham House in Norfolk. He had died from a coronary thrombosis in his sleep at the age of 56. His daughter Elizabeth who was staying at Treetops in Kenya, immediately flew back to Britain as Queen Elizabeth II. Despite the death of Queen Mary ten weeks before, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II went ahead on 2 June 1953 as planned. Before she died, Mary had asked that the coronation not be delayed. The ceremony in Westminster Abbey, was televised for the first time, except for the actual anointing and communion; the coverage was instrumental in boosting the medium’s popularity; the number of television licences in the United Kingdom doubled to 3 million, and more than 20 million British viewers watched television for the first time in the homes of their friends or their neighbours. In North America, approximately 100 million viewers watched recorded broadcasts. In a world where leaders are constantly changing, and whatever you might think of British Royalty, it is a real treasure to have such an enduring Monarch as Queen Elizabeth II. THE DIAMOND JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS The Jubilee Concert is being organised by Gary Barlow from “Take That,” and it will showcase the best of pop, rock, classical and musical theatre from each decade of the monarch’s 60-year reign. With an estimated live audience of just over 10,000 people, the Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry, and other members of the Royal Family will be in a special section to watch the show.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II STATISTICS Queen Victoria was the first and until now the only British Monarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee. The Queen, who will be aged 85 on Accession Day in 2012, will be the oldest monarch to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee. Queen Victoria was 77 when she celebrated hers in 1897.

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

The Queen is the second longest serving monarch. Only five other Kings and Queens in British history have reigned for 50 years 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)

Artists confirmed include: Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Cliff Richard, Annie Lennox, Sir Tom Jones, Dame Shirley Bassey, Jools Holland, Madness and Jessie J will all be performing outside Buckingham Palace in June. The concert stage has been designed to encircle the stunning gold-encrusted Queen Victoria Memorial which stands at the front of the palace with seating either side. Ten thousand tickets are to be given away through a public ballot for the event, to be held outside Buckingham Palace on June 4, while millions more will

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

be able to watch the musical extravaganza live on BBC1 or listen in on Radio 2. It is hoped that giant screens will also be erected in the nearby Mall for members of the public not lucky enough to secure tickets to watch. The late May Bank Holiday has been moved to Monday 4 June 2012 and an additional Jubilee Bank Holiday will take place on Tuesday 5 June 2012. It looks like being a great weekend with plenty of work for taxi-drivers around town. Roger Sligo

The Mountview Amusing Caption Competition Can you write an amusing caption for the picture of the rusting black cabs opposite? A bottle of Champagne will be awarded for the most amusing caption. Email your entry to mvn.editor@radiotaxis.co.uk Good luck!

DECEMBER’S WHERE 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 Spain where the Battle of Salamanca was fought on July 22, 1812 between Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish armies under the Duke of Wellington who defeated the French forces.

Geoffrey Riesel intervie Conservative Party Can Geoffrey Riesel: Thank you very much indeed for coming to talk to us. What I want to ask you first is about the taxi industry being well known around the world and seen as one of the enduring symbols of London. What are your own views of London’s taxi service? Boris Johnson: I think London’s taxi service is one of the great transport services of London and let’s be absolutely clear, there are how many buses on the roads? 8500 buses, you’ve got something like 30,000 taxis on the streets of this city, black cabs, they are an integral part of the identity of London and they provide a service that no other form of transport does. If you can’t get home late at night because the tube has stopped running or if you can’t find a bus or if you don’t know where you are or where to go, there’s a taxi driver that can help you and that is an absolutely invaluable resource for a city so my job as mayor is to protect the taxi trade in any way that I can. GR: Do you use taxis much and if so, have you got a favourite taxi story? BJ: I use taxis a lot, I don’t tend to do it at a public expense which means that I have to be very careful with my expenditure and with taxpayers money because obviously a key feature of our electoral campaign is that we are not wasting your money folks. One of my favourite taxi stories I suppose might be that my predecessor, the newt fancier, used to take taxis at huge public expense and I don’t think that any taxi driver would support that, well the individual who benefited from a £619 trip to Blackpool I suppose would as he did well out of it, but I think the taxpayer in the end doesn’t do well by public abuse of taxpayers money. GR: Taxi drivers spend their working lives around the streets of London, what policies will you propose in the future that you think will make life better for them and of course for their passengers?

BJ: Well, the key thing that concerns me is congestion and smoothing traffic flow and everybody says ‘oh old Johnson’ he’s put in in loads of these bloody bicycles, blooming bicycles everywhere, cut them – he’s put in too many bicycles and they’re holding up the traffic. One of the most important things that we’ve done recently is to get the government after three years of solid work to agree to lane rental for road works and that means that there are 106 bodies that can dig up the roads without any kind of, virtually any permission whatsoever. We have now got a bill before parliament which will mean that they have to get permission and they will have to pay for the time they occupy the carriageway and that will mean that all the roadwork companies, there are 106 of them, people who dig up the road, they will have to coordinate their activities, they will have to ring each other up and say ‘listen we have got to take up the surface now, do you want to come in and do it?’ and that will mean they will have to reduce the time they do it and that will reduce congestion. Don’t forget 36% of delays are caused by roadworks congestion. I will tell you another thing I want to do, going forward in the next term, if I am lucky enough to get back. I think if you look at the other causes of congestion, 41% of delays are caused by accidents and very often, I have to be totally honest with you and say that I don’t think the accident is cleared away fast enough. I think that we have got an issue with the insurance companies, with the procedures, with some of the bureaucracy that prevents the police from simply saying OK there’s nothing to see, there’s no more need to close the carriageway, there’s no more need to close the road, we’re going to open it up. So I am talking to the Met to see what we can do to speed that up because that is a huge unacknowledged cause of delays on our roads. The third thing I would say is that it is high time we had investment in roads. Roads are the kind of unacknowledged cousin of the transport system in this city. We always talk about the tube, we go on and on about the buses and what we are going to do to make life safer. We have done a huge amount to make life safer on the tube, but look at our roads, our roads are the life blood of the London economy, 60% of journeys are still made by car or on the road particularly in outer London, you’ve got to do things to improve traffic flow and to make life easier for people and I am convinced that you can do those things if you get the right investment without prejudicing pedestrians or cyclists and we

ews Boris Johnson, ndidate for Mayor of London are going to be bringing forward a package of improvements for the roads which I think will be of great benefit to taxi drivers and 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 think they might be able to use the Network? BJ: Don’t forget this is a network that was going to be 240 kilometres long, this is the limit agreed to in the Olympic bid book and we have got it down to 70 kilometres long. It is only going to be in operation for 16 days in peak operation with a couple of days either side. I really say to taxi drivers whenever I am talking to them, don’t get this wrong we are expecting 5.5 million visitors to London in the Games, don’t pack up, don’t put 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 and provided you know where the route network is going to be, provided you understand how it is going to operate, there is an opportunity to make money and it is very, very important that taxi drivers, like all London businesses, plan, prepare and profit from the Games. GR: Taxi drivers often complain that they think that there isn’t enough enforcement against illegal touts plying for hire and ranking up where touts shouldn’t. Can you promise any further action on this and what would you do also about their other favourite 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 this endlessly, round about a billion times, we do not have the power. I can’t say that what is effectively a non-motorised vehicle on the Queen’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 the problems when I am driving, I don’t think they are safe. What we are doing is we are regulating, we are cracking down and the police have strict instructions to make sure they go very hard on rickshaw drivers, pedi-cabs who are causing difficulties and I think we’ve had a big surge in that recently. On minicabs and unlicensed minicabs, we have already done a lot and we are going to do more. I think we increased the team, the people who are cracking down on them by 34, from memory in the last year, that’s 2010 – 2011 for which we have figures, we’ve arrested 1300 minicab drivers, that’s a massive increase and we are going to keep doing that and don’t be in any doubt that these people, unlicensed minicabs are a menace to London, they are undermining the taxi trade, they are very often a threat to women, it is vital that people are aware of the risks and that unlicensed minicabs are driven off our streets and that’s what we are doing.

GR: London’s taxi industry is based upon drivers with high standards, with knowledge, purpose built vehicles, can the industry have confidence that you will continue to support the industry as you have done in your first term, particularly if you are re-elected as Mayor? BJ: Of course it can, I really think that as Mayor we did everything we could, I am the man who put representative of the licensed taxi trade on the board of TfL and as long as I am Mayor there will be a representative of the taxi trade on the board of TfL that tells me what the concerns of the trade are and I have regular meetings, not just with Bob Oddy, but with other representatives as well. We talk about the issues, I am a believer in London taxis, they are an absolutely invaluable part of our transport network, we want to support them. GR: You are probably aware about the Law Commission currently reviewing a framework for taxi and private hire licensing standards right across the country. Do you agree with us that this is an issue that should remain in the remit of Transport for London, the GLA and the Mayor and that the standards of the taxi industry in London shouldn’t be watered down to meet the rest of the country? BJ: Absolutely right and that’s why I weighed in on this business with the CRB checks – they were trying to water all that down, I won’t have that. People in London deserve to feel that they’ve got an absolutely world-class service and it is a world-class service, we’re not going to have any watering down. People respect the London taxi trade, they know what kind of service they are going to get when they get on board a London taxi and it’s vital we don’t have any attempt to water that down. GR: Boris, you’ve had four years of being the Mayor; you’ve obviously enjoyed it because you’re putting your name in the hat again. Do you have a message for the 2500 drivers of our company; Radio Taxis, but also for the wider community of the taxi 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 what you’re doing to make London a great city, for the service that you provide which I think is world-class and I would very much like you to support me as the guy who’s going to stick up for the taxi trade in our city and a final thought: Don’t write off the Olympics folks, 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.

Geoffrey Riesel intervie Labour Party Candidat Geoffrey Riesel: Thank you very much Ken for coming and talking to us, it’s really appreciated. London’s taxi industry is recognised around the world and seen as one of the enduring symbols of London. What are your own views about the role of London’s taxi service? Ken Livingstone: I think it’s most probably, as you say, a real icon of London. Everyone who comes to London looks for a red bus and a black cab so I wasn’t happy when some of the cabs started having advertising on the outside, and the standard that’s set is amazing. I remember getting in a cab in New York and asking to go to the Natural History Museum and they dropped me on the wrong side of Central Park. The Knowledge, I know it’s difficult and it takes a long time but it gives so much more confidence that you’ll get in a cab and the person knows where to go, knows the best and quickest way to get there and that’s why we fought all the attempts to downgrade The Knowledge or just replace it with a SatNav or something. GR: Every taxi driver in London knows who you are. Do you enjoy using taxis and have you got a favourite taxi story? KL: Well, I use cabs quite a lot, both minicabs and black cabs. I live in an area where you almost only see a black cab parked outside Willesden Green once a year in the rank there. I suppose my favourite story is about a year ago when I got in a black cab, this was at Finchley Road station with all my shopping and he went on about ‘I used to hate you when you were Mayor and I was so glad when I voted for Boris and you lost… but I’m voting for you next time’ – (laughing) now that is my favourite story. I think this was after they closed the carriage office. I never recall anyone in TfL coming to me and saying to me ‘we need to close the carriage office’. I can’t see why because it was such a focal point and part of the culture of the cab trade. GR: Taxi drivers spend their working lives on London’s roads, what policies if you are re-elected would you introduce that you think would make life better for them and for their passengers?

KL: Well, I think of all that we do to encourage people to use public transport and reduce car usage; I mean basically central London streets are always just below gridlock point; the congestion charge bought us a bit of time but the scale of road works and the delays. I remember it took something like 8 months on West End Lane on that stretch between the three stations to replace about 75 metres of gas main. It just seems to me, if you know that you are going to replace a gas main, 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 one person working on this blocked off bit of road and so I think we need to be absolutely rigorous in this. The next most important thing to make London work and for people to get around is to have a real crackdown on those utilities that just don’t give a damn. GR: Taxi drivers’ favourite question about them being able to or not being able to use the Olympic Route Network – What are your thoughts on that? KL: Well, when we bid for the Olympic Games we were told that there had been a real catastrophe at Atlanta; virtually no public transport in Atlanta; and athletes missed the games and so on and I have no objection to lanes that are there to allow officials that are running the games and athletes getting there. We also need to remember that almost all the athletes are actually in the Olympic village. But what seems to be more the reality is lanes for the sponsors and the corporates and I think that’s a real resentment, that isn’t justified and it is certainly, if I hadn’t lost the last election, is one of the things I remember saying to myself, ‘I really want to talk to the Organising Committee about this.’ It is going to be a potential PR nightmare for them and certainly it’s only a desperately short time of 10 weeks but I wonder whether or not we could have allowed not just black cabs but buses to use those Olympic lanes. What I can’t understand is why it has all been left to the last minute. I intended in 2009 to sort these issues out, as well as what you’re going to pay the tube drivers and bus drivers to work during the Olympics. Leaving it late means we are hostages to fortune. GR: Taxi drivers are concerned about enforcement of touting, illegal touts, illegal minicabs and the other thing they are concerned about is their other favourite question about, is there anything you think we can do about pedi-cabs?

ews Ken Livingstone, te for Mayor of London KL: Well, if I had legislative power, I would say we wouldn’t have pedi-cabs. I think they are inherently dangerous, they take up a ridiculous amount of space for the passenger miles they actually produce, so I would just simply ban them. It might be that you have to regulate them so hard that you get rid of them basically that way. The touts are a much more serious problem because that’s where most of the rapes that happen to women after a night out on the town. Boris has now admitted that they’ve cut 1700 police posts over the last two years and I think the crackdown on touts is always a thing you need to keep pressure on the police to do. There’s always other things; policing the Occupy demonstration and all that and it tends to slip off. I remember if I said I wanted to come on an operation and they’re all geared up, they’ll keep that pressure on. I suspect with the loss of the police numbers it’s one of the things that slipped down the list of priorities and I’d want to reinstate it. I’ve given a commitment that we’ll refill all those 1700 lost posts so there will be the capacity there for the police to actually do their job. GR: The taxi industry in London is based as you know on drivers with knowledge and high standards, can the industry have confidence that if re-elected they can continue to secure your support as Mayor? KL: The good thing about this election as opposed to the last one is that people can compare my record with Boris’. Last time he just promised to match everything I was doing and do better. People can now see we’ve got less police, the tube and bus fares increase has been horrendous and really hit people and things like the carriage office being closed without any warning. Boris didn’t get up and say ‘vote for me, I’ll close the carriage office’ and I think that’s why this time he’s going to great lengths to avoid debates, we had one in front of old age pensioners a couple of weeks ago which he comprehensively lost and he’s due to do one more in March and one in April – I’m happy to do one a day because I think having records to compare is a good thing. There was a very good article in the Guardian G2 Magazine looking at Boris’ record and in conclusion; yes you’ve got the most expensive cable car in the world under construction; he presided over building the helter skelter in the Olympic park; he’s got the cycle hire scheme where each bike and docking station comes in at £12,000; and he’s bought the most expensive bus in human history, but that’s about it. GR: The Government and Law Commission are currently reviewing the framework for taxi and private hire licensing standards across the country. Do you agree with us that this is an issue that should remain within the remit of the Mayor, TfL, the GLA and that London’s very high standards should not be watered down to those of the rest of the country?

KL: We are a great world city in competition with New York and Tokyo and Shanghai and the standard you have to have to be in that sort of competition of course has a whole range of things, it needs to be better than just the average for cities that aren’t in the centre of local attention and therefore standards we set on things that are absolutely crucial and one of those is our black cab trade which is known around the world. The Chinese government has now basically adopted the black cab for China and it’s building no doubt millions of them out there, we should hang on to that. The other thing is everything I ever had to deal with in central government was slow, indecisive and usually wrong at the end of the day. If it was up to me, it wouldn’t just be that I’d keep the regulation of the cab trade in the Mayor’s office, I’d actually declare independence and 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 that you 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 of them, for the taxi industry in general and of course the wider community our customers in other words, Londoners in general. KL: One small thing which will help the congestion is we are going to bring in what San Francisco now does which is people driving around San Francisco on their mobile phone will be told where the nearest available parking space is and given what is happening in Westminster, that’s becoming more and more important. The big multi-storey blocks, slots on the streets, all done on a simple computer system because the Mayor of San Francisco discovered that a fifth of the cars in San Francisco were driving around looking for somewhere to park so that would be another small little thing that would help. Secondly, if black cab drivers vote for me they will live longer because we are going to tackle air quality and black cab drivers must be just about the most vulnerable people because they are there breathing in the fumes all the day and there is a real danger that London is going to be fined £300 million because of our bad air quality by the EU so you’ve just got to tackle this. The government, all governments have been hiding just how bad it is and we now know that at least 4,000 perhaps 6,000 people die prematurely a year and by premature you don’t mean a few months, on average 11 years, so air quality, we have got to do something about and I want to see cab drivers live as long as possible to complain about my mayoralty. GR: Ken – Thank you very much indeed and we wish you the best of luck. KL: Thanks very much.

Geoffrey Riesel intervie Lib Dem Party Candida absolutely hell for taxi drivers, and to prosecute people just because they are having a pee, has got to be beyond what is reasonable. Local authorities seem to be very lenient when it comes to private hire in terms of parking on yellow lines and yet black cabs even if you’re stopping to allow a customer to get some cash you get a ticket. So I am going to put pressure on local authorities to be even handed about this and to be fairer to cabs as far as parking is concerned. Geoffrey Riesel: Brian, thank you very much for agreeing to be interviewed by Radio Taxis. The taxi industry is recognised around the world and is seen as one of the great icons of London. What are you own views of the role of the London taxis industry? Brian Paddick: Taxis are as much a part of London as the big double decker bus, that’s what tourists come to see, that’s what people think of London. Taxis are an absolutely integral part of London GR: Do you use taxis much? If so have you a favourite taxi story? BP: Well, I am a terrible time-keeper and of course I get involved in things and the next thing you know, you haven’t got enough time to use public transport to get to where you want to go. The only option is to come out and hail a cab and I can’t tell you the number of times black cabs have saved my bacon. GR: Taxi drivers spend their working lives on the road. If elected Mayor of London, what policies do you propose that will make or could make life better for them? BP: We have got to put pressure on local authorities to be more reasonable around parking, particularly parking around public toilets and, in fact, to increase the number of public toilets. I am a middle-aged man, I know what it’s like and it must be

GR: Do you think you might try and put pressure on to help taxis use the Olympic Route Network? BP: The Liberal Democrats at the London Assembly have been quite clear on this. Caroline Pidgeon, my candidate for deputy mayor, has been pressing Boris Johnson to try and get cabs access to the Olympic routes and we will continue to press for that. If I become Mayor, Taxis will be able to use the Olympic routes. GR: Many cab drivers complain that there isn’t enough enforcement against illegal touts. What would you do about this, if anything, and what do you think of the subject of pedi-cabs? BP: Well I think there are some great places where pedi-cabs can be used – unfortunately they’re all in Asia! We don’t need them, they’re a bloody nuisance and they’re dangerous. So I would seek to get whatever legislation I need to ban pedi-cabs completely. As far as plying for hire is concerned, what is the point of doing the knowledge of having very regulated vehicles if the only difference between a private hire and a licensed taxi is plying for hire and yet the police don’t enforce and TfL don’t enforce touting minicabs. We have got to enforce that rule otherwise there’s no point in having that distinction between the two types of vehicle.

ews Brian Paddick, ate for Mayor of London GR: Do you see the taxi industry as part of the public transport infrastructure and if you do, how would ensure that the taxi industry has a voice in the public administration?

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

BP: Well, the fact that there are taxis that you can actually go out and hail on the street means, thankfully, thousands of Londoners don’t have to bring their own private cars into London because it would be gridlock if they do. So we’ve got to have democratically elected taxi representatives on the TfL board and in fact I think we need to go further than that, nobody knows London’s roads better than taxi drivers and we need to inject some common sense into TfL, particularly when it comes to new road layouts, when it comes to things like road works and diversions.

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

GR: The taxi industry is based upon drivers with knowledge, with purpose built vehicles and of course, the industry believes that it is important to maintain very high standards. Can the industry have confidence in you that you’ll ensure that this continues if you are elected as Mayor? BP: Well, I’ve been to New York quite a lot recently and the difference between London cabs and New York cabs, I mean, you’re lucky if you get someone who can speak English for a 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 to preserve what we have in London which has got to be the best taxi service in the world. GR: The law commission is currently reviewing the national framework for taxis and private hire. Do you agree that this is an issue that in the capital, should remain within the remit of TfL, and that high standards in London should not be watered down to match those in the rest of the country.

GR: How would you deal with London’s need for greater airport capacity? BP: People are saying we need more to flights to China, and India and to South America, but there isn’t enough runway capacity. Well, British Airways have found an answer; they have put three more flights on to Rio every week by cutting down on some of the European flights. In terms of overall capacity, it’s not the terminals, new terminal 2 coming online is going to be able handle a couple of million extra passengers every year. It’s the runways. Well, we’ve got the Airbus A380 and the Boeing Dream-Liner; both can carry a lot more passengers than even a Jumbo jet can. We can increase capacity in that way. GR: Brian, thank you very much, is there anything else you would like to add or any statement you would like to make not just for the taxi trade, but to Radio Taxis customers? BP: What I would say is, we’re tired of the same old, same old in London. The last two people have had their go. Taxis drivers that talk to me say they were fed up with Ken and now they’re fed up of Boris, well now it’s time for Brian Paddick.

BP: To be honest with you, I think it was better when the Met Police ran the whole thing, but I would say that as a former copper, wouldn’t I? No, there is no problem in London. The system isn’t broken; we don’t need to fix it. Thanks very much, take your commission elsewhere.

A Tale of Two Centuries – The Bic “There is no writer, in my opinion, who is so much a painter and a black-and-white artist as Dickens. His figures are resurrections.” – Vincent Van Gogh.

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Immensely popular in his day, Charles Dickens’s stories are still as relevant and entertaining as ever, his characters are as real and exciting as they always have been. Dickens name will forever be linked to London although he wasn’t born there, he didn’t die there; however he did spend most of his working life as a writer in the metropolis of this great city. His association as a Londoner are through his many novels dealing with the squalor, hardships and everyday life of the underclass in Victorian London. Dickens and London are forever bound together, one of the same. Today, 200 years after his birth, Charles Dickens is acknowledged as the most famous 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 on Friday the 7th February 1812 at Portsea, a suburb of Portsmouth. His father John was a clerk in the Navy pay-office attached to Portsmouth dockyard. At the age of three, Charles and the Dickens family moved to London. Their first home in the capital was at number 10 Norfolk Street, (present day – 22 Cleveland Street) where Charles was to spend the next two years of his life. Just a few yards from their home, in the same street, stood a workhouse, which surprisingly enough, still remains (recently reprieved from demolition) it is said to be where Master Oliver Twist’s workhouse was based on. Just two years after moving in, John Dickens was posted to the Chatham Dockyards. It was whilst at Chatham that Dickens had the happiest years of his childhood, much of which he later recalled in his writings. The next time young Dickens set eyes on London again was in the winter of 1822, when his father was transferred to Somerset House in the Strand. The family arrived back in London by stage coach, arriving at the Golden Cross, where Charing Cross stands today. They would have had to walk to their new home, as there was no other transport in those days and a cab ride was out of their price range. Walking through Charing Cross Road, then through Tottenham Court Road and Hampstead Road they would have finally finished their journey at 16 Bayham Street; entering into one of the smallest houses in Camden Town, in one of the poorest parts of London. Nothing of this property has survived;

except for the description of the Cratchit’s home in ‘A Christmas Carol’, where the dwelling is undoubtedly modelled from. His elder sister Fanny was beginning her four years of study at the Royal Academy of Music, whilst Charles felt his own dejection of a good education. His debt ridden father had to move the family on to another house, this time at number 4 Gower Street North, where Dickens’s mother tried to help with the family finance by opening a school; a large brass plate on the door announced ‘MRS DICKENS ESTABLISHMENT.’ Unfortunately nobody ever came and John Dickens with such little skills in financial management was soon incarcerated within the walls of the Marshalsea Prison for Debtors. HARD TIMES It was during 1824 whilst John Dickens was imprisoned in Southwark for about eight months that most of the family accompanied him, with the exception of 12 year old Charles, who broke down in tears from his despair, and rented lodgings were soon found for him in a nearby attic at Lant Street. Young Charles was now close enough to the prison for him to have breakfast and supper with the rest of the family. The incarceration was brought to an end with the sudden death of Elizabeth Dickens, paternal grandmother of Charles, whereby John Dickens inherited £450 and was subsequently released. The house where Charles lodged in Lant Street belonged to the Vestry Clerk of St George’s Church; the church next to the prison is still standing after recently undergoing a full restoration. Nothing however of the house in Lant Street remains, the only reminder of Dickens’s tenancy on the site, which is now occupied by an old school building, is a 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 brought up youngster was plunged into Warren’s Boot Blacking Company at 30 Hungerford Steps, which stood close to present day Hungerford Railway Bridge, near the Embankment Underground Station. The Thames was not embanked in those times, and the wider-river would lap against the wooden steps of Warren’s. The Blacking factory became the inspiration for Murdstone and Grinby’s in ‘David Copperfield’. The factory is described in the novel as ‘a crazy old house with a wharf of its own, abutting on the

entenary of Charles Dickens 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 temporary lodgings near Kentish Town, was done on foot. Literally hundreds of people would walk in the same direction each morning on their way to their various workplaces. Walking was the only way to get anywhere, as there were no trains, buses, or even bicycles. Hackney Coaches were only for the very affluent in society, or for special occasions such as weddings. Dickens suffered humiliation blackening boots in front of the window. Whilst working, his mind must have been soaking up the various characters he would see every day. An older boy he worked alongside, and who took him under his wing, was Bob Fagin – his name would be used for the boss of a den of young thieves – living in a hovel off Shoe Lane. One day Dickens got into some trouble with his bosses and was sent home, only to be taken back to Warren’s the next morning by his mother. His six shillings wages each week was still needed to help with the rent and therefore his boot blackening days needed to continue. With unconcealed detestation, he describes the premises at Hungerford Stairs (below) where the blacking factory was located. He called it: ‘A crazy, ➋ tumbledown house with rotten floors and staircase, dirty and decaying, with rats swarming down in the cellar.’ He describes the misery of a child with a vivid imagination carrying out a dirty, repetitive, dreary job from morning till night, eight o’clock in the morning to six o’clock at night, ten hours a day, Monday to Saturday, washing and putting labels on thousands of pots of blacking. Better times were on the way however, and before too long Charles found himself eventually attending the Wellington House Academy, 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 general run-down atmosphere, are embodied in Mr Creakle’s Establishment in ‘David Copperfield’. Dickens worked at the law office of Ellis & Blackmore, attorneys, at Grays Inn, as a junior clerk from May 1827 to November 1828. Then, having learned Gurney’s system of shorthand in his spare time, he left to become a freelance reporter. A distant relative, Thomas Charlton, was a freelance reporter at Doctors’ Commons, and Dickens was able to share his box there to report the legal proceedings for nearly four years. This education informed works such as ‘Nicholas Nickleby’, ‘Dombey and Son’, and especially ‘Bleak House’ – whose vivid portrayal of the machinations and bureaucracy of the legal system did much to enlighten the general public and was a vehicle for dissemination of Dickens’s own views regarding, particularly, the heavy burden on the poor who were forced by circumstances to “go to law”.

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES; IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES In 1830, Dickens met his first love, Maria Beadnell, thought to have been the model for the character Dora in ‘David Copperfield’. Maria’s parents disapproved of the courtship and effectively ended the relationship by sending her to school in Paris. In 1833 Dickens’s first story, ‘A Dinner at Poplar Walk’ was published in the London periodical, Monthly Magazine. The following year he rented rooms at Furnival’s Inn becoming a political journalist, reporting on parliamentary debate and travelling across Britain to cover election campaigns for the Morning Chronicle. His journalism, in the form of sketches in periodicals, formed his first collection of pieces Sketches by Boz published in 1836. This led to the serialisation of his first novel, ‘The Pickwick Papers’, in March 1836. He continued to contribute to and edit journals throughout his literary career. On 2 April 1836, he married Catherine Thomson Hogarth the daughter of George Hogarth, editor of the Evening Chronicle, at St Luke’s Church, Sydney Street Chelsea. After a brief honeymoon at Chalk in Kent, they set up home for a short time at number 11 Selwood Terrace, Chelsea – before moving onto Doughty Street, Bloomsbury and various other London addresses. They were to have ➌ ten children together – although their marriage was not a happy one; however it endured for twenty-two years. Dickens formed a bond with the actresses, Ellen Ternan (left), which was to last the rest of his life. He separated from his wife, Catherine, in 1858 – divorce was still unthinkable for someone as famous as he was. THE FINAL YEARS Dickens fame grew internationally with visits to many parts of the world including America. Like a pop star of his day he was touring and doing book readings to audiences in packed theatres. While returning from Paris on 9 June 1865, with his mistress Ellen Ternan, Dickens was involved in the Staplehurst (in Kent) rail crash. The first seven carriages of the train plunged off a cast iron bridge undergoing repair. The only first-class carriage to remain on the track was the one in which Dickens was travelling in. Dickens tried to help the wounded and the dying before rescuers arrived. As he was leaving the train, he remembered the unfinished manuscript for ‘Our Mutual Friend’, and he returned to his carriage to retrieve it. Dickens managed to avoid an appearance at the inquest, and thus having to disclose details of him travelling with Ternan and her mother, which would have caused a scandal. ➍ Although physically unharmed, Dickens never really recovered from the trauma of the Staplehurst crash, and his normally prolific writing shrank to completing ‘Our Mutual Friend’ and starting the unfinished ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’. Much of his time was taken up with public readings from his best-loved novels. Dickens was fascinated by the theatre as an escape from the world; theatres and theatrical people appear in ‘Nicholas Nickleby’. The travelling shows were extremely popular. In 1866, a series of public readings were undertaken in England and Scotland.

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 a toothache, and then fell unconscious on the floor. The next day, on 9 June, exactly five years to the day after the Staplehurst rail crash, 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.

➐

THE MUSEUM OF LONDON – walked, he outlined the intricate storylines, just how his fictional CHARLES DICKENS EXHIBITION characters would walk from street to street, as he followed in their To celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, the footsteps across the city. Museum of London has recreated the atmosphere of Victorian As a young lad Dickens had wanted to become an actor and London through sound and projections; here you’ll be taken on a had made arrangements for an audition, although unfortunately a haunting journey to discover the city that inspired his writings. bad cold prevented him from taking part. All his life he was an Paintings, photographs, costumes and objects illustrate themes actor at heart. He loved Shakespeare and in the late 1840’s Dickens that Dickens wove into his works, while rarely seen manuscripts helped raise funds to save Shakespeare’s house in Stratford including ‘Bleak House’ and ‘David Copperfield’ – written in on Avon. the author’s own hand – offer clues to his creative genius. Dickens creations leap off the pages – you only I went one Friday afternoon in January and was have to call somebody a ‘Scrooge’ and everyone will struck by the amount of Dickens artefacts which know exactly what you mean. Some of the names he were on display. There is everything from a night invented came from people he knew – a neighbour, watchman’s box; a door from Newgate Prison; known to be a miser by the name of Goodge, and a bollards from Fenchurch Street; his leather bound local cheesemonger called Marley became Scrooge chair and writing desk; signed cheques and and Marley in ‘A Christmas Carol’. manuscripts with proof reader’s alterations. William Sykes sold tallow and oil for lamps During my visit I discovered how Dickens’s from a shop at 11 Cleveland Street just a few doors childhood experiences of London, working in a blacking away from Dickens house at 22 Cleveland Street. factory while his father was locked away in a debtor’s Opposite was a cobbler named Dan Weller – who appears prison, were introduced into the stories he wrote. The great as Sam Weller in ‘The Pickwick Papers.’ social questions of the 19th century, including wealth and poverty, ➎ After he became famous, Dickens helped popularise the term prostitution, childhood mortality and philanthropy, is also “red tape” to describe the bureaucracy in positions of power that examined, all of which set the scene for Dickens’ greatest works. particularly hurt the weak and poor. There is also the painting; Dickens’ Dream, 1875 by Robert One of the things Dickens cared about most was those at the William Buss, (on loan from The Dickens Museum) on display by bottom. He was one of the first to offer an unflinching look at the the side of his writing desk. underclass and the poverty stricken in Victorian London. It was not Buss’s painting has placed Dickens asleep in his study at Gad’s until after his death that the world Hill Place, Higham, Kent. Despite being rejected by Dickens as an was made aware of his humble start illustrator of ‘The Pickwick Papers’ in 1836, Buss began this work in life. in homage to the author after his death in 1870. Buss in turn died If you have never read any of in 1875, leaving the work unfinished, just as Dickens had failed to Dickens’s books and would like to complete ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’. Scenes and characters start with an easy one which from this novel feature prominently near Dickens in the painting you can pick up and put down, and have been coloured in. The watercolour has become perhaps then ‘Sketches by Boz’ (£8.83 from the most famous visual interpretation of the imagination of Amazon) is a good one to buy. Dickens and his fictional creations. Every chapter is a short look Best of all I would say is the commissioned film by one of at London life. ‘Hackney-Coach the UK’s leading documentary filmmakers, William Raban, which Stands’ is an ideal chapter to start ➑ explores the similarities between London after dark today and the you off with. night time city described by Roger Sligo Dickens over 150 years ago. The narrative from Dickens as he Key to the images in this article: walks Victorian London show how ➊ Dickens Dream, 1875 by Robert William Buss ©Charles Dickens Museum. little things have changed. ➋ Hungerford Stairs, 1830 by John Harley ©Museum of London. Dickens was an insomniac ➌ Ellen Ternan ©Charles Dickens Museum. who thought nothing of walking ➍ Portrait of Charles Dickens c.1849 ©Museum of London the London streets all night long. ➎ Dickens with his daughters Mary & Kate in the garden at Gad’s Hill Place, 1865 ©Charles Dickens Museum. ➏ Charles Dickens’s chair, c.1858 ©Museum of London. (Charles Dickens’s chair, at which he wrote Through these regular excursions, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. Upholstered & buttoned leather chair with turned legs decorated with acanthus leaves, he developed an encyclopedic 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). knowledge of London. He had ➐ Coutts bank order signed by Charles Dickens ©Museum of London. what we would describe today as a ➑ Charles Dickens in his study, 1859 by William Powell Frith, London, ©Victoria & Albert Museum, London. photographic memory. As he ➏

The Smarter Driving Course By Roger Sligo YOU MIGHT RECALL IN LAST December’s issue of Mountview News, whilst I was visiting the Eco Friendly Marshalls at St Pancras Station, where, I was offered a chance to take up the Smarter Driving Course. I was invited along to M&O’s showrooms in Brewery Road, for my drive, which took place at the beginning of February. I met up with my instructor Mervin Walker in the reception area, where he explained a little about his background and what the aim of the driving course is all about. Mervin told me he has been a driving instructor for the past 25 years and for the last 4 or 5 years, he has been doing the smarter driving course. “Basically I have been doing post test training, especially eco training, getting people to learn how to drive in a more fuel efficient way” he told me. He went on to say; “What it is we are looking for is ways to show you new ideas that you can add to your driving skills that 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 per gallon upwards to 12 miles per gallon. What we are looking for is driving style and how we can enhance it.” “What does the driving course entail?” I asked. “Let me explain how we are going to run this course, we are going to do 3 laps in a route just under 5 miles; on the first drive I would like you to drive as you normally do, treat me as a fare 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 driving as 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 as before, where I will be coaching you, and then we will do the final 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 sight of 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 new cab interior filling the air! It felt a little like it did all those years 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 own familiar cab. After the journey Mervin invited me to chat with him in the back of the cab. Mervin checked my data from his meter in the back,

Mervin Walker

and announcing an average speed of 14 miles an hour and 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 a London cabby, absolutely fine” he said reassuringly. He then went on to explain how I could improve my fuel consumption before I was back in the driving seat for lap 2 and under the watchful eyes of my instructor. This lap was like a driver’s awareness exercise, with Melvin teaching me how to read ahead of the road and how to keep moving without having to stop unless really necessary. When a vehicle keeps moving it uses up less fuel than when pulling off from a stationary position. I must admit, 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, whilst using my rear mirror, making me concerned of possibly irritating other drivers behind us. Reassuring words from Mervin like; “it doesn’t matter how long it takes to arrive at the red traffic lights, as long as you leave on the green it is the same time as you would have moved off anyway”. I couldn’t argue with his reasoning and did my best to keep moving. At one point along Seven Sisters Road, Melvin asked if I had some kind of unit with me which made traffic signals change red as we approached. We caught so many red lights, and the traffic was getting a little heavier then on my first lap I thought my fuel consumption would be greater than before. Back at Brewery Road and I was once again in the back of the cab to find out my latest score. The reading really surprised me with 27.5 miles to the gallon and average speed of 14mph – doing the same speed as before I had saved 4 miles per gallon. The last lap I was once again left to my own devices and came back about 2 miles a gallon shorter than before, but – 2 miles a gallon better than the first time. The Smarter Drivers Course is planned to run throughout March and there is the possibility of it running even longer. The course is free of charge and well worth discovering how to save some of the cost of fuel. If nothing else it is a good chance to drive a brand new Euro 5 Taxi without anyone trying to sell you one!

Why not join the Credit Union now! Well Christmas and New Year are now behind us and I hope you had a great Christmas, a happy and prosperous New Year to all, I hope the thought of finding money to pay your tax bill in January did not spoil the festivities. For many of you who had to find the money to pay your tax bill I hope you didn’t have to struggle too hard. Members of the Credit Union do not have to worry about such things as loans or withdrawals from their savings to pay for this, in fact at the time of writing we are only part way 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 who are 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 a holiday 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 is nothing 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 payable is only £66.20, beat that if you can. In addition to this all loans and savings are insured and fully protected 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 give me 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 your name and telephone number and I will return your call or email: alan.woolf@radiotaxis.co.uk

CreditUnion Radio 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

The Last Post at St John’s Wood FOR THE PAST TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHT years, St John’s Wood has been the home of an army barracks. Starting back in 1804 with the Corps of Gunner Drivers, being the first occupants of what was then St John’s Wood Farm. The farm was a simple Board of Ordnance hiring, (from whence Ordnance Hill derives its name) used only for the purpose of quartering and stabling the drivers and their horses. St Marylebone and St Pancras consisted of large dairy farms leased by tenants from a variety of landowners, among them the Eyre’s, who owned St John’s Wood. By 1810, the Board of Ordnance proposed to base the whole brigade at the farm and to this end they secured the 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-storey barrack block, running north to south in a line roughly parallel with the present-day Ordnance Hill, designated “New Artillery Barracks” and completed in 1812. During the rundown of the Army following the Battle of Waterloo, the brigade at St John’s Wood was ordered to Woolwich and not replaced. The barracks stood empty for the next three years. The vacant site at St John’s Wood was chosen to become the new home of the Cavalry Riding Establishment and so the Treasury granted approval for the construction of a new riding school there. In 1825, the Riding School, designed by the Royal Engineers was completed and is now one of the oldest buildings in St John’s Wood. In 1835, the Cavalry Riding Establishment was moved to Maidstone in Kent, and the Barracks at St John’s Wood stood empty once again. Next to enter the barracks was the Guards recruits depot which stayed for little more than a year. For the next two decades various detachments of Foot Guards and sometimes infantry of the line were in residence. By 1870, the Guards had departed St John’s Wood and the barracks became the temporary home to the various regiments of the Household Cavalry while Knightsbridge Barracks was rebuilt.

In early 1880, Knightsbridge Barracks was ready for reoccupation and on May 5 the 1st Life Guards left the Wood. Six weeks later, on June 24, “A Battery Brigade Royal Horse Artillery” arrived from Aldershot. With only a few interruptions, successive Royal Horse Artillery batteries were stationed at the Wood over the next 20 years, culminating with V Battery at the turn of the century. The departure of the King’s Troop from St John’s Wood Barracks on February 6th is the end of an era spanning more than 200 years, and almost continuously occupied by military units. Sadly the Royal Horse Artillery has left their St John’s Wood Barracks for the last time, and took up residence in a new purpose built equestrian training facility and accommodation St John’s Wood Barracks centre in the Woolwich Garrison, just as their Battle of Waterloo counterparts did two-centuries earlier – history repeating itself... Westminster Council recently approved proposals to redevelop the barracks site, at St John’s Wood. Ananda Krishnan, the second richest man in South East Asia, has acquired the site through his Usaha Tegas Group and has appointed UK property group London Square as project manager. Adam Lawrence, chief executive of London Square, said: “St John’s Wood Barracks is the jewel in the crown of London development sites.” The project consists of 12 apartment blocks and will create 133 new homes, 59 of which will be affordable housing. The development will also convert the site’s Grade II-listed riding school building into a new leisure centre. Roger Sligo

Sabit Topcu Ex Radio Taxis Driver R105, Owner of Cudworth Taxis interview with Tracey Fuller ● 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 long were you on the circuit? “I’ve known Tracey in Driver Services for a long time and I 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/garage industry, and as a driver I knew exactly what drivers wanted from a garage. I felt there was a market for me to open up my own garage as the drivers would have more trust in me and my Company being a taxi driver myself”. ● What would you like to say to Radio Taxis and Xeta drivers to get them to come along and sample your garage? “We are a genuine garage. We don’t charge over the top prices and our service is second to none. We look after our customers in every respect, we are honest, reliable and have 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 Saturday 8.00am 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 the Taxi Trade, I have contracts with other companies for bodywork, 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/March discounts.” ● 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 for you to come try us out and decide for yourself.”

Who gets your Twitter vote? By @RadioTaxis_Boss Follow the London Mayoral Elections on Twitter! LONDON IS NOW ENTERING the final stage of its fourth elections to choose a Mayor, and the first that will be fought out over Twitter. Twitter is a good way for politicians to communicate directly with the electorate by sending short 140 character messages known as tweets. All of the main candidates for Mayor are now using Twitter and as we get nearer the election date we can expect all the major news channels and political commentators to step up their tweeting about who will win the right to be Mayor when London stages the Olympics. In other articles in Mountview news we have set out further information on the candidates and their views on the taxi industry for you to consider. Here we advise on some of the twitter accounts you might want to follow to

Twitter Name

stay on top of all that is happening and to help you make up your mind on how to vote. I have also become a regular user of Twitter and find that following all of the Mayoral candidates allows me to know what they are thinking so that when I have a chance to meet them in my various capacities as Chairman of Radio Taxis or as a member of the London Chamber Board, or as a Council member of the CBI London, in all of those things it ensures that I am up to date with what they are saying. I am also a regular Twitter user as it is an important business tool for communicating with drivers, clients and other key stakeholders. I hope readers of Mountview News will find my Twitter account a good way of getting more information about what’s important for our industry and of course the work of Radio Taxis.

LONDON ELECTION TWITTER ACCOUNTS Twitter Account Description

@MayorofLondon

Boris Johnson (Mayor & ConservativeParty candidate)

City Government for Greater London under the auspices of the Mayor of London

@brianpaddick

Brian Paddick (Liberal DemocratParty Candidate)

Liberal Democrat candidate for Mayor of London in 2012

@ken4london

Ken Livingstone (Labour Party Candidate)

Tweets from Ken’s campaign team – Labour’s candidate for Mayor 2012 Tweets from Ken start with a K:

@standardnews

Evening Standard News desk

Breaking news & updates on top 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 blogger & radio presenter

LBC 97.3 Radio presenter (Mon – Fri, 7 – 10pm), 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 candidate for Mayor)

Green Party Mayoral Candidate 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

@ Letters & Emails to the Editor... AM I THAT GREEN? Dear Roger, If, as we are constantly told, new cabs are cleaner than old ones, why is it that the yearly road fund license for a new TX4 is more than double the price of a TX1 – and is anybody within the Cab trade trying to have this explained? From Michael Beckingham, J111 via email. Ed’s response: Thank you for your question Michael. I must admit it is a strange way of rewarding drivers with cleaner emissions. As you are most likely aware, taxis and private cars nowadays come under the same rulings; therefore this is the answer to your question: How road tax is now calculated – Whereas car tax on all models registered before 1st March 2001 is based on engine size, cars registered on or after that date are taxed according to their emissions. So, for older cars, there’s one rate for engines smaller than and including 1549cc and one for engine sizes larger than 1549cc. With newer models, annual car tax rates are based on cars’ green credentials and currently there are 13 tax bands. Cars in band A are greener (and therefore cheaper to tax) than band M. Essentially, the lower the emissions, the cheaper the tax disc. You can find your car’s emission information in the 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 be asking for the reinstating of the half price Hackney SEND YOUR LETTERS BY: Email: mvn.editor@radiotaxis.co.uk Or by ‘snail mail’ to: The Editor Mountview News Radio Taxis Group Mountview House Lennox Road LONDON N4 3TX

Carriage Road Fund Licence. In the meantime you might be please to learn the new TX4 (Euro five) and I believe the latest Mercedes Vito taxi (also Euro five) with their lower emissions, have a road tax charge of only £150. Our Chairman Geoffrey Riesel told me that although the engines of newer taxis are generally cleaner in terms of “NOx” and “Particulates” (ie the gases that damage your health and the smoke that can be Carcinogenic) they do not necessarily put out less Carbon (greenhouse gases) which long term, is thought to be the cause of global warming and thus climate change. Euro five vehicles do emit less greenhouse gas and thus there 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’s Virgin London Marathon on behalf of the Albany Taxi Charity. The fund is run by a group of licensed London taxi drivers, to help the lives of mentally handicapped children. As a long serving London taxi driver, with over 18 years on Radio Taxis, I know how important the trade charities are, with drivers only too pleased to help raise some much needed funds in this way. I am hoping to raise around one thousand pounds. If drivers would like to help support me with a donation or find out more about the Albany Taxi Trust please go to: www.justgiving.com/runningforthealbany Thank you for taking the time to read this and many thanks. Be lucky, Graham Hill, Z042. Ed; Good luck Graham with running the Marathon and reaching your target.

The Mountview Puzzler Page CLUES ACROSS 6. 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)

Jotting space

MOUNTVIEW SUDOKU The object is to write in the missing numbers in the empty boxes below. But to satisfy only one condition: each row, column and 3 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

CLUES DOWN 1. 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)

The Mountview Amusing Caption Competition And the Winner is... Steve Hardy, Tango76 who came up with the caption of “Portaloo Station??” and so wins himself a bottle of Champagne to celebrate! The Mountview News Amusing Caption Competition – If you spot something funny yourself, take a picture of it and email it to the mvn.editor@radiotaxis.co.uk and we may use it in the next edition.

CHIEF RENTALS is proud to announce that they have joined forces with Radio Taxis as their main supplier of replacement licensed Radio Taxis for their drivers who find themselves involved in the unfortunate circumstance of a non-fault accident. This specialist service enables Radio Taxis drivers who are involved in such an incident to get straight back to work and more importantly, back on the Radio Taxis circuit as all replacement vehicles supplied by Chief Rentals are fitted with a Radio Taxis terminal. Other aspects of this exceptional service also include repair management of the driver’s own vehicle as well as the handling of all personal injury claims, either from injured drivers or their 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 similar predicament following a non-fault accident and requiring a like-for-like replacement vehicle. Chief Rentals look forward to working with both Radio Taxis and their drivers long-term into the future and endeavour to provide them with an outstanding service that will keep everyone ‘on-circuit’ and at work during difficult times. To find out more with no obligation, please call us FREE on the number above.

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