Whitehall...Taxis all the way to Trafalgar Square and beyond.
Yesterday also saw a scathing attack, not only on the protesters, but also on the Chairman of a Taxi Trade representative org who supports the protests....from the general secretary of the LTDA, Steve McNamara. The email sent to most of the LTDA members has since found its way onto social media and has prompted this response from the Indeoendant Taxi Alliance (ITA) below.
STATEMENT FROM THE ITA IN REGARDS TO STEVE MCNAMA'S EMAIL TO MEMBERS.
The LTDA email to members. Where do I start?
Steve McNamara stated that working drivers were pelted by coins?
Utter rubbish!
Of course he is lying, because he has not attended any protests (not demos).
Football hooligans?
Who wrote that for McNamara, TfL?
Why has Steve McNamara constantly tried to undermine anything or anyone who questions TfL?
The "end game"?
That’s Simple, “Where Buses Go, Taxis Go”.
The "exit strategy"?
Much the same as Tooley Street (covert and face saving for TfL).
How does the LTDA expect any Org or Union to get Tottenham Court Road back onto the table?
Let's not forget TCR is currently lost.
And as far as anyone is concerned, is on track to exclude Taxis in 12 months time.
Ask Dan Howard and Westminster Council if the LTDA had any impact in their CS11 victory. Macca talks as if the LTDA has had an impact on the 'Unblock the Embankment' campaign. Both CS11 and 'UTE' are bandwagons the LTDA hitched itself to, after other people did all the ground work first.
Ask Macca what he is actually instigating and doing for Taxi drivers against roads closed to Taxis, in favour of buses, except "wait and see."
One of Steve McNamara's greatest tall tales is his last minute leaflet campaign on Tooley Street because "taxi demonstrations highlighted the issue to" cyclists.
What?
Who does Macca think hits every single TfL and Council consultation?
Gingerbread men?
It's the CYCLISTS!!!
Taxi drivers (protestors) handed out 15k leaflets on London Bridge and Bank Junction informing the public.
The LTDA "leaflet campaign" comprised of a couple of marshals handing out consultation leaflets to Taxi drivers on nearby ranks.
"Last minute", because they failed to think of it.
Steve McNamara admits he is happy to allow Taxis to be excluded from TCR for one year, while Camden assess the impact in 2021.
Where the heck is Jeremy Beadle?
Is this the same " wait and see" policy that has worked so well in Bank Junction?
Do us all a favour Steve, go now!
As for lobbying. Carry on Steve.
It can't do any harm.
But up until now, after years of feeding our greedy, yet misfortunate and barren Taxi APPG, we have nothing to show for it.
Maybe, just maybe...those decent, honest, mixture of race, creed and gender of Taxi drivers outside in the cold, fighting for their livelihoods, deserve better from you than scorn and wilful slander, while you sit in the warm, sipping tea and exchanging unminuted pleasantries with impotent, ineffectual officials.
Steve McNamara, in our opinion, you are not fit to stand with us, outside in the real world.
I call upon all those who are still LTDA members to join another Org or Union.
While the LTDA still have 7k members the press take this quisling seriously.
TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :
To all you drivers that work while we fight for ours and your livelihood, who believe in the LTDA policy of do nothing and wait and see....Chris Grayling has said he won't be capping Private Hire numbers because he doesn't want to damage Ubers working model and he wants to encourage more entrepreneurs to creat more PH apps to creat jobs....never mind the 25,000 Taxi Driver jobs he is destroying.
Also this is what the LTDA's policy of do nothing and wait and see has done in the City of London
6 comments:
Something I can’t comprehend is the negative attitude to social media from the LTDA.
They state that only 10% of the taxi trade are on Twitter so don’t really bother about their Twitter feed, other than to say their marshals are at such and such a rank tonight.
Yet they allege to have 22.2k followers.
Is this the type of contempt they show to their follows?
Or are there followers actually real people?
You can actually buy followers online for around £5 a thousand.
Would our largest org actually sink to this low level of buying their own follows ???
You bet your ‘wait and see’ lives they would 😂😂😂
It would of helped if you had posted the letter to LTDA members for all to read. Obviously for reasons suiting your iwn agenda, you didn't.
Dear Member
Those of you that don’t follow social media will be unaware of events at the Mayors Question Time, at a Plenary Session of the GLA last week. David Kurten AM (UKIP) asked a question about the Mayor’s Transport Strategy (MTS) and the Mayors ambitions for 80% of transport in London to be via walking, cycling or public transport by 2040. The reply given was that taxi journeys are not included in the figures, it’s predominantly about tube, rail and bus numbers. This was not and is not news. The draft MTS was published 18 months ago and anyone who had taken the time to read it already knew that. The MTS can be read here: - https://tfl.gov.uk/corporate/about-tfl/the-mayors-transport-strategy
On social media this has been twisted into the cab trades apocalypse, with most pundits totally misquoting what was said and twisting it beyond recognition. “This is it, this is this Mayor giving you your P45, get down and join the demos” says the leader of one trade group. He fails to mention that he had obviously never read this Mayor’s MTS or that of the previous Mayor’s, where the objectives were very similar! In fact, going forward, by 2040, the likelihood is there will be at least another 4 of these documents. Still why let the truth get in the way of a good crisis? In an effort to somehow blame the LTDA, he refers to me not attending an LEVC sales figures meeting the day before. He fails to mention that he has missed the last three, plus all their recent PR group meetings and at the last air quality meeting had to be told who the deputy Mayor for air quality is! If he had asked why I never made it, I could have explained that I overran my previous meeting with the deputy Mayor for policing discussing the attacks on cabbies in Lisson Grove. I think that’s more important!
Needless to say, the usual liars and truth twisters within the trade are now trying to turn this non-event into a recruitment drive for their cause and in some cases, extreme political views, and somehow contort it into an example of the failings of our political route of engaging with and working with politicians of any party. Their ‘alternative’ solution is to hold constant demos and block roads until we get what we want and because I won’t officially back this approach and ask LTDA members to attend, anything that happens is somehow my fault. I am not alone. Cabbies who were either unaware of these demos (the vast majority), or those who choose not to take part, have been abused or worse, with instances of cabs being pelted with coins by those demonstrating. This divisive tribalism is lunacy, is reminiscent of the football terraces of the 70s and has no place in our inclusive 21st century forward thinking industry.
The truth is that demos do have a place but only as part of a campaign and with an ‘end game’ and ‘exit strategy’ in place. Without these I would be asking you to attend demos constantly, with no end in sight, until we just become part of the background of London life the, ‘demonstrating moaning cabbies’ where even we had forgotten what we were there for.
The main argument for demos is that our political route has got us nowhere and our only option is to block the streets. Those calling for demos make no mention of defeating Boris’s plans for a 10-year age limit on taxis- We are now going through it all again. We have successfully negotiated our exemption from the new Toxic (T) charge, the minicab industry will have to pay £12.50 a day plus the congestion charge for every diesel older than a 16 plate. We won’t! The minicab industry will have to pay the congestion charge of £11.50 per day from April and we are now lobbying for the congestion charge to operate 24 hours every day. Our current biggest campaign is for action following the DFT working group report which recommends legislation including a definition of Plying for Hire and an end to Cross border hiring. The government announcement that it will be publishing its response this month and hopefully amendable legislation in this year’s Queens speech.
We continue to engage with any groups that may assist the trade in our objectives, such as our support for the anti CS11 group who successfully defeated TfL over the proposed road closures at Swiss Cottage and our work with the ‘Unblock the Embankment’ campaign to re-locate the Cycle Super Highway on the Embankment are good examples.
We are currently awaiting the result of the Tooley Street consultation (this one is TfL and the Mayor), you will remember we had to organise a last-minute leaflet campaign to combat a lobbying effort from cycling groups after taxi demonstrations highlighted the issue to them.
Tottenham Court Road we are desperately trying to get Camden to see sense ahead of the scheme going live in 2020, the latest in a long line of communications from the council leader said: -
“Camden Council will be reviewing the West End Project 12 months after the scheme is completed, and this will include taxi access. This is something we have made clear in the past and are happy to reiterate. The review will begin in 2021 and will be based on a number of factors, including road safety, congestion and air quality impacts, this will include the allowance of ZEC taxis being considered as part of this review process” This is far from the result we want, but it shows that they are responding to our relentless lobbying for an all taxis inclusion as a trial at the start of the scheme. We are confident a trial will support our arguments and lead to our permanent inclusion.
With a Conservative free market government, a labour Mayor and a myriad of local authorities we have our work cut out, and unfortunately politicians have calendars not watches. At every meeting I attend in the Palace of Westminster, or with business groups or local authorities anywhere, I see our opponents and their lobbyists pushing their agendas. If we are to beat them we need to be inside with them, not blocking the streets outside.
Best Regards
Steve McNamara
General Secretary
14:51..... I don't have my IWN AGENDA, posts are limited by space
Didn't want to post in part as people like you would be accusing me of censorship
Plus it's available all over social media so most drivers have already seen it
But there you go....in three parts
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