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The May issue of Call Sign
caused something of a shock when we disclosed that Dial-a-Cab driver and
former Board member, Gordon Poluck (R34), had decided to throw his hat into
the ring and oppose sitting Mayor Ken Livingstone at the next London Mayoral
election. Although this wasn’t the first time a DaC driver had decided to
stand for Mayor of London -Call Sign’s controversial columnist Chas Kissin
(P99J) was in the first race almost three years ago until being forced to
pull out at the last minute – few thought that Gordon would follow through
and officially enter the race. "Well I have," said Gordon, "I’ve filled in all the forms and am now an official candidate standing as an Independent," Gordon, who is also well known as one of the country’s top toastmasters, told Call Sign that he is not without local government experience having spent eight years as a councillor for the borough of Croydon. He went on to add: "I haven’t really changed my views on anything since I first announced in May that I wanted to stand. I am very concerned that Congestion Charging is destroying London. West End stores are losing money because people are not prepared to pay a fiver and then get ripped off by horrendous car park charges. Even if public transport was brilliant – and just filling the streets with hundreds of buses doesn’t make it that - not everyone wants to use it. |
IT’S OFFICIAL! DAC’S GORDON POLUCK TO |
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That results in fewer people in town, which will eventually filter back to us and affect the taxi business. It may
be busy in the run-up to Christmas, but we can’t survive on Christmas
alone. People are London’s life blood and my main priority would be to get
people back into the capital." |
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CALL SIGN SNAPPER ASSISTS AUSTRALIA’S CHANNEL 9 |
| "On the screen it
looked like a simple enough job, so I accepted it and made my way to the
account address." The voice was very
matter-of-fact as if the journey that was being related happened all the
time. I was sitting opposite Call Sign's resident cameraman, Alan Green
(E52), sharing a cuppa and trading stories. "When I arrived at the pick up, the passenger explained he was going to take some photographs of the Houses of Parliament to update the Channel 9 London office studio backdrop. On our way into town, we discussed possible viewpoints and I suggested one or two of my own," said Alan proudly! There was no stopping Alan now. He went on… "Billy, my passenger seemed appreciative of my ideas and readily agreed. So we moved around over Lambeth and Westminster Bridges to shoot the House and then drove across to the South Bank, taking in the London Eye with Parliament in the background. Billy wanted to capture Trafalgar Square, so that was next on the list. In the meantime, I mentioned Call |
Sign and he seemed
most interested asking if he could see a copy."
They then concentrated their efforts on sights that people would
recognise when they came to visit this country, but with different angles
instead of the old 'hackneyed' views usually seen when we Brits are
abroad. "Anyway, while returning to base Billy and I got talking about the problems we photographers face such as trying to pose family members for holiday pics and the like. I told him that I use a whip to keep my Team under control, while he admitted that he'd tried that with his wife and she began to like it, so he had to give it up! Soon we were back at the studio and as I set him down he thanked me again for my input.
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 The 'House' as seen from Lambeth Palace Rd. It's nice to know that I was able to combine my photographic eye with my knowledge of London for the benefit of a valued Dial-a-Cab account client." Suddenly Alan stopped talking – albeit for just a few seconds - so I jumped in to tell him that I was going to go back to work and that I thought I’d pass on this story to Call Sign readers. "Really," said Alan as I stood up, "do you want to hear about the time I picked up Ava Gardner’s dog?" I was almost outside the door and pretended not to hear. But as I drove my cab around the streets of the capital I began looking at those familiar buildings from a different point of view… © Harold Hill Call Sign Magazine 2003 |
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