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Reading Private
Letters
In last
month’s Mailshot and in a response to
a letter from DaC driver Lee Owen (V51),
I revealed that I had received a letter from
the solicitor of Darryl Cox and
Tony Gillam
asking me to retract the column I wrote in
the May issue under the Heading of A
Personal Point of View. I said that I
couldn’t do that because I did not believe
that I had created a false image of the
situation.
What disturbs me even
more now, is that during an exchange of
emails with another DaC driver – not Lee -
it became obvious that this driver knew the
contents of the solicitor’s letter. I am as
certain as I can be that no reputable legal
firm (and the solicitors they are using come
into that category) would make the contents
of a private letter public.
So the question must
be just who has been passing around the
letter that was intended for me? The fact
that there are those who know the contents
doesn’t disturb me in the slightest and in
fact, part of me was contemplating the
publication of it anyway – something I later
decided against.
However, the principle of drivers reading my
private mail - possibly even before me - is
not something that I am particularly pleased
about. However, I must add that it doesn’t
surprise me…
M Beware!
I can’t claim to be a
lover of James Bond movies, or come to that,
any spy flicks. But I was recently surprised
when talking to a passenger to hear him
admit to working for MI5. It brought back
memories of an incident from many years ago
– and indeed showed how times have changed.
It was 1995 and I was
probably in quite a jolly mood because it
was the day before I was due to fly out on
my holiday of a lifetime. To help celebrate
my 50th birthday, Linda and I
were taking a 4-week trip to California and
Arizona and there was nothing but nothing
that was going to take me out of this
euphoric feeling.
Never having had a
complaint against me in the 17 years I had
been on DaC up to that point, that wasn’t
something that I would have contemplated
happening on that of all days – but this was
the real world…
I picked up an
account passenger at Waterloo. He looked
older than me, spoke with a plum in his
mouth and was dressed in a smart pin stripe
suit ala Allen Togwell.
“ Whitehall driver, the Ministry of Defence,” came the stern
request – or was it an order? Off we went,
over Westminster Bridge and we were almost
there. But my cardinal mistake was to assume
that everyone was as |
happy as I was. As we left Parliament Square
to go into Parliament Street, I called
through the partition opening: “Main or
Spies entrance?” It was meant as a joke;
sadly he didn’t see it that way.
“Just drop me in
Whitehall,” came the sharp response. He paid
me, I drove off and other than wondering how
anyone could be so miserable, I forgot about
him – until, that is, the next day when a
phone call asked me to go to Brunswick
House.
My friend from the
Ministry had put in a complaint about my
conduct! The Complaints Officer in 1995 was
one Thomas Whitbread (has he been there
forever?) but he had to rush away for the
day, so as I had travelled in specially, I
saw another Board member instead. That was
Gordon Poluck. Sadly, Gordon isn’t
too well at the moment, but those knowing
him will know that the one thing he really
values is a good sense of humour. When I
explained the story, he did his utmost to
keep a straight face
whilst correctly explaining that not all
account clients had a sense of humour and it
wasn’t for me to test them out. But before
he could say whether he would recommend
processing the complaint, he burst out
laughing and couldn’t stop! I left while I
had the chance!
So why have I brought
that up now? Well, things have changed
dramatically over the past 10 years. I
recently picked up a passenger who, during
the course of the conversation, told me that
he worked for MI5. “You’re a spy,” I asked
incredulously? He laughed and said that not
everyone at MI5 was a James Bond! He went on
to explain what MI5 and MI6 were.
MI5 is the nation’s security intelligence
agency. It
is situated in Thames House on Milbank.
The Director General of the Security Service
is
Eliza
Manningham-Buller and its main objective is
countering international terror.
MI6 is the
Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and its
responsibility is to obtain secret
information and conduct operations in
support of the UK’s foreign policy
objectives and to counter threats to UK
interests worldwide.
Ok, so he wouldn’t go any further and knew that I’d probably |
never see him again, but he did
give me an email address to write to and
which I did. My question was whether MI5
would like the assistance of Dial-a-Cab
drivers to keep their eyes open over and
above the usual commonsense practices.
The reply
gave me a phone number and was signed by
someone whose “name” consisted of four
letters and one number! A long way down the
list from ‘M’ I thought to myself! I phoned
and amazingly, they answered as MI5. They
even have a “sorry to keep you waiting, but
all our agents are busy” tape!
At the time
of writing, I’ve had no further contact, but
I still feel amazed at how open our secret
services are, especially when I think back
to my “friend” at Waterloo. Sadly, I wasn’t
scheduled to return to California this time
– unless, of course, I get recruited as a
spy? Let’s see: The sunshine in the east is
hotter than a vest? Ah well, easy come, easy
go…
Golfing Miracle!
Who said miracles
never happen? You can read elsewhere in this
issue how we did it, but amazingly, Call
Sign swept past twenty or so hot-shot
golfing foursomes to take the big prize in
Dial-a-Cab’s annual Charity golf day. The
Albany Charity pocketed some £4000, lots of
golfers enjoyed a marvellous day of golf,
fine food and beautiful weather. And by the
way, did I mention that only one team won –
and that was Call Sign!
Selling DaC?
While waiting for my
passengers at DB in London Wall, I was
having the usual chinwag with any driver who
cared to join in. Needless to say, the EGM-that-wasn’t
and the ERS cock-up in not sending the
correct letters out was the main subject.
But it was followed closely by a driver who
suggested to all the others that I was in
favour of “selling the company.” What made
him think that, I do not know, but say it he
did. My passenger came down just as I was
about to speak in my defence, so let me say
now: No, I do not particularly want to sell
my share in DaC, but as a long-standing
member, if I know that someone is interested
I would want to know what they were
offering. Only an idiot would say that they
don’t want to know – or someone whose only
thought is how they can damage the Society.
However, as Call
Sign won the DaC Charity Golf tournament
(did I mention that we won?), I might
consider selling the cup (if I get one) and
buying the company myself!
Alan Fisher
Callsignmag@aol.com |
