 |
Powered by NetXPosure |
|
MAILSHOT |
|
Either write to Call Sign at Dial-a-Cab
House or email us at
callsignmag@aol.com
Credit cards – who’s right? Things on the up! Which way??? Cash booking number... |
Call Sign in black and white? Hi Alan Here we go again! Receiving my July Call Sign at the beginning of the month, I was looking forward to a good read about OUR Society. There was the sad news about the death of Lou Gitlin, the Chairman’s usual intelligent report which always makes good reading, Allen Togwell’s futile attempts to smarten up the flip-flop, t-shirt n’ shorts brigade - no luck there Allen, apart from a few of us who still take a pride in our appearance! Perhaps Keith Cain can get some more of those nice polo shirts with the Dial-a-Cab logo etc, or maybe some short sleeved shirts that have our logo on? Surely they would look better than some of the scruffy t-shirts that some of our drivers wear! But then lo and behold, I got to page 20 and there we were back with another full page article on the black / white issue. Our magazine is about our Society and not about a member’s racial opinions - whatever colour you are. Make those complaints / opinions known to your MP and not our society’s readers. We are getting bored with it all. We want to read about all things that are relevant to our trade and our members. If you think you are getting a raw deal racially, take it to the appropriate authorities and not to our mostly satisfied members /readers. Roy Martin (R42) Hi Roy, sorry to you and anyone else who may have found the debate between Louie Christian (A48), Ian Connelly (T49) and initially me, who seems to have started the whole thing! However, I feel that I should defend Call Sign’s reputation by saying that this magazine belongs to our drivers and they – including you – control what goes into it. There is no magazine in the whole of the cab trade that has so many non-press releases taken (usually with my permission) to republish in their papers. They don’t do that because the articles are boring. If I stuck purely to news on the Society or trade, we’d be back to the days when we had trade press releases or Board Members commenting about covering work in the southwest of London – not, of course, to say that we shouldn’t! But it didn’t always make inspiring reading. The July issue that you are referring to, Roy, in addition to Brian Rice’s column and the sad news about Lou Gitlin, also contained stories about our drivers running marathons, climbing mountains and walking across the country - all for charity. It told of one driver’s efforts to return to the UK after the volcanic ash debacle with the airline companies, Glasgow taxi gangsters, a nude cycle ride, a driver’s son’s boxing exploits and quite a number of other things that bore little association to Dial-a-Cab except for one thing – they all involved our drivers. Going back to the issues of October 1999, May, April and June 2000, Call Sign ran a fascinating series of articles from one of our drivers that even found the pages of the Evening Standard.. It helped to expose a parting ticket scam being carried out by traffic wardens in the borough of Lambeth. In reality, that driver’s cab was the only taxi to be involved in those days when the only cameras were those carried by tourists – and there weren’t too many of those in Lambeth at the time! But I thought it merited inclusion even though it didn’t really involve DaC at all and up until that point, didn’t really involve our drivers except the one who got the ticket – who, by the way, was Roy Martin (R42)! The fact that I remember the series of articles shows how important I felt they were, but in reality, they were included because I thought they would provide interest to readers. No doubt some may have found them quite dull at a time when we didn’t get too many PCNs. So back to the black/white issue. It began in my Editorial when I wrote of a complaint made against me by a call taker for publishing the account of a DaC driver who had been threatened by a gang of hoodies. The call taker didn’t like the wording and as is his right, he complained. That led to a response from black driver Louis Christian and a response to Louie from white driver Ian Connelly (T49) – a series of events that has been repeated numerous times over the years in the mag with only the subjects and driver’s names changing. Roy, I count myself as being tremendously lucky to edit a magazine with so many intelligent taxi drivers as readers – including you - who can, when they deem it necessary, articulate their views on any given subject so well. I don’t expect every single one of 2500 drivers to read every article, but they are there to read if they find the topic to be of interest. No doubt some will even find my response dull! And Roy, if I were you, I’d skip the next letter! ...Ed And Call Sign in
black and white! |
that because sheep are generally white of
colour, on rare occasions one would give birth to a
black one and it then became commercially useless as you could not dye the
wool, hence the saying was coined. It’s nothing to do with black people. Now
I am not so naive as not to realise there are morons in this world who could
say any phrase that contains the word black in such a way as to cause
offence, but for you assume that these everyday sayings that contain the
word black in a negative context were coined with reference to black people
and therefore are highly derogatory to much of the black population is what
I find hard to believe. You also make some assumptions about me as well as other comments, of which I would like to respond to. First of all, I did not ignore your comment on not living in an ideal world, as I took that as a given. Although I cannot claim to have anything close to your academic achievements, of which you are rightly proud, I do question though if you have recently undergone a commonsense bypass as you not only ask me why, but also assume I would think it fair that Germans can freely come, work and remain in this country while your WW2 veteran Caribbean grandfather whose great grandchildren cannot do so and would need visas to visit. Surely you know exactly why? If you or I wish to live and work in Germany, we have the same rights as do all who are part of the EU. To my knowledge, all people from the Commonwealth need a visa, so I am unsure of what your point is. The two youths you mention (not sure if this is an example or fact), either way you seem to be implying the white middle class magistrates would treat the black youth more draconian than the white one. I accept that this probably does happen more than it should, our justice system is far from ideal although I wonder what the outcome of said case would be if the magistrate was black middle class? In my letter I asked whether instead of a Black list, why not something on the lines of a Afro/Carib list as many whites are from Africa and the West Indies. Your answer that whites only inhabit those lands because of brain washing, brutality and colonisation strikes me as a rather glib one. White people have been in those lands for generations and are no more responsible for what happened a century or so ago than the present generation of Germans are for what the Nazis did. You seem to be implying that to be a true African / WI you have to be black, which would be as nonsensical as saying you can only be English if you are white. I accept your obsession with statistics may well be a result of your academic background, but to furnish me with a load of unnecessary statistics of teenage pregnant girls and insinuate I was exclusively pinpointing black absent fathers, was not what I was saying. If you read the letter you will see that I said: "How many kids black or white....?" I am fully aware of the large number of young single mothers and feckless fathers who are white. I also did not advocate that black kids should only aspire to being sporting and pop stars, it was a vain attempt on my part of an example of how black and white youths compete with and against each other and get to the top on hard work and merit alone, unlike what you were justifying, that they need divisions such as the Black Power list because there was little chance of a black person making it into a national Rich List, of which I disagreed with. I suspect most of these awards, be they black, white or whatever, are more to do with a good night out and a few pats on the back and not the inspirational message of success to the disadvantaged youth, who I suspect you are referring to. Although I do not think you and I could ever agree on what we both wrote, it seems I am a minority of one who took exception to your articles. That may suggest the rest of Call Sign’s readership agreed with you. What I can’t deny is the passion and conviction that came through in your articles. Of some of what you wrote, I sense you have encountered a fair degree of negativity in your life. As a trade, we were perceived by some as a white male closed shop and even now by my observations, black, ethnic and women are still a minority. If you ever consider writing an article of your experiences of what it was like 25 years ago to join a trade that was, and still is, predominantly white and why the change is slow, I for one would be interested in reading such a article. Ian Connelly (T21) Lou Gitlin PHV blacked-out windows petition Roland Brewer (M38) No probs ...Ed |
|
Rest ranks agreed TfL have introduced rest ranks where taxi drivers can park legally whilst they take a break in their working day. A total of 59 rest bays have been introduced across the capital with the first batch being in Westminster. On a rest rank, drivers can leave their taxis for up to an hour in order to do what it says on the box – have a rest or a bite to eat etc. What it doesn’t mean is that drivers can leave their cabs to go shopping, because you may well stop another driver who needs a legitimate rest from putting on there.Among the ranks allocated are those in New Bond Street, Marylebone Road by Baker Street, Lancaster Gate, a section of the Law Courts, Great Portland Street, Arundel Street, Praed Street, Great Portland Street, Grosvenor Street, Hyde Park Street, the rear section of Russell Street, Mathew Parker Street and Aldwych. Transport for London will be putting up notices at all rest ranks. If it doesn’t have the notice then it isn’t a rest rank and you may be likely to get a PCN if your cab is unattended. |
Disneyland Paris Magical taxi tour thank you... For some time the licensed taxi trade has been feeling
the effects of the recession and so particular thanks go to all of those
who donated so generously at the two collections held recently to raise
funds for the Magical Taxi Tour.
|
|
Powered by NetXPosure |
| Copyright 1997-2009 Dial-A-Cab Ltd, All rights reserved. |