EDITORIAL PREROGATIVE
In the August Call Sign you asked for views on your Editorial prerogative. You are firstly a subscriber and therefore have a right to state your case as you see it plus you are the Editor of Call Sign which also gives you a further right to state your case as you see it in an Editorial capacity. There is at least one thing that you and the previous incumbent have in common and that is that neither you nor he were prepared to be the mouthpiece of the BoM. whoever they were or are. I am sure that you would give equal space - as you have and do - to anyone wishing to air their views. Call Sign is the place to air such views, not on the Fins.
   Now I've got that off my chest, I’d like to comment on Allen Togwell's article re The American. I love the ‘States, that is why I am still working so that I can go there again and again. I love nothing more than to talk to the American punters about their country, the cities that I have visited and the fine restaurants that we know, from Tucson in the South West to New York in the North East. From L.A. Chicago and New Orleans, great places and fine eateries, not to mention the people who are most charming. But how I wish that when they entered the cab in the morning they would stop saying "Hi, how are you today?" We all know that they couldn’t give a monkey's!
   A few weeks ago I picked up an American on account from one of those fashionable streets on the North side of Ken High St going to the less fashionable E4. "Hi, how are you today?" he asked. I had a lousy cold and told him so. "Great" he said. I rest my case!
   I note that Allen was for many years a designer and manufacturer of ladies clothes. He then went on to say that he designed his own. He certainly looked great in that off the shoulder dress he was wearing the other day when I picked him up, the only drawback was the Army

boots he was wearing as well! Seriously though, I must disagree with his use of the word ‘cabby’. I still, even after almost 50 years, object to that word. It is synonymous with a bygone age of men sitting 30 feet in the air, many much the worse for wear, smoking an evil smelling concoction, cursing and swearing at all and sundry. Call me driver, mate, guv, chum, but please don’t call me cabby. I also feel that there are a number of compelling reasons why drivers do not want people to know that they drive a cab for a living. In the days before the 6 mile negotiation rule was abolished, if I found myself in the company of strangers and I mentioned that I drove a cab, I would always be asked how it was that he or she was charged so much when there was only x on the meter? Or why were they refused when they wanted to go to x or y. If I was in the company of a doctor, I wouldn’t ask him about a pain in my wotsit. The other favourite questions were, and still are; what famous passengers have you picked up, or what funny things have happened to you? My short answer is, "I'm writing a book and I'm sure You wouldn’t want advance information before publication, but please buy it!"
   Finally, I must say how much I enjoy reading Bernie Pressman's Mind Your Language. The first and only time up to the recent film of The full Monty that I had heard the name was on the 22^nd January 1947, the day I was demobbed from the RN. Every ex-serviceman in those days was entitled to a full kit of civilian clothing on release. I left my ship at Portsmouth and was conveyed to the clothing centre. They fitted me up, in more ways than one, (A.T. would have fainted at the designs). Anyway, it came to the last item: "Would Sir like a hat or a cap". I said no thanks to both. "Go on" said my dresser, "you are entitled to have the full Monty".
   Just one point of disagreement with an excellent feature. My understanding is that the word Gringo came from the various battles that led up to the Alamo. Santa Anna's Mexican Army could hear the Americans in their camp singing the song ‘Green go the rushes go’. All they could pick up were the words "Green go" hence "Gringo" is what they became known as.

Watch any Western that involves Mexican baddies and invariably the whites are referred to as ‘Gringos’
Harris (D93J)

MILLENIUM DOME
Re your article in the September Call Sign: The Millennium Dome will be accessible for both drop-off and pick-ups at points close to the Dome’s entrances. There will also be provision for a taxi rank. Taxi drivers will be critical ambassador’s for the Dome, not only giving vital access to the Dome itself, but also providing information about it en route. Taxi drivers will benefit enormously from the many extra visitors taking taxis to and from the Dome.
Mark Hayes
The New Millennium Experience
London SW1

EDITORIAL CONCLUSIONS?
Thanks for your Editorial in the September issue of the Call Sign. You seem to have taken a lot of time reading and re-reading The Badge (as we all do), analysing just about every word. However, one would have to be a bit left of centre to come to the same conclusions as you obviously have. You appear to hypothesise at the beginning of the article that David Clegg had support from a Barrister and yet by the end of the column appear to have concluded that it was a fact. What was it, hypothesis or fact? You also seem to be saying - how dare David Clegg get legal advice, do you object to this? Were you represented by a legal team against his writ? If so, it would be interesting to know who paid for it? I agree wholeheartedly with you that the article about David Clegg and his governorship of a special needs school was a good one, one could only wish that we all had his compassion and determination to help the less fortunate. If your hypothesis is correct, then one can only assume that should you have published the article instead of The Badge, then you could be construed as supporting him. Does the BoM know of your new allegiance? More to the point does David Clegg know?
   You know full well that the writs for defamation were issued against individuals, so why do you insist that they

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