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Grant



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Build the wall and impose a 5 per cent tariff on anything coming through it. Free trade is the second most overrated idea of the last two hundred years (communism is the first)
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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Hilarious news today as London bans Uber. It is not often half a million consumers lose their favourite product and forty thousand workers lose their jobs by a stroke of the pen. I have never used Uber but I account myself something of an expert on the taxi trade generally. But then again I suppose most of us do.

The reasons given by TfL -- lack of background checks and insufficient attention to sexual harassment complaints -- is clearly a joke. The only serious sexual taxi predator of recent times was a black cab driver and the low level stuff is both ineradicable and common to all male/female interfaces. Neither this nor driver criminality generally would ever be picked up by the sort of background checks that are practical. The idea that Uber drivers are different to either minicab or black cab drivers is patently ridiculous.

Everybody knows why Uber has been banned and it is because the traditional taxidrivers (black or mini) are suffering and being very vocal about it. One feels sorry for them naturally and they are entitled to kvetch as effectively as they are able, but TfL (not directly elected but generally in sympathy with the Labour ethos) should just come right out and say, "Sorry, too many Londoners are switching to Uber too quickly and it's playing merry hell with traditional patterns of London life." Which, by the way, is a perfectly respectable argument but they should say so.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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It gets weirder. It turns out Uber drivers are licensed by TfL themselves and given the same background checks as every other cabbie. The most serious sexual assault that the baying news channels could come up with was an Uber driver 'hugging' a passenger. The weird bit though was the police angle.

The Met apparently made official complaints about Uber not reporting passenger complaints about their drivers promptly enough. The Uber bloke said this was due to passengers not wanting the police to be involved which seems fair enough but anyone who's been in a minicab office will have dark thoughts about whether they would report such things to the police at all. Black cab drivers would of course be reporting themselves so no beeline there. Why have the police got it in for Uber? It can't really be because they are also part of the traditional London street scene. Is Uber really a giant drug courier service with the cabbie bit just cover? I used to think that in my own days as a motorbike courier and that I was too patently law abiding to be approached.

The other thing is the amount of notice. Is it just me or does the idea of a public body causing such an incredibly dislocating city-wide meltdown with three days notice strike you as weird? Nobody is claiming it is an emergency or anything. What next, Ryanair being forced to cancel thousands of flights with immediate effect? No, wait, they just did that.themselves..
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Mick Harper wrote:
It gets weirder. It turns out Uber drivers are licensed by TfL themselves and given the same background checks as every other cabbie.


This will be a case of everybody misinterpreting the stats. The police will have higher number of problems with Uber drivers, because young females use smart phones ? Or maybe the risk rewards of the offender are different. Uber drivers paid less, they dont have to get The Knowledge etc Uber drivers are more likely to engage in riskier behavior as they have less to lose? .
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Mick Harper
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All these arguments fall because it is not the black cab drivers that have suffered most but the minicab drivers and they, you will agree, are from the same pool -- indeed are overwhelmingly the same people -- as Uber drivers. However a solution to the police question emerged on Newsnight. Uber reports all complaints immediately to TfL but neither TfL nor Uber can pass them on to the police without the complainant's permission. Common sense says that virtually all complaints will fall between 'worth making a complaint about' and 'not worth going to the police about'.

But what makes Uber different in this respect? Because Uber is the first organisation that couldn't give a monkeys about the welfare of the driver. Good riddance, there's plenty more where you came from,. pal, we don't want our reputation or licence in jeopardy because of you. TfL of course make the decision whether to revoke the driver's cab licence. Minicab firms by contrast have both difficulty recruiting and a personal relationship with their drivers. The owner of a black cab positively loves the driver.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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Uber continues to give us political insights. Toby Moses, described as the assistant opinion editor of the Guardian i.e. he writes the official editorials, gave us his personal thoughts

The initial horrified response to the TfL decision seemed to be rather too focused on the mild inconvenience to it customers

though the official Guardian editorial opposite put it more trenchantly

It feels like a catastrophe for its 40,000 drivers and for many of the 3.5 million people who use it everyday.

I think they mean 'every year' but no matter, it's quite a big deal for quite a lot of people. But as Toby is quick to point out

Progress isn't always a good thing

Actually, I thought it was but then I'm a progressive. Still, even if he means 'change' he'll need to come up with some real facts to halt progress on this occasion. He gives us three

Digging up dirt on the company is not hard whether it's passenger safety

Funnily enough it's been very hard indeed. Not a single case in London though every news outlet has been desperately looking for one. Perhaps they are all sub judice. Perhaps they only tell Guardian editorial writers.

underpaying its drivers (independent contractors, of course, not actual "employees"

This is certainly true but does not form part of TfL's case.

or the vile sexism of the recently ousted CEO, Travis Kalanick

Nor does this. It is certainly true (by Guardian standards of what is vile) but he did get the chop from a megacompany that he himself had founded for some ill-chosen words which (even by Guardian standards) would seem to settle Uber's accounts to everybody's satisfaction (except the Guardian). Tobe kinda understands that he and the Guardian are heading for what we progressives used to call an 'inherent contradiction'

This makes the number of left-leaning people bemoaning its possible exclusion from one city slightly surprising.

He ain't seen nothing yet.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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All this obsessive talk about 'no deal' is hilarious to AE-ists who seem to be the only people around who know the 'what is is what was' rule. All complex negotiations are no deal until they are a deal. Or the deal turns out to be a no deal. Negotiations are not negotiations if there is no possibility of failure. The present talks, in my judgement, are exactly on course.
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Mick Harper
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In: London
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They must though end in a poorish deal for the British side because the outcome is vital to Britain but only important to the EU.
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Mick Harper
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The significant statistics in this 'Government whip writes to universities about Brexit lecturers' row are these
Percentage of lecturers not favouring Brexit: 100%
Percentage of their students not favouring Brexit: 100%
Percentage of general population not favouring Brexit: 50%
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Mick Harper
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It is unusual to see such breathtaking incompetence from both sides, as is the case in Spain. The Catalans are naive beyond belief if they think a) they've got a dog's chance of independence and b) they've got a cat's chance of flourishing if somehow they got it. The Spanish (if that's the right word) are naive beyond belief in constantly and exclusively advancing legal arguments. I can assure them, in revolutionary situations, this should be the last thing on their minds.

One salient set of statistics that nobody ever mentions is: what proportion of Catalonia is Catalan-speaking and what proportion of Catalan-speakers are in favour of independence. We know that the general population of Catalonia is something like 40-60 against but if Catalan-speakers are something like 90% for, then some more imaginative solution will be required. If anyone knows the figures (and knows they are accurate) could they sing out?
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Mick Harper wrote:
It is unusual to see such breathtaking incompetence from both sides, as is the case in Spain. The Catalans are naive beyond belief if they think a) they've got a dog's chance of independence and b) they've got a cat's chance of flourishing if somehow they got it. The Spanish (if that's the right word) are naive beyond belief in constantly and exclusively advancing legal arguments. I can assure them, in revolutionary situations, this should be the last thing on their minds.


Its a three sided issue. Catalonia Spain and Europe.

There are small countries who exist within EU about the same size as Catalonia (if it comes about) eg Slovakia Slovenia, Belguim (about 11 million would be a bit bigger), I can't see why Catalonia would be much different. It does not need to worry about a currency or borders if it becomes part of EU. There is already freedom of movement .

As a more affluent area they Catalonia (unlike say Scotland) would not have problems meeting the debt requirement to join the EU.

Arguably big supra-national organisations like the EU will always create smaller nationalisms (localisms)... these will increasingly try to shape themselves advantageously within that block. I am afraid that process always goes with the (ahem) territory.....it always has.

Europe is part of the problem.
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Hatty
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Wiki says that 38.5% of Catalans are Catalan speakers (reading and writing are lower) or were in 2004. The correlation with the current 40% in favour of independence is neat though it's harder to interpret the figure in ethnic terms. Barcelona traditionally relied on immigrants from other parts of Spain, especially Andalucia, to do the jobs that Catalans don't want to do, and they of course have to learn Catalan.
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Mick Harper
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Barcelona traditionally relied on immigrants from other parts of Spain, especially Andalucia, to do the jobs that Catalans don't want to do, and they of course have to learn Catalan.

I find this impossible to believe. Since all Catalans (and certainly all Catalan employers) speak Spanish it is as likely as Brummies going to work in a Llanwern steelworks learning Welsh.

Its a three sided issue. Catalonia Spain and Europe.

Actually 'Europe' has been deafening in its silence.

There are small countries who exist within EU about the same size as Catalonia (if it comes about) eg Slovakia Slovenia, Belguim (about 11 million would be a bit bigger), I can't see why Catalonia would be much different.

Or Malta. Does that mean Notting Hill's in with a shout? We once tried it with Frestonia but that was in the sixties, before Europe.

It does not need to worry about a currency or borders if it becomes part of EU. There is already freedom of movement .

Nobody doubts that Catalonia (or Scotland) could not flourish if everyone is agreeable. Including their own populations of course.

As a more affluent area they Catalonia (unlike say Scotland) would not have problems meeting the debt requirement to join the EU.

True but irrelevant. It is divvying up the Spanish National Debt that is going to be the issue. The Northern League in Italy are facing the same problem since it is the rest of Italy that would be plughole-bound without Lombardy and Venetia.

Arguably big supra-national organisations like the EU will always create smaller nationalisms (localisms)... these will increasingly try to shape themselves advantageously within that block. I am afraid that process always goes with the (ahem) territory.....it always has.

Oddly this was very big in the 1980's when Eurocrats were battling away with the national governments and always supported 'regionalism'. We hear nothing about it now because the Eurocrats have more difficult fish to fry eg the survival of the Europroject itself.

Europe is part of the problem.

No, it isn't, but it often enters the argument when people with their own Eurobeefs enter the argument.
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Wile E. Coyote


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The Ex Catalonian govt looks like it's going to set up in exile in Belgium. Presumably they are individually going to try and claim asylum. Who knows ? With an up to 30 year jail sentence back in Spain I think that heading off to the US is the way to go, they will, for historic reasons, be welcome (mostly)

Hungary and Poland who have both been recently warned about breaches of the values set out in Article 2.....

Respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.


are going to surely wonder why in fact they are being picked on. Article 7 is the mechanism whereby states can have their membership suspended for not adhering to Article 2.

It seems that there is one Article 2 for the West and another for the East, but there again we all knew that.
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Boreades


In: finity and beyond
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AEL folk are cordially invited to the Exit From Brexit Christmas Party, at the Jumierah Carlton Tower, Knightsbridge. Five-star dining guaranteed for just £200 a head. Catering courtesy of Chateaux Boreades Elite Events Management.

Cheer as you crack open another bottle of bubbly.
Swoon to the words of Nick Clegg, Chuka Umunna and Anna Soubry.
Despite Brexit the ruling elite still knows how to have a good time.

Your "charity event donations" will (of course) be tax-deductable.

RSVP

https://exitfrombrexitdinner.com/
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