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Cabbies attack Mayor over equality

by Hugh Muir

A group of taxi drivers has attacked Ken Livingstone's drive to persuade more minorities and women to become cabbies.

The London Cab Drivers' Club has accused the Mayor of insulting its members and indulging in social engineering over his plans to make sure the cab trade is more representative of London.

Despite the Mayor's claim that the trade is "an almost universal white male club", the cabbies insist their profession is "one of the most egalitarian trades in London".

The Drivers Club, which has 500 members, is one of a number of organisations involved in negotiations with the Mayor about his planned reforms.

In its journal The Badge, the club says its ethnic minority members feel slighted by the Mayor. It adds: "There are more fundamental issues to be addressed before we go down this race road, or is it your intention that we introduce a New York type service where not speaking English and not knowing where you are going are prerequisites to being a cab driver."

It continues: "If people from ethnic backgrounds choose to do the Knowledge, then they will be welcomed to the trade. If they do not then they have that choice. The London cab trade needs no help from political idealism in discriminating as to who will or who will not be a London cabbie." The Mayor was unavailable for comment but he is likely to deplore the tone of the attack.

While many elements of the reforms he hopes to drive through are negotiable, he is determined that the cab trade will address gender and race issues. He wants to ensure the interview process which forms part of the Knowledge does not discriminate against minority and women candidates.

His wider reforms will also sweep away anomalies such as the six-mile rule, which allows cabbies to refuse fares which take them beyond that distance. This plan was attacked last week by the London Taxi Drivers Association, which represents 4,000 of the 23,000 drivers in London.

But the Mayor is having more constructive discussions with other cabbie organisations.

The Transport and General Workers Union says it is waiting for more details and the Joint Radio Taxi Association, with 8,000 drivers, is disassociating itself from those who oppose the Mayor.