Joe Le Taxi

My own experiences of using taxi's with drivers of a certain persuasion:

1. They charge twice the going rate on the basis you are sozzled and won't know the difference.
2. If you object - then more often than not they will come down to the proper price rather than lose the fare (highlighting they were cheating you in the first place)
3. They lecture you on morals and encourage you to read their version of biblical events.
4. Thye 'pretend' to befriend you and establish rapport by talking to you about going out drinking, clubbing etc when they haven't got the guts to say it's against their beliefs
5. They then tell you what they would like to do - in some graphic detail - with the 'trash' scantily clad ladies who they see on the journey back to yourhome.

.....................I could go on............. but I will save my energy to get fully behind the lads unti and ifl the full facts are known and they are proven to be guilty.

 

The ones in Huddersfield

are generally sound.

I think it generally depends on how you chat to / treat them.

Act like a an arsehole, be expected to be treated like one. Be nice, get nice service.

 

drivers of a certain persuasion?

What are you talking about?

 

RE: The ones in Huddersfield

The ones in Leeds - where I live - mostly fall into the stereotype mentioned earlier.

However, I agree that generally speaking anyone in any walk of life will usually treat you like you have treat them...........................so if this incident did take place there is a strong argument that the said taxi driver displayed some or all of the traits mentioned earlier - if not even worse ones - for the players to react in the way they did...............drink or no drink, why would they want to put their reputations and their livings on the line?

 

RE: drivers of a certain persuasion?

I will let you work that one out.

If you have frequented taxis regularly - in say Huddersfield and Leeds (maybe the 'persuasion' is not as common in Barnsley)- you will get the gist of what I am talking about. Far be it for me to not be PC.

 

Well, if I was priveleged enough

to be a profesional footballer with all the riches it brings, I'd like to think that I'd be able to rise above anyone having a pop. In fact, I'd like to think I do it anyway whatever job / money I earn.

They might be innocent anyway, but if not, they are bloody idiots.

 

RE: Well, if I was priveleged enough

Very easy to come over all 'holier than thou'- when you have never been in the pressure cooker situation of being a celebrity - or even a semi celebrity in the case of the BFC players.

Lots of us - including myself -will have moralised about George Best, Gazza etc etc but sadly we are not all born with the characteristics of say someone like Gary Linekar. Drink admitedly plays it's part in these things - but as mentioned, my own experiences in Taxi's have even at times turned someone like myself from a mild mannered middle of the road guy into a rage as well ( Although I have drawn the line at physical assault!)

 

Your post is very thinly veiled racism! Why not just come out and say it?

 

I am holier than thou

never touched a drop, never told a lie, never shagged a dirty girl.

My middle name is Italian and begins with P!

 

RE: drivers of a certain persuasion?

Well I've been using taxis with asian drivers in wakefield,leeds,huddersfield,sheffield for 25 yrs and i've never come across any with attitudes you describe

 

You could walk home, if you preferred...

Tell you what though, the next time I get any attitude off the surly teenagers in Morrissons I'm gonna kick the **** out of them and then refuse to pay - would that be acceptable? You are justifying that sort of behaviour, am I right?

 

I would have to disagree.

Ok my post is 'garnished' a little - but sadly that's more a reflection on the diminished right of freedom of speech currently endured in the UK - and on this borad. You don't of course have to be a genuis to work that one out. I am sharing my experiences of getting into taxis in Leeds - It would be wrong to say the 'stereotypes' mention happen every time I have got in a taxi in Leeds but on the other hand they happen frequently enough for it - in my opinion - to be worth mentioning. If you deem that as racism then that is your preroragtive of course but I feel it worth noting that everything that has ever happened will always have a cause of some sort.

Racism today is the 'buzz phrase' thrown at anyone who dares to challenge the current status quo of what you should and shouldnt' think, strongly ingrained into us all by the present encumbents at no 10. Again, your prerogative of course.

 

RE: You could walk home, if you preferred...

You are missing the point. OK if you are happy to get into a taxi, pay twice the going rate, be patronised in an hypocritcal way about the rights and wrongs of this world and then get out and pay with a smile then yes, you will never encounter a problem......good for you.

If however, you are like myself then you will occassionally object to that sort of behaviour.
2 wrongs don't make a right though - I would never condone not paying or physical violence - but my point is that there are occassions where perhaps a little more tact - and honesty - from the drivers in question would help defuse what can sometimes be confrontational situations.

These incidents seem to be happening with more frequency these days. So either everyone is like me - ie in your opinion you will brand me as prejudice I suspect - or perhaps there is another side to the argument that is played down for fear of - yes you guessed - being branded a racist.

 

RE: You could walk home, if you preferred...

I'm the last person to cry 'racism'. I agree it is banded about constantly and the sheer mention of the word has everyone up in arms!! Which I think is wrong and does nobody any good.

In the case of the Barnsley footballers for example we don't have the full facts. A mere throw away racist remark said in anger for example I (personally) would not clasify as significant (although the law classes this as racial aggravation and makes offences more severely punishable) for me it is racial motivation that is the most concerning!

As for your comments they seem to me to be an attack on the character of asians (or maybe just muslim) taxi drivers generally and are a gross generalisation on the basis of race. I suggest it is veiled as you have shyed from clearly identifying the class of people you accuse. I personally am offended by your remarks and don't think it they are fair!

 

RE: You could walk home, if you preferred...

There are a number of generalisations I could have made about White Taxi Drivers, Lesbian Taxi Drivers, Gay Taxi Drivers etc etc all with some justification and others just too daft to laugh at eg Get into a private run cab in Leeds driven by a White Bloke and it's a distinct possibility that he will - shall we say - have little or no time for his ethnic counterparts within the city.

I have already said in my earlier post that the steropoetype traits mentioned are indeed stereotypes.............but happen a little too often for it to be coincidence. I wont apologise for offending you because:

1 - I haven't actually mentioned any one person in particular.

2 - I haven't specified any critcism about you personally (I don't know you from Adam after all).

3 - It is my democratic right to express an opinion and whilst I fully respect you disagreeing with it - any offence you take is surely down to your own sensitivy on this issue.

 

RE: You could walk home, if you preferred...

"2 wrongs don't make a right" - In which case, I don't quite see your point. We all take **** in one form or another every day - doesn't justify a violent reaction. Whether the taxi driver has charged them £300 pound to drive ten yard is irrelevant - unfortuneately the free market dictates the prices (i.e. taxi drivers charge daft fares late at night 'cos they can as they're the only ones prepared to take anyone home at that time of night. In the same way footballers charge daft wages 'cos they're the only ones who can play football) - if you don't like it, join the Socialist Workers Party and try and change it...

<u>Hypothetically</u>, if the situation as described is true the biggest problem is a group of extremely wealthy, privileged individuals have attacked a less wealthy and privileged individual while he was trying to earn his living and are now receiving the sympathy of those who have more in common with the latter than the former. The racism element doesn't even come in to play...

If they are guilty they should never wear a Red shirt again...

However, so far I've yet to hear one person try to claim the Barnsley lads are guilty of anything - what you are hearing is DISCUSSION - that is, your right to say what you've said but our right to criticise you for saying it - THAT IS FREEDOM OF SPEECH - it works both ways so gi'oer with the victimised minority crap...

Funny, mind you, that nobody has decided on their guilt yet a lot of people have decided on their innocence based, seemingly, on the racial element. I await the next sensationalist, News Of The World cut and paste job that's posted on here when some of those self same people are baying for the blood of the accused regardless of any verdict...

Here's hoping the story is a load of sh*te...

 

Agreed 100% Conko... nt

 

RE: You could walk home, if you preferred...

I did not say anything you have said has never happened, I would not attempt to deny you a right of free speech nor do I believe you intended to offend me personally or even expect you to apologise.

I do however think your post is a racist generalisation which is not useful in anyway! The accusations you made could be labelled at any taxi driver, not just those which you say are of a 'certain persuasion'. Therefore it is right that I should challenge it! As you have reminded us we have a right in our country to freedom of speech.

I felt I had to post a reply as your original post smacked of being an unjustified side swipe against a class of people you had crudely decided not to identify directly.

Anyway I am sure tommorow that the rest of the Barnsley folk will read our posts and come to there own conclusions. I have faith that most will be more supportive what I have said.

 

Some of them in London.....

Deserve to be slapped - very arrogant twits!!

 

RE: The ones in Huddersfield

You must have had some bad luck then.

I regularly get a taxi home on a Saturday night and very rarely have a problem - maybe one or two have not impressed me. Most are pretty sound.

The worst thing is that they drive about 100mph through the city and make you s**t yourself so they can get the fare quicker.

They do ask for stupid rates late on Friday/Saturday which is why I get a metered cab whenever possible.