Is it perhaps the end of
the beginning?
By Jack Clyde ©
W
e are almost half way through the year were contributing; they insisted that they would ranking all the way down Glasgowʼs Union
already (my how time fl ies when youʼre each pay another £40.00 per week on top of
Street including our own offi cial taxi rank at the
getting old!) and I hope well into the slow down their weigh-inn to keep me over there. Now isnʼt
foot of the street. Not to mention the private hire
of this fi nancial depression, or as sir Winston that nice of them... thank you guys.
rank in Hope Street and the continual shuffl ing
Churchill once said during the bad times of
for best position around George Square and
World War II: But seriously though, things are pretty bad
every major intersection near a nightclub, pub or
over there too. When the Disney Corporation
No! this is not the end, lay off 800 of their staff, then everyone
even a public toilet for that matter.
It is not even the beginning of the end, knows times are bad. On visiting ʻThe Magic
But it is perhaps the end of the Kingdomʼ with my grand kids, we were
Then it reality hit me, this was not like home
beginning. surprised we did not have to wait in any line
at all. Our police rarely move any private hire
for a main attraction like the ever popular away from anywhere. In my opinion they stand
Well letʼs try and be optimistic and hope at ʻSplash Mountainʼ and that dammed run away and watch them ranking up as if it were totally
least, it is the end of the beginning of this time train that jolts your back all over the place,
acceptable, in fact ʻswarming in numbersʼ seems
of uncertainty and that the economy may just then, in true American style they expect you
to be the new game. With so many private hire
be bottoming out. We have all heard many to smile for the camera as you pass through
vehicles all over the target area someone must
reports on the ailing fi nancial situation, but the exit supporting your lumber region while
get a job - our job! PC Plod doesnʼt seem to
hereʼs hoping Iʼm the fi rst to bring you joyful looking through you wifeʼs bag for pain killers.
news that we have reached the bottom and Thatʼs why they call it ʻThe Magic Kingdomʼ!
give a monkeys, but it sure is a different kettle of
now we should at least start to look forward to
fi sh when Dick Brown was arrested and thrown
a stabling economy. It might not be good, and The last time Disney was as quiet as this was
into the cells over the weekend period a year
Iʼm not saying that it is, but we must hope. WE just after the highjacked planes fl ew into the twin
ago for attempting to take a non-payer to the
may stay on the bottom for a while but after that, towers. Then it was even worse for the Yanks
police station for help. However, this abduction
surely, we have paid our dues and the only way as it took a good few years for people to regain nonsense seems to have faded out. In fact,
to move is… UP! their confi dence in fl ying and return. But what we seem to be getting a far better response
really surprised me this time was the way their
from the police when we approach them for
Iʼm just back from Florida in the sunny USA, and private hire drivers were touting for business as
assistance these days. It may be that the Chief
before you say anything about how f*** lucky I you passed by: “Taxi, Taxi sir?” In all my years
Supper Duper has had a word in the ear of all
am to be able to afford it, let me tell you that my of visiting my sister in the states, I had never
the lesser Supper Dupers to treat us with a
sister stays there and as a result I get cheap experienced this… Morocco...yes but never the
ʻdigsʼ (accommodation to you guys south of states! Whatʼs more, they were actually doing
modicum of respect. Letʼs hope it continues for
Hadrianʼs wall), and my wife earns good money this only feet away from the offi cial taxi rank.
everyoneʼs sake.
from her job as a part time rocket scientist. So The police would come along and give them
donʼt be saying that I shouldnʼt be rabitʼn on a stern warning and they would drive away. In
Copyright Jack Clyde 2009
about an upside down economy while I am living fact, the more I stood and watched the more
Author of Glasgow Taxi Book
the high life in Disney Land. Even my drivers it reminded me of home with our private hire Sales: www.taxibook.co.uk
The Steedman Column
Budget Comment mortgages. That self orientated culture which was borne out of greed
The April 23 budget was a superb budget for Jersey Switzerland and other and avarice is now being repeated by a government desperate to hold on
tax havens where the rich will be scurrying to in large numbers. It was by to power at any cost.The really frightening thing about the government
any standards dishonest and in my opinion a very poor start to what is behaving in this way is that these are the people who we have to trust to
generally regarded the 2010 Election campaign. As anyone who reads this run our economy.
column will know I am one of the realists of this world and along with Vince
Cable of the Liberal Democrats, I suspect as I have said all along that it Lesser parliaments such as Iceland have already had to deal with national
is the lower and middle income earners who will have to pay for the mess bankruptcy and the other formerly healthy economies such as Zimbabwe
caused by Gordon Brownʼs former friend Fred Goodwin and his like. Raising have been brought to their knees by printing money and here we are
the upper tax rate to 50% will only bring in a relatively small amount of extra doing the same and labelling it as quantitive easing.
tax. There are only 350,000 people who earn more than £150,000 per year
and sooner or later the basic rate will have to go up and not just by one or Like all budgets there were positive pronouncements such as £260 million for
two pence but as much as eight to twelve pence. The 50p in the pound rate training and £750 million for emerging technologies as well as £400 million for
is nothing short of a stunt designed to win votes next year. house builders. Again no real explanation of where the money was coming
from other than to say yet again that tax avoidance loopholes would be
The government has done very little other than encourage a hate closed and this would raise the £1 billion to pay for this. No serious measures
campaign to stop the bankers reverting to their old ways of making to reduce government debt and no explanation of how the government will
fortunes and now they have decided to help themselves to 50 % of some ultimately reduce government borrowing. To cap it all, the experts have
peopleʼs income in a curious return to “old Labour”. Unfortunately April worked out that the income tax yield will go down by 12% even after all this
23 was an opportunity for the Chancellor to deliver a sober account of kidology due to the number of people made redundant and on the dole.
how the public fi nances could be restored and instead he both delivered
and created tax avoidance. By sidestepping the crucial question of To turn now against the entrepreneurs and the better off is an attempt to
where is the money coming from to resuscitate the countryʼs fi nancial win public sympathy on the back of the rage and hate campaigns currently
security he could only talk of more borrowing once again sending out under way against the “greedy bankers” and at the least masks but does
the wrong message and treating the public like children. Letʼs face it we nothing to solve the fi nancially perilous state that we might fi nd ourselves
are not getting the continuing policy of repeated spending sounds to me in as a nation should this madness continue.
very similar to the advice shelled out in the 70s and 80s to the public
by the banks to take out student loans, credit cards, and 100 % percent Ricky Steedman
32
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