UK: 'Totally Failing London!' Cabbies block London traffic in anti-TFL/Uber demo

Around 2,000 of London's black taxis blocked the area of Whitehall in London as part of an organised protest against the state-run Transport for London (TFL) and the Uber taxi enterprise, Tuesday. London's cabbies argue that TFL have helped Uber in failing to regulate the company. One taxi driver, Ikbal, stated that "TFL have been biased and have helped Uber and other companies all the way along, this has to end, you know, this sort of thing shouldn't be happening in Great Britain, and I'm totally and utterly fed up with it." Eddie Symes, Chairman of Heathrow Airport taxi drivers united (English): "The public know that when they're getting in a black cab they're getting a genuine safe driver who's been fully vetted, usually by the police and the CRB people. With Uber the man might have only been in the country a few weeks or months, no one knows where he's come from, what his background is, it's just ridiculous and it's the safety of the public, this is what we're on about, not about our money. It's the safety of the public which is paramount, you're putting your wives, your daughters, your granny, your children in with these people and you just don't know who they are and what they're getting up to." Len Martin, Chairman of United Cabbies Group (English): "Theres a failure, a complete failure of TFL in every aspect that they do, everything that they do they're doing improperly. They're a public body but they're in fact set up as a private company and the directors of TFL are also directors of the private companies that are based offshore; so this TFL body is completely failing London and Londoner's health and safety, the wealth of London. Unless we can get a public inquiry this will not be fixed." Video ID: 20161108-058 Video on Demand: http://www.ruptly.tv Contact: [email protected] Twitter: http://twitter.com/Ruptly Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruptly