SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the license?-we-don't-need-no-stinkin'-license! dept.
Uber will lose its license to operate inside London. The issue may be only a temporary setback since the license expires on September 30th and Uber can continue to operate in London while appealing the decision:
London's transportation agency dealt a major blow to Uber on Friday, declining to renew the ride-hailing service's license to operate in its largest European market. [...] "Uber's approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility in relation to a number of issues which have potential public safety and security implications," the agency, Transport for London, said in a statement.
[...] In issuing its decision, Transport for London, which is responsible for the city's subways and buses as well as regulating its taxicabs, declared that Uber was not "fit and proper" to operate in the city — a designation that carries significant weight in Britain. "Fit and proper" is a benchmark applied across different sectors of business and the charitable organizations in the country to ensure that people or organizations meet the requirements of their industry or specialty. Tests typically assess factors like an individual or company's honesty, transparency and competence, though there is no formal exam. In Uber's case, Transport for London said it examined issues of how it dealt with serious criminal offenses, how it conducted background checks on drivers and its justification for a software program called Greyball that "could be used to block regulatory bodies from gaining full access to the app."
Opinion: London's Uber Ban Is a Big Brexit Mistake
(Score: 1) by purple_cobra on Monday September 25 2017, @10:49PM
Apologies, this turned into rather more of a rant than intended. It is going to be a bad week.
Single source, take with a pinch of salt, etc: http://zelo-street.blogspot.com/2017/09/uber-fake-petition-busted.html [blogspot.com]
Uber are being their usual selves, i.e. trying to flannel the public and their VC backers by wailing how unjust it is that they have to follow the same laws as everyone else whilst trying to keep their efforts to legitimately resolve the issues (reporting criminal issues to the police, treating DBS disclosures as just another reference, etc) under the radar. The issue isn't that they're being singled out, rather that they're not being singled out for preferential treatment, i.e. they're being treated like every other taxi/private hire firm and that isn't fair. This kind of puerile showmanship is straight out of Barnum's playbook, yet of course the right wing press and their tame Tory gobshites are trying to position this as a Labour attack on business.
It is, if you'll pardon the expletive, fucking tiresome that every time the Tories spot an "opportunity" to lay some idiot's self-inflicted wound at Labour's feet they go for it, despite it having little to do with Labour - the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, is a Labour politician, but if the stories in the more objective press are true then he had no part in this decision; technically he's TfL's "boss" but their refusal to grant a licence is hardly something cooked-up in the fairly short time since he won that election - and the other parties are hardly innocent on that score either. I would hope that a lot of other voters are tired of this partisan pissing contest - in many cases the equivalent of "a big boy did it and ran away" - and start demanding they did something bloody useful. For good or ill, the Brexit vote is being taken seriously but our government seem to have absolutely no clue what leaving the EU involves.
One small tip I'll happily give them for free is that continuing as they have done - blaming the EU for anything they absolutely can't pin on Labour and which, in the main, is utter bollocks - is not going to get us anywhere fast except on a one way trip to bankruptcy. And for pity's sake sack that idiot Johnson; sending him is the equivalent of turning up to a Western-style dual with an empty water pistol and your cock hanging out while your opponent has a cannon. Mockery and blame-shifting will only get you so far and we're well past the point where it could be considered helpful.