Edward Davey Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Treasury), Acting Leader, Liberal Democrats, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Social Justice)
I welcome the micro-loans scheme, but may I press the Chancellor to do more for the self-employed—in particular the self-employed who are not in his scheme, many of whom have only modest incomes, such as cleaners, builders, taxi drivers and musicians? Such self-employed people often work through limited companies, relying on dividends for income, and are getting little or no help, with devastating consequences.
I know that the Treasury is worried about fraud, but I wrote to the Chancellor on 8 April with a Liberal Democrat proposal to help those self-employed people and protect the taxpayer. Will he please now help self-employed people who are dependent on dividends, before it is too late?
(Citation: HC Deb, 27 April 2020, c114)
Rishi Sunak The Chancellor of the Exchequer
The right hon. Gentleman mentioned groups that I engaged with specifically in the design of the self-employed scheme, and who I am fairly certain released reasonably positive comments on the day it was released, notably the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association and, I believe, one of the musicians’ federations. I spoke to them both personally as we developed the scheme, and I believe that they were very supportive at the time.
We have designed these schemes at pace to get support to as many people as we can in the time available, and the decisions that we have taken enable that. At this point, complicated changes to the schemes would just mean delay in getting support to millions of people who are either already in receipt of it or very shortly about to receive it.
Rishi Sunak The Chancellor of the Exchequer
------------------------------------------------------
LONDON
The advertising placed on the bodies of black taxis working in the capital now has its own green credentials thanks to one marketing company in the industry.
Ubiquitous who are one of the leading players in the taxi advertising market have developed a three point plan to ensure that their advertising strategies are green for both the trade and their clients going forwards.
Their first step is a simple and somewhat expected one; recruit as many cabbies that own a zero-emission capable taxi to place their adverts on.
A spokesperson from Ubiquitous said via their website: “Since the arrival of the hybrid LEVC TXe black taxi in London, we have seen a number of brands choose taxi advertising because the channel now offers a ‘green’ solution, and for many brands this is either already extremely important, or is growing more so.
“The advent of the TXe cab represented a watershed moment for Londoners; black taxis account for 20% of the NOx emissions in London – there is no doubt that having more TXes on the road (and fewer diesel cabs) will improve the quality of the air we breathe.
“Historically our campaigns have been on diesel taxis, but this has rapidly changed - hundreds of TXe drivers have already joined our media fleet. Ubiquitous sees this vehicle as the future of taxi advertising and we’re significantly invested in maintaining and building on the number of electric cabs that are available for brands.”
The second step focuses on the rest of the London taxi fleet currently driving around in diesel taxis. There are currently around 3,400 zero-emission capable taxis on London’s roads which make up the 18,000 vehicles in the capital.
As a result, Ubiquitous decided they needed to address the issue of diesel emissions from the classic TX taxis in its fleet and created an offsetting programme.
For as little as £1,000 brands can off-set the diesel emissions from a 4-week, 400-taxi advertising campaign.
So that’s the vehicles themselves turned green. What about the advertising wrapped on to the taxi?
Last winter Ubiquitous started and continue to test biodegradable vinyl, to assess its suitability for the exterior of hard-working, rain-or-shine, black cabs.
However, the type of vinyl currently used during taxi campaigns goes into a landfill and can take centuries to degrade.
So, while Ubiquitous wait for a suitable biodegradable option to become available, the firm have found a unique alternative solution to bypass the landfill option.
Ubiquitous explained: “After conversations with the local authority that collects waste for Ubiquitous, they discovered that the council simply contracts-out the waste management to a third party, but under that agreement, just a limited number of waste solutions are available – only landfill for vinyl.
“So, our Ops Team took it up a notch and spoke directly to Veolia (the contracted provider) and guess what? They do offer a better solution for vinyl disposal: ‘waste-to-energy’ incineration. So, we quickly struck a direct deal with Veolia and committed to this greener strategy.”
Waste-to-energy incineration involves a high temperature burn of vinyl products that results in a zero-emission, zero-landfill output.
The energy is then cycled into power for the local community and the waste ash left is recycled as road surface aggregate.
Ubiquitous finally added: “We’re proud to have achieved our goal, and in doing so, to have created a new ’out of home’ (OOH) opportunity: Iconic black taxi advertising - now available in green.”
https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/black-taxi-advertising-turns-green-ubiquitous-finds-solution-to-offer-eco-friendly-campaigns
------------------------------------------------
GLASGOW
TWO men charged with committing separate knifepoint robberies against taxi drivers within minutes of each other have been locked up.
Michael Glancy and Lee Gray are accused of carrying out the alleged hold-ups in Port Glasgow on Saturday April 18.
Detectives were hunting suspects following raids on two cabs at around 4am in different parts of the town.
Glancy, 35, and Gray, 37 — both of Port Glasgow — appeared separately in private on petition at Paisley Sheriff Court and made no plea.
It's alleged that a man wearing a black and white Halloween-type mask threatened one cabbie with a knife and grabbed a two-figure sum of money in Grampian Road at 3.50am.
In the other reported incident, police say the driver was robbed after taking a man from an address in Greenock to the Port.
A knifeman is alleged to have pulled a blade on the driver and then fled with the taxi's keys and a piece of equipment from the vehicle following a physical struggle.
Accused Gray appeared in court charged with two counts of alleged robbery and one of possession of a sharply pointed or bladed item.
Glancy is facing one charge of robbery, one of blade possession and another of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
https://www.greenocktelegraph.co.uk/news/18403059.pair-charged-committing-separate-knifepoint-robberies-taxi-drivers-locked/
--------------------------------------------
LIVERPOOL
A DRUNK driver who killed a taxi driver and his passenger after speeding through a red light has been jailed for nine years.
Ryan Howard, 27, from Windermere Avenue in Clinkham Wood, was more than twice the drink-drive limit when his BMW collided with the taxi driven by David Sherwin, 51, who was taking mother-of-two Michelle Jennings, 35, to work at Greggs in Liverpool just after 5am on February 27 last year.
Sentencing Howard at Liverpool Crown Court, Judge Andrew Menary QC said cases of dangerous driving "do not get much worse than this".
Addressing the court, Mr Sherwin's daughter Kirsty said Howard had made "selfish choices" which would affect her, her mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and many others for the rest of their lives.
She said: "It is because of his recklessness that my dad will never be there to walk me down the aisle."
In a moving statement which he read to the court, Mrs Jennings' husband Ged said she was kind, bubbly and funny.
He described breaking the news of her death to their children Sophia, who was then eight, and Harry, who was approaching his seventh birthday at the time.
He said: "My life has changed immeasurably and the lives of my kids will never be the same.
"I lost my best friend and the world has lost a shining star."
The court heard Howard, from St Helens, had driven to Liverpool with friend Lewis Heyes the previous evening and been drinking in pubs and clubs until about 4.30am.
Keith Sutton, prosecuting, said Howard "insisted" he would drive the pair home when they returned to the car.
Mr Heyes described the defendant driving at speeds of up to 75mph as they passed Everton Football Club's ground, Goodison Park, on their way out of the city.
The court heard there were stationary vehicles in two lanes as Howard approached traffic lights on the junction of East Lancashire Road and Bridgehouse Lane in Croxteth.
Judge Menary said: "Rather than slow down and stop yourself, you pulled over into the offside lane and accelerated through those red lights. You made no effort to stop at all."
The lights had been red for 16 seconds when Howard drove through them, travelling at 83mph before crashing into Mr Sherwin's Ford Mondeo as it pulled out of Bridgehouse Lane, the court heard.
https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/18407940.dangerous-driver-jailed-nine-years-crash-killed-taxi-driver-young-mum/
-------------------------------------------------------------
UBERK
A long-serving Uber executive is leaving the company amid reports of sweeping job cuts.
Technology chief Thuan Pham is set to resign from the firm next month. Filings with US regulator the SEC show that his last day will be May 16.
Meanwhile, the ride-sharing giant is reportedly considered laying off 20pc of employees. The engineering division could lose 800 of its 3,800 employees, Silicon Valley website The Information said.
Mr Pham has been at the company for seven years, working with former chief executive and company co-founder Travis Kalanick until he was ousted in 2017.
Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said: "As the leader of our engineering organization for the last seven years, Thuan has made important contributions that have helped make Uber into the global technology platform it is today."
Mr Pham said: "While the work is never done, I feel comfortable hanging up my hat at a time when the Uber Engineering team is at peak productivity, we have built robust system scale and stability, and are well prepared to face the future."
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/04/28/uber-technology-chief-executive-quits-amid-reports-could-cut/
No comments:
Post a Comment