Petem95

Ken: London needs more black teachers, police and cab drivers | Mayoral Elections

Someone shoot this d1ckhead please!!

GO Boris!!!!

gallois

i like this quote

He wants more cabbies from ethnic backgrounds, saying: "It is still the case today that little more that five per cent of Black Cab drivers are Black or Asian."

if five percent of black cab drivers are black or asian, then what are the other 95 percent of black cab drivers.

Mus

iTrader: (2)

i think Ken is just out of ideas im black and i cant see black cabbies or teachers making a diffrence.

Snazy

Last minute snide canvasing of voters. Simple as. Playing the old "race" card to try and get the last few votes as he prob thinks he is in trouble.

Saying that, with Robert Mugabe backing Red Ken, what chance do we stand of a fair result ! lol

At the end of the day, I hope London speaks its mind on May 1st. If he stays in power, I will be shocked, but not totally of course.

Are you packed yet Ken, Boris is gonna need your keys before you leave, and no nicking the stationary eh!

Petem95

I like to think if you're a Londoner that you'll be voting against Livingston, and won't be taken in by this crap from the tw@t!!

MrNoisy

iTrader: (28)

I hate the bast*rd. Thanks to him it's now 3 times as much to travel inside London than it used to be 6 years ago when I started commuting in.

I saw sense and found a job nearer to home, but I pity the poor beggars who continue to have to put up with his exorbitant prices, total sh*te service and empty promises (he and this government have a lot in common).

I sincerely hope this election sees him kicked out on his sorry ****!

Too late now Ken - being PC won't save you - the English people have had enough of that sort of Labour bullsh*t! Maybe the successful candidate will listen .

Snazy

Oh how can you say that, if you plan your journey, use an Oyster Card, and dont mind being crushed, transport in London is fine.

If however you just want to make a quick unplanned journey, you will get wallet raped, and subsidise the Oyster Card users, oh and pay the kids bus fares too.

The 50% + discount of Oyster Cards is disgusting, and yet another thing I think is completly wrong!
Then there is congestion charging, which is antiquated for a new system. If its staying, I prefer the proposals from Boris.

Speaking of which there is a debate on between the top 3 runners tonight is there not?10.35 BBC1
Lets see if Ken stayed off the booze this afternoon and can do anything but dribble and babble. Love seeing Boris live, especially opposite ken lol

rossi_p

iTrader: (26)

I really hope Ken doesn't get back in again... the guy is a clueless tw*t.

The newspaper article is racist.

The idea about equal opportunity is that all have same chance of the job, regardless of race/religion etc. Therefore, the best person gets the job - simple concept.

Ken is suggesting you hire people purely on the merit of being a so-called ethnic minority... How is that equal?

Suppose you were a fireman and your crew had a vacancy. The person with the highest scores in training etc was white, but they hire a minority to bump the statistics up. Now, you have a person who isn't as good watching your back and therefore your life is in greater danger. All this is done so some numpty politician can look at some statistics in his cosy office and think what a lovely job they're doing...

Doesn't make sense to me....

Snazy

Well said mate, in a strange sort of way. Im all for equality, but when you start having campaigns encouraging certain groups to apply, thats as you say NOT equality.

The debate last night was a bit wet, mainly as the presenter would not STFU. Boris got a little flustered, Ken took a bit of a battering (but lots of support from the entire membership of Socialist Worker in the audiance. And the Brian Pad seemed calm, but then ex-cop and all lol.

Cant wait to see the back of him, and only hope that London speaks on May 1st.

Ken claims....

After the intro of the CC it would not go up, then into his next term raised it, but claimed he told everyone, however was not in his manifesto. This time around, he says its fine as it is, the £25 will come in, and more low emissions cars can come in for free, but there is NO need to extend it...... (until he is on power for the next term if that happens, then im sure he will)

Says there is no place for a modern routemaster bus in London, and bendy's are the way to do. Ken & buses, one thing in common, both round the bend.

Crime is DOWN according to him, and agressive behaviour, swearing and spitting at people is not really a crime he says, therefore its down 18% if you ignore these figures. Next time I see him I will spit in the mugs face, and remind him its not a crime so not to whine. I wonder how many others are thinking that today too.

Refused to comment if Lee Jasper did anything wrong at all, and said he will re-hire him tomorrow if the case against him is dropped.

The Chief

He needs to come to Oldham if he's not satisfied, i'd say 80-90 percent of cabbies are from an ethnic background.

I find his comments extremley racist tbh.

I genuinely believe that man has a mental condition

PeteBrant

Theres loads of minicab drivers in Londond that are from an ethnic background. But he's talking about black cab drivers, which is a bit different.

dpb

You can hardly make out hes red at all nowadays , right

StickyMicky

must admit, when i was visiting down in Reading (ok its not london but its close enough) i never saw a single white taxi driver, and i was in the place 1 weekend a month, for a full year

The Zohan

It says a lot about Ken and how he thinks and how much he really cares for londoners.

PC right on claptrap & targets are more important than the best service or getting the best person to do the job.

FFS Londoners - please vote this fool out next month

PeteBrant

In the same way that Liverpool is "close enough" to being Manchester


Again, he is talking about Black Cabs, not minicabs

The Zohan

Mornin'

Suprised Red Kenny has not called for them to be renamed as he finds he term 'black cab' offends his sensibilities

Tam the bam

Ethnic minority cab just doesn't have the same ring to it though!

PeteBrant

To be fair, I can understand where he is trying to come from with this statement. But - He is going about it the wrong way.

What he has said conjures up the image of ethinic minorities getting preferential treatment when it comes to trinign and becomming a Black cab driver.

What he should be saying is that he wants to encourage more people from an ethnic background to try and take the knowledge in the first place, i.e.e encourage more applications from the ethnic population, at which point everyone will be treated equally.

I disagree with "forced" representation - I don't have anything against having accurate population representation. But, you need to know why equal representation isn't there in the first place- Is it because there is institutionalised racism in the Black Cab ranks (ho-ho) or is it because ethinic minorities have no ****ing interest in becomming black cab drivers and much prefer the far easier route (like most people) of being Minicab drivers.

MrNoisy

iTrader: (28)

lol - yeah but everyone who lives in London thinks that North of the M25 is "up North"

(BTW we do have black cabs in Reading though....I think it's the ones that came out of London and never found their way back )

Snazy - I get wallet raped whatever I do mate - Oyster cards can't be used at stations where I live - yet another scheme that people outside of London can't benefit from even though they benefit from charging us £25 a day for peak time travel cards!

Leslie

Looks like his back is against the wall and he has resorted to scraping the bottom of the barrel.

I hope he fails miserably!

Les

The Zohan

I think any self respecting person put in th situation of getting free pass due to their background/colour rather than ability would find it wrong and imagine the resentment it would cause with other cabbies or whoever who have worked hard and got there on thier merits and hard work.

It is just wrong however you look at it.

dpb

Im not clear on how its a free pass , surely they all have to do the knowledge .I think id be slightly uncomforable in the situation myself
But its like the slave trade itself - if it wasnt for wilberforce and othrs like him the trade WOULD have gone on for another 30 years

PeteBrant

I'm not sure he has said anything about a "Free pass". Just that he thinks that there should be a bigger representatation from Ethinic miniroties in schools and Black cabs.

Martin2005

I'm in two minds over the election, part of me wants Boris to win, for the sheer entertainment value, and part of wants Ken to win just for the pure joy of reading all the vitriolic comments on here. Besides if Ken loses thats going to reduce certain peoples SN posting frequency somewhat.

The Zohan

By free pass i really mean getting the job over someone better qualified or experienced or suited, etc. Not just turning up for an interview and heh-presto you got the job as we are filling quotas and your face fits, free pass perhaps not he best choice of words.

Even so picking someone because of their colour/race over an equally qualified/experienced/able person just to fill a quota or because it is PC is just wrong on so many levels and will increase mistrust and build more problems - imagine the BNP being able to use this sort of propaganda.

Maybe it is difficult for me to appreciate the problem, yes i have many friends from a diverse rage of backgrounds and religions, I have worked in the ME and seen some racist and sexist acts whilst there.
As a white 40 something i have not really experienced racism aimed at me (well, some in the ME) or been discriminated against in the UK. It dos not mean that it does not go on.

I have worked for a company who had a 'no foreigners' rule - well, back then blacks or Asians rule (as it was felt that it would p1ss off their clients, generally a provincial small minded attitudes to most things really)) some 20 years ago and hated to employ women as they would only leave to have kids. coloureds (as they called them would not get past the submitting CV stages)Not seen it since.

New_scooby_04

iTrader: (4)

LOL, I love the idea of a cockney black, black cab driver!!

"Lots of honkeys around here, guv!"

Anyone remember the classic family guy sketch where Peter trie to get out of jury service by pretending to be racist?

PeteBrant

This is what I meant by Ken making the mistake of not making this clear.

I am almost certain that he doesn't mean that people from Ethnic miniroties will have an easier route into the proffession. (although nothing would surprise me)

What he does mean is that we need to incentivise ehtnic minorities into taking these career paths.

I absolutely agree that in the final analysis, the job should go to the best person, not the preferred colour.
On the surface I agree, it shouldn't matter whether the person is black white, whatever.

However, perhaps in schools where there is a high percentage of kids form ehtinic backgrounds, there *may* and i stress, *may, be a advantage to having teachers from a similar background.

greenonedave

Ken has always had a high percentage ethnic backing so this statement is purely a voting tactic, its been common pratice for many years to have positive selection based on getting the mix of staff to reflect the area ratios,
Businesses are forced to have policy to ensure that the population is fairly representative in the work place, This also includes ensuring to include disabled, blind ethinics and now sexual orientation policy.
It is P.C. gone quite barmy

The Chief

Interesting there is an online discussion with Boris as we speak...

Sun Online - Discussions - Ask Boris

The Zohan

Done!