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The "licensed cab" trade has always hated competition. In many parts of England there are legal limits on the number of licenses and if the London trade had its way there would be there too. Remember how they resisted the licensing of minicabs?

I gave up on black cabs the third time a cabbie told me that his card-reader was "out of order" or "he couldn't get a signal round here" - somehow Uber drivers manage. Every Uber transaction is evidenced in writing - no room there for tax shenananigans.

Uber's business model is better for consumers and there will be no stopping them. It is like the digital camera putting the photo-processing labs out of business: the work was transferred not to a low-wage but to a no-wage economy - us at our computers - and that's just the way the world is.

In the meantime, all limits to the number of licenced taxis in any district should be abolished at once.