MACCLESFIELD’S taxi drivers say drunken louts are making their lives a misery, smashing wing mirrors, throwing up in the back of their cabs and refusing to pay.
"We want more respect from passengers," said one driver who, in my opinion, is wrong.
These "drunken louts", as he calls them, are simply exercising their civil liberties, the right to be obnoxious being but one. What’s wrong with vomiting in the back of taxis anyway ? It’s not harming anyone!!!
Unashamedly, he says the street outside his taxi office is "like Beirut" between two and three on Sunday morning – totally indifferent to the offence his words may cause to members of Hisbolla.
As Cheshire Police frequently tell us, our town centres have never been so safe. Check out A&E on any Saturday night. You won’t hear patients there complaining about crime. (Most of them are too drunk to know where they are).
Macclesfield Borough Council should be proud. They approved every license changing the town centre into an oasis for binge drinkers.
It’s by far the most successful policy they ever introduced, but it wasn’t without its critics. Residents petitioned all over the borough to prevent it, but MBC dismissed them all. We’re just not used to success.
Macclesfield taxi drivers need to tread very carefully if they are to avoid criticism for their inflammatory rhetoric.
They could find themselves in very deep trouble should one of these "louts" claim for hurt feelings.
Should a broken wing mirror lacerate the palm of a drunken reveller in the process of ripping it from a cab, compensation could be considerable.
Why not look at things in a more positive light? As long as they are vomiting in taxis, they’re not terrorising old ladies. As for refusing to pay, it’s only money.
As Cheshire Police maintain, our town centres are a lot safer than many others (like Baghdad and Kabul).
So let there be no more intolerance. Let us embrace the culture we have so diligently created.
Why not raise a (plastic) glass to our town centre "louts" who have travelled Europe proving that respect for others is a thing of the past?
The views expressed on this page are Vic Barlow's and not necessarily those of the Express
