Uber has recently been in the news for a slew of attacks on its drivers. In March 2015, taxi drivers in Belgiumblocked Uber cars, threw eggs and dragged passengers onto the street. It followed on from similar incidents inAmsterdam, whereby “De Telegraaf” reported masked men attacking Uber drivers armed with brass knuckles and hammers.
Paris was also among the locations to dish out violence on Uber drivers. Cab drivers blocked roads, burst tires and burned cars of those who they thought were working for Uber. Singer Courtney Love, who travelling across Paris in an Uber car, was said to be injured in the clash.
they’ve ambushed our car and are holding our driver hostage. they’re beating the cars with metal bats. this is France I’m safer in Baghdad
” Courtney Love Cobain (@Courtney) June 25, 2015
London drivers and their supporters have taken a lighthearted approach towards attacking Uber specifically Russell Brand, who took to making his own video on the subject of “cabbies versus Uber”. He is of the belief that cabbies are sole traders who have poured their money back into the local economy unlike Uber, which he referred to as a multi-billion dollar corporation, part-owned by Goldman Sachs and Google. Essentially, he argued that Uber skims off all its profits and puts it into foreign bank accounts.
It’s more money being siphoned out of our country,” he said. “If you get a black cab that money stays in our country, stays in our economy. Thats one clear advantage.
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He continued: When you look at it, Uber is just another tax-evading company like Amazon, Starbucks or Tesco. Of course we all use Tesco, Amazon and Starbucks, theyre unavoidable and were just human beings.
But Brits need to be aware, he warned, that once “these people have got us monopolised”, prices could start increasing. He suggested that too many problems were the result of corporations that didn’t pay taxes locally, nor invested in the community.
Connell said that black cab drivers had never faced competition like Uber before. He added: “How much love has the prime ministerAnd the mayor really have for London if theyre going to allow people not to pay tax “
He argued that if he were to send money to his family in Barbados, he would get into trouble with HMRC, to which Brand responded: Its one rule for them and another rule for us.
Here’s the video of him talking to Connell:
