In a black cab

Oxford Street was closed today. Our taxi driver told us as soon as he pulled away from where we had hailed him. Getting to Victoria would be slower than usual, and time – as well as distance - is money in the taxi business.

The closure was to accomodate the final event in Ken Livingstone’s series of special promotions which, with superb irony, went under the title “Everyone’s London”. I would have named it “London is Anybody’s” but that would probably be too honest and, anyway, I’m not the Mayor.

The last starved clothes-horse had sashayed in Selfridges, the last deracinated pop “singer” wiggled its groin for the children when our taxi turned into the crowds, which were still spilling across the street. The turnout seemed to have been pretty high.

Now, taxi drivers are a traditionally independent-minded bunch, if not downright outspoken. Taxi-driving in London was a recognised preserve of Jews a generation ago. The sharp mind required to do the Knowledge ruled out a lot of native Londoners. Now the sons of those Jewish taxi-drivers are journalists, advertising men, sports agents, lawyers, political lobbyists et al. But some things about taxi drivers never change. The intelligence and outspokenness remain. They are a staple of life for anyone who travels regularly by taxi and is not too posh to sample the range of often distinctly “draft” opinion on tap.

My taxi driver, a genuine Londoner in his late forties I would say, did not exhibit much warmth for Cuddly Ken. Apparently, the difficulties of a taxi driver’s life had been exacerbated not only by the shutting of Oxford Street but some nefarious Mayoral decision concerning the management of traffic in the area.

I, of course, perked up at the mention of Ken’s name, “What a piece of work that man is,” I replied.

“What was that you said?” asked our driver, not expecting disapproval of the beloved Mayor of London.

“A piece of work … Livingstone.”

Our friend at the wheel needed no more invitation to put the record on the turntable. “Him and bloody Blair both. They’re the ones. Ruined the place they have. Just destroyed it,” he said, leaving not a lot of doubt as to whether I could possibly offend this splendid man.

We nosed through the wandering mass of mostly young people. In all truth, I have never see such a concentration of blacks and browns even in London. Of the whites no more than half looked to be my own people. The thought occurred to me that the proportion of young aliens to young English in London must be hugely higher than the immigrant population in general.

I told our driver that I was a Croydon lad but had left the city for the sticks in 1972. The change in those thirty-three years beggared belief, I said. He knew I wasn’t talking about the style of street furniture. “Looking at this lot,” I said as we drove south down a narrow, still-crowded street, “it’s more than 50% already.”

“It is more than 50%, I can assure you,” he shot back. Still neither one of us had said the word “immigrant”, neither one mentioned race. It wasn’t necessary. We had both known where the other was heading from the start. He, though, was more pessimistic by nature than I.

“You hang on to your memories, mate. It’ll never be like that again.”

“You have to believe it will,” I admonished him, “You have to believe that we can reclaim what’s ours, even if you don’t see how it can be done today.”

He didn’t believe it, pointing out to me that, “They all vote bloody Labour, don’t they.”

“I don’t care what they vote,” I said, “These people won’t carry forward our culture. Nothing of us will survive. Either we take our country back or we acquiesce in our own destruction. There’s nothing in between. We have to keep faith that we’ll find the way to do this.”

He made no reply. I’m not sure he had encountered the argument for survival in quite so stark terms. “Just tell me one thing,” I said while he was mulling over that, “how many ordinary working men have you met who don’t think like you and I.”

“They all think it,” he replied emphatically, “Every single one of them.”

I knew that, of course, before I asked the question. This is a conversation I have had before. Quite often as a matter of fact. It is a conversation I shall certainly have again - tomorrow if I possibly can.

Posted by Guessedworker on Saturday, October 1, 2005 at 11:46 PM in Oh Tempora, Oh Mores
Comments (17) | Tell a friend

Comments:

Posted by Geoff Beck on October 02, 2005, 12:52 AM | #

Bravo!

This somewhat furtive conversation is reminiscent of the old Soviet days, this time we are the ones secretly meeting in taxis and street corners, struggling against the beast,

At some point, at some time, the Eastern European populations must have figured it out: hey we are all being screwed, we all know it, and we can do something about it.

Posted by Fred Scrooby on October 02, 2005, 01:55 AM | #

Great vignette, GW, and a gratifying change from the one with you and that lefty snobbish academic type seated opposite in the train who took umbrage down his nose at your mention of the too-many Arabs I think it was.

I think your Anglo-Saxon working-class folk (on both sides of the Atlantic) are solid on this stuff (the men, at least). They haven’t learned that in order to put on airs of belonging to a “better class of people” they need only pretend to deny their instincts. It’s the academics, the intellectuals, those who see themselves as “superior” who are more of a problem: they’ve got to show their moral superiority by calling you and me a “racist.” That makes them feel sooooooo sooooooo far above us, don’t you see. You can’t imagine the feeling of satisfaction it gives them. They’ve never felt so good in their lives.

Posted by Geoff Beck on October 02, 2005, 02:41 AM | #

BTW, today my copy of BNP’s Voice of Freedom arrived. It is hard hitting and honest.

Re-Writing History

In the paper there was an interesting article about a recent re-enactment of the evacuation of British children from England in the 1940s. The contemporary version showed pictures of Paki children being loaded onto aircraft. The title being: “They Followed in Their Grandparent’s Footsteps!” Of course, how could they since their grandparents were pounding sand in Pakistan in the 1940s.

Also, Americans can assist the BNP by subscribing here.

Posted by Lurker on October 02, 2005, 03:35 AM | #

Fred - as Steve Sailer has pointed out; multicultural issues are generally the means for white western elitists to score political points off other white western elitists.

Posted by Fred Scrooby on October 02, 2005, 03:45 AM | #

Lurker, thanks and yes, I know he points that out. That’s partly where I got my own insight on this from—from reading the great, the one and only, Steve Sailer.

Posted by stari_momak on October 02, 2005, 04:38 AM | #

GW, I’d be careful, my sources tell me the CPS and CRE have ‘planted’ Blackcab drivers to smoke out the likes of you! ; )

Posted by Mrs. Blessed on October 02, 2005, 05:14 AM | #

Wonderful post, GW. You put it well. We really have no choice but to be optimistic. Anything less is certain death.

Posted by Mrs. Blessed on October 02, 2005, 05:22 AM | #

Lurker, I could be wrong, but as I recall, the first time I heard the argument that multiculturalism was a battle between whites to assert social dominance was from Ian Jobling at AmRen. I seem to remember him discussing this article as he was writing it on an early AmRen mailing list. I don’t think SS originated this idea, fwiw.

Posted by Phil on October 02, 2005, 08:19 AM | #

GW,

Wonderful post.

Posted by Stuart Dickson on October 02, 2005, 08:22 AM | #

The matter of Whites’ unwillingness to promote their group interests was touched on in Dr Jack Wheeler’s interesting essay about White guilt.
://www.inlibertyandfreedom.com/suicide.htm

Posted by Phil on October 02, 2005, 08:23 AM | #

“It is more than 50%, I can assure you,” he shot back.

It depends which areas we are talking about because in some areas it would be 80 or even 90 percent perhaps.

Posted by Kubilai on October 02, 2005, 11:55 AM | #

Great post, GW. Reminds me of the cabbies during our stay in London. Could be one of the same guys! LOL Too bad the working man no longer has much of a voice in his own country. Hopefully that will change at some point in the future.

Posted by Phil on October 02, 2005, 03:14 PM | #

I told our driver that I was a Croydon lad but had left the city for the sticks in 1972.

Well, here’s a thought. Out of those 33 years, the Tories governed Britain for 20. Labour only 13.

This tells me that the Tories are as much a part of the problem as Labour.

Posted by Geoff Beck on October 02, 2005, 03:30 PM | #

> This tells me that the Tories are as much a part of the problem as Labour.

The respectable conservatives have so many hooks to keep the lemmings in line and voting for the system.

A favorite tactic is to warn Republican voters that if Bush, Reagan, Bush II doesn’t win then a “Radical Lib Commie Democrat” will appoint supreme court justices.

Well, we’ve elected mostly Republican presidents since 1950 and a majority of them have been appointed by these Republican presidents and all we’ve got from them is more Marxist destruction from the court.

Posted by Johan Van Vlaams on October 03, 2005, 08:24 AM | #

Everyone’s London.

That reminds me of Antwerp: there the slogan such as staged by the actual socialist mayor is: “het stad behoort aan iedereen” (the City belongs to everybody).

Flanders,

Posted by john rackell on October 03, 2005, 11:51 AM | #

“how many ordinary working men have you met who don’t think like you and I.”

“They all think it,” he replied emphatically, “Every single one of them.”

And yet a by-election the BNP were contending in Co Durham (Stanley Hall ward) yields:

Labour 599
Liberal Democrat 199
Dean McAdam - British National Party 118

BNP were pleased getting 13% in a pro labour ward, I don’t want to criticize that. But how do you square the difference between what the cab driver says, he and all his mates, and a lousy 13%. The BNP is the only party with even half a plan to address immigration - all they need is to be elected. Either immigration is really important and you vote for a party that will address it; or you (the cabbie) don’t consider it that important and so quit remonstrating so much because when push comes to shove you vote for reasons nothing to do with immigration. The BNP if I remember just lost a parliamentary seat in Barking outside London which is probably home to a lot of the cabbies lower middle class mates.

Just the satisfaction giving Blair a bloody nose would be enough for me to vote in a council by election. Sure there are reasonable explanations for losing; ethnic votes; no ethics; maybe university students; nobody has internet access and BNP is effective on the web.

But the cabbies angst doesn’t really reflect voting behavior where BNP has contested. So the angst is phony or he’s just a vanishing breed, maybe his ‘mates’ is just all of the one last white family on the block selling his house below market value to get out from the bloody tinhorm racket from the local Mosque calling to prayer.

Nice essay btw.

Posted by tina smith on May 06, 2006, 10:02 PM | #

for intelligent folk your awefully clever with your use of stolen words with the english language. its a shame we are an endagered species as the few amunst the MAJORITY coloured collective, worldwide, i hope in the end all shall become fair and even in war without love. a concerned resident of earth, whishes Kharma whose last name is bitch, is served.

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