For the first term of this system, only taxi drivers may be elected to the house. However, people who want to stand for election next term must spend this first term as taxi drivers, shaping their political views, giving them the knowledge on how to 'sort out' the country.

At the start of the second term, and any successive terms, anybody who has been a taxi driver for minimum of one term (say, five years), may stand for election. If not elected, they go back to being taxi drivers, or may leave the political/taxi game altogether.

All elected taxi drivers will also be required to be a driver one day a week, in order to keep them 'grounded' and 'in with the public'.

Since a job is guranteed (either as taxi driver or elected representative), more people will go into politics, and so a better representation of the public body is formed in the assembly. Also, this steady income will stop huge wage rises and large pay-offs on retirement.
-- tyskland, Dec 13 2002

Will they still be able to charge me £15 to go from Angel to Tower Bridge?

Taxi drivers have some strange views on what to charge for services - do you think our taxes are safe?
-- Mayfly, Dec 13 2002


Ah, but if the elected taxi drivers start squandering taxes, the non-elected taxi drivers will get angry about it, and stand for election as being against the mis-use of taxes, and so will likely be elected. Thus, the system takes care of itself.
-- tyskland, Dec 13 2002


I think you're suffering form the 'pessimists memory'. We tend to focus more on the bad things that have happened to us, instead of the good. So we forget about the time that the driver cut the meter price because he didn't have the change, and remember the time that one driver charged us IKr extra, and carry it every time we enter a taxi cab.

That, plus i think you're taking your extended metaphor a bit far.
-- tyskland, Dec 13 2002


[tysk], I have _never_ been under-charged by a London cabbie.

However, I have paid £50 from Victoria to Tower Bridge (5 miles exactly, according to Autoroute).
-- Mayfly, Dec 13 2002


And where did i mention London?
-- tyskland, Dec 13 2002


Just talking from my experience of cabbies (sore point).

Are they different from wherever you're from?
-- Mayfly, Dec 13 2002


Yes, the majority are retired persons who are just earning a little bit more money, and are actually quite generous when it comes to tariffs. Whats a couple of Kr here and there?

And if you're getting charged 50 pound for a 5 mile taxi journey, you need to get a bus-pass or use a different company.
-- tyskland, Dec 13 2002


And thus the extended metaphor is taken too far. Oh, i can just see it over the horizon now...
-- tyskland, Dec 13 2002


<private_eye> I had that Lord Tebbit on the back of my Bike once. Very clever man...</private_eye>
-- gnomethang, Jun 04 2003


No taxation without taxification. The downside is, taxi drivers already have the highest rate of fatality by homicide of any occupation.
-- mystic2311, Dec 22 2003


Travis Bickle at number 10. What could possibly go wrong?
-- theleopard, Feb 27 2008


Don't forget the possibility of unlicensed politicians.
-- coprocephalous, Feb 27 2008


The more I think about it, the better an idea it sounds: cabbies have alot of free time on their brains and meet and discuss their opinions with many varied members of the public... likewise bartenders and strippers (baretenders?).
-- FlyingToaster, Feb 28 2008



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