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Uber loses licence to operate in London, will still operate while appealing

(www.bbc.com)
256 points reubensutton | 4 comments | 25 Nov 19 10:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.72s | source
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maxehmookau ◴[25 Nov 19 14:54 UTC] No.21628572[source]▶
I'm always amazed at how fatalist about this sort of thing Londoners are. Like losing Uber will be a massive problem for a huge portion of the population. London has, by FAR, the best, cheapest and most efficient public transport in the entire UK. Uber is, yeah, cheaper than a black cab but also why is it cheaper? Worse working conditions, VC-subsidised, lower standards for vetting (as we've seen here!) It's not sustainable, and while there's obviously a market need for a cheaper app-based minicab service in London, Uber has proven repeatedly that it can't be trusted to do that.
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1. 72deluxe ◴[25 Nov 19 15:52 UTC] No.21629172[source]▶
My friend who is from Woking said that southerners typically viewed everything as an eternal crisis and were always in a rush. He said it was far different moving to the Midlands, and I think it gets less panicky the further north you go.

Perhaps it's a regional condition?

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2. wutbrodo ◴[25 Nov 19 17:51 UTC] No.21630770[source]▶
That sounds like a pretty typical urban/rural, economically-productive/less-so distinction. In England that happens to line up somewhat along the N/S axis
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3. 72deluxe ◴[26 Nov 19 09:19 UTC] No.21636693[source]▶
But does that make Birmingham "the North"? I don't think so; although it is certainly north of London, it isn't the north and the attitudes in Brum are a bit different to Londonium.

Perhaps it's the London / out of London divide. The BBC certainly has a London-centric approach to news on its all-day news-recycling channel, I noticed.

4. maxehmookau ◴[26 Nov 19 09:54 UTC] No.21636884[source]▶
Agreed. I live and work in the second biggest city in the UK and our transport system is 10000% less reliable and more expensive than London. Yet it's still quite adequate. Trains come every 10 minutes, rather than every 2 minutes.