A Federal Future

@JohnMcnab58552 @TotalAlchemy @afneil I’d rather pay £9k a year to get into the course I wanted than be capped out. I’d rather have more than 6 hours a week face to face teaching time. Scotlands HE sector was once thriving, it’s skint now.

In 2024 The UK's GDP per head was £41,660. Scotland's GDP per head excluding North Sea Revenue was £37,723 . Scotland's GDP per head, including a geographic share of North Sea Revenue, was £ 39,954. ONS.

@GMB Travelodge have a 24/7 phone number. Arriving late at night in Jan I called it repeatedly to ensure they could check me in. There was no answer. I was stuck outside the hotel, up a deserted London side street, until the night security guard eventually let me in.

@Hollz2012 @DerekMasson We rocked up at 11:20 as the reminders said 12 and are now hanging around until 1. Why not send out decent comms? Lots of pissed off people already 🤣

@DerekMasson Yeah today also. Do I need to get out of bed? 🤐

Any Glasgow based journalists covering the wicked wizard of oz cirque spectacular show? Due to go to the hydro tomorrow, awful reviews elsewhere and not as advertised, inappropriate for kids. Facebook group full of people looking for refunds and warning others #glasgow #wicked

@OVOHydro @TicketmasterUK today’s Glasgow event Cirque/Wicked event. Reminders from ticketmaster and yourself 12:00. Not doors open at 12. It’s freezing and families/pensioners are stuck outside. Why not say doors open at 12, and cite the correct start time🤷‍♀️

@AllisonPearson Layered with Cointreau it transforms to the Jaffa cake cocktail.

Stand by! I’m told there is a Terry’s Chocolate Orange Baileys. And they say Western civilization is in decline. 🤷‍♀️

@SimonCalder I’ve got a forecast too. Beware black cabs at Heathrow, they are taking the mickey with student travellers returning home. £140 charged from LHR to Watford, meter switched off, no mention of a metered fare - for a 50 min journey. Should have been half that amount.

Trainline data from past 2 years shows the overall busiest hour for sheer number of passengers is 10-11am on the Saturday before Christmas. The three busiest routes are all to and from London Euston – serving Birmingham New Street, Manchester Piccadilly and Milton Keynes Central.

10 days to Christmas. I've wrapped up all the forecasts for festive travel for you. Friday 19 December will be super-busy on the roads and at many airports. Saturday 20 December – peak day for rail. Sundays 21 & 28 December: high pressure at many airports. independent.co.uk/travel/news-an…

@CabvisionTaxi @TfL @HeathrowAirport Thank you for replying. It’s over to @TfL complaint team now.

@afederalfuture @TfL @HeathrowAirport I’m afraid we can’t offer you any further information. We are a card processing company, we aren’t responsible for setting the fare or the self employed drivers perceived poor conduct. TfL can explain to you any further fare information you require.

@TfL @HeathrowAirport @CabvisionTaxi My daughter was charged £140 for a 15 miles journey terminal 3 to Watford. No badge number but can the driver be traced from this?

@CabvisionTaxi @TfL @HeathrowAirport Where can a passenger see the rates in the price guide and who sets them? The tariffs online, in no combination, tally to that exorbitant fare. 50mins (along a very convoluted route, which had a closed road) does not add up to anywhere near £150.

@afederalfuture @TfL @HeathrowAirport There is a price guide that operates at Heathrow that is designed to encourage the driver to accept journeys that finish outside the drivers licensing area, I suspect that’s what the driver used to price the journey. That guide is commonly used at Heathrow.

@dobbies I received your Black Friday mailing today on the 14th of December. @RoyalMail my mail would have made Santa blush today, you have stored it at your depot for weeks. I received 3 weeks worth in one day.

@CabvisionTaxi @TfL @HeathrowAirport Thank you. I have caught up with my daughter today. The driver was outside the cab, with a laminated binder he flicks through. Says the price is £150 but you can travel for £140. No meter on or mentioned AT ALL. That binder sounds like a Pirates map. He robbed her blind. 🏴‍☠️

@afederalfuture @TfL @HeathrowAirport For completion, we do charge the driver a processing fee based upon % of transaction. We could be an unwilling and unknown beneficiary if a complaint for overcharging was upheld and we would willingly return any unjust enrichment.

@CabvisionTaxi @TfL @HeathrowAirport This complaint will be interesting in many levels if you are saying the regulators guidance is not a useful reference. Does Cabvision get a % of the transaction value? So in effect you would benefit from this overinflated price?

@afederalfuture @TfL @HeathrowAirport If the journey ends outside the Metropolitan District, the driver can negotiate the fare. Greater London is not a useful reference but this is the one TFL use in the driver handbook

@CabvisionTaxi @TfL @HeathrowAirport It says in your guidance if the journey starts and ends in Greater London. Heathrow and Watford are Greater London. Your guidance says the meter should be on?

@afederalfuture @TfL @HeathrowAirport I’ve provided the information for context. The meter does not have to be engaged if the journey is outside the met district, which it was. Thank you for supporting our industry, we’re all very disappoint that you have questions regarding the integrity of the service received.

@CabvisionTaxi @TfL @HeathrowAirport First section- set the taxi meter. There was no meter on, no explanation of a meter. Be interesting to see where this complaint goes. I am 100% behind black cabs, and I understand their regulated framework. My anger and disappointment is that this didn’t happen.

@afederalfuture @TfL @HeathrowAirport If the journey finishes outside of the Metropolitan District, such as Watford, the driver is within their rights to agree a fee 'off' of the fare meter, based simply upon 'offer and acceptance'. Page from Taxi Drivers Handbook.

@CabvisionTaxi @TfL @HeathrowAirport Agree, however the trip was 50 mins. She gets in, driver says it’s £150 to Watford, but I’ll do it for £140. No reference to a metered fare. No steward at the rank. His was the only cab there. My daughter is autistic, arrives at T3 after a long flight and this driver was at it.

@afederalfuture @TfL @HeathrowAirport We're sorry to hear you believe there has been wrongdoing. We are responsible for processing the payment, however, we try and assist in disputes by offering information regarding how fare meter functions. If journey was 90 mins not 50, £140 would be within regulated price range.

@PaulDDDaughters @BeingBoycie @foster_pau13712 @TfL @SadiqKhan @TheLTDA @UnitedCabbies @The_LCDC Even better for our complaint then, it should be watertight.

@afederalfuture @BeingBoycie @foster_pau13712 @TfL @SadiqKhan @TheLTDA @UnitedCabbies @The_LCDC 😂😂😂 Black cabs are regulated, the most regulated in world 🌍

No sign of a black cab to take us from the Palladium back to our hotel in Dean Street,so my brother hailed a rickshaw.We travelled at speed down Regent Street with Last Christmas I gave You My Heart playing. This is fun,we thought.£150 quid.I thank you.

@PaulDDDaughters @BeingBoycie @foster_pau13712 @TfL @SadiqKhan @TheLTDA @UnitedCabbies @The_LCDC The black cab is supposed to be regulated. She was ripped off, plain and simple. Driver was at it and a complaint has been submitted to TfL. The fact black cabs are regulated gave her a false sense of security.

@afederalfuture @BeingBoycie @foster_pau13712 @TfL @SadiqKhan @TheLTDA @UnitedCabbies @The_LCDC Perhaps if Ushit payed tax and VAT in the uk and didn’t avoid licensing regulation the price would be similar.. Any you carry on

@CabvisionTaxi @TfL @HeathrowAirport I understand that, but she was in the cab for max 50mins, daytime. I’ve modelled it - that is £90-£100 absolute tops. Blatant exploitation, by a chancer at an international terminal. Doesn’t help that she’s autistic so she wouldn’t have challenged him. I have complained to tfl.

@afederalfuture @TfL @HeathrowAirport It should be possible to trace the driver from the receipt. Time needs to be considered, as well as distance, when calculating taxi fares. If there was very heavy traffic, then this should be factored when considering whether to complain to TfL.

@PaulDDDaughters @BeingBoycie @foster_pau13712 @TfL @SadiqKhan @TheLTDA @UnitedCabbies @The_LCDC This was what my daughter was charged today, black cab Heathrow to Watford. She would 100% have been better in an uber.

@BeingBoycie @foster_pau13712 Avoid #Uber at all costs! The reason Black cabs are hard to get,is because @tfl and @SadiqKhan policy is to to remove them from the face of London.. They are already excluded from their transport policy @TheLTDA @UnitedCabbies @The_LCDC #Transport #Travel

@SLou1967 @Grapefruit_Juce @LesleyMclennan2 @JuliaHB1 Afraid not, it's a Uk wide phenomenon. Most countries base admissions on grades achieved (i.e. they wait on results day) predictions are not required.

@afederalfuture @Grapefruit_Juce @LesleyMclennan2 @JuliaHB1 Is this a particularly Scottish thing with Highers?

Of course no one should get death threats, no matter how despicable Oxford student George Abaraonye's words were after Charlie Kirk's murder. But the person I feel most sorry for is the poor sixth former who worked hard and got three grade As or A*s at A level but was rejected by Oxford because the university decided to offer a place to Abaraonye with only ABB grades, well below the entrance requirement. That's the real victim here.