David Mellor and taxi driver

I agree. I don't like David Mellor but the taxi driver was out of order.

What were the words the Taxi Driver used I wonder?

It's a bit one sided to read that account so I would prefer to hear or read the full text.

It certainly is the case that if you were a politician or celebrity you have to be very careful not to be dragged into a 'sting' of one description or the other.

I'm not saying it is a 'sting' more a case of somebody who thinks he's something he's not giving it large but was he provoked, only the taxi driver knows that and the 2 passengers.

I would have thought David Mellor was so old hat a newspaper wouldn't find anything he said interesting. Hardly current fodder for the media is he.

Another report with slightly more detail.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/former-tory-mp-david-mellor-4689371

Sounds like Mellor was drunk, or he has an easily-triggered foul temper!

I should have said , I wonder what the Taxi Firm think about it or was he self employed?

I would think that the Taxi Firm would be a bit worried of their reputation if people thought that's what their staff get up to.

Blooming heck if they all sent off videos and recordings of the goings on in the back of their taxi's they wouldn't have much trade I would suspect. .

This confirms what I have always thought about David Mellor. Foul mouthed and vulgar.

Eugh!!! Mellor sounds a really nasty piece of work. I think he might have ruined his wife's day rather than the taxi driver.

Don't blame the taxi driver for naming and shaming.

I'm no fan of Mellor but it was a private verbal spat, and he's no longer a politician.

Neither of these men sound particularly charming!

Who does this man think he is ? does the fact he states he is a Queens Councillor/Broadcaster/Former MP give him the right to speak to a person like that he may be all he claims out to be but he has certainly not got any manners.
Good on the taxi driver he goes out to do an honest days work not be abused by some has been MP.

I'm with henetha on this topic. Ex editor of the sun was on daily politics sitting there pontificating about Mr Mellor with a smug attitude that just turned me off.

I've just seen the report of this on the lunchtime news- I bet Taxi drivers have rows everyday with people of all kinds its juts that the sun is enjoying reporting on the 'toffs' and their disregard of the common man as a pre election skirmish. Mellor may be a toff but he's never been a gentleman.

Marylebone High St. to St. Katherine's Dock on a Friday evening was going to be a nightmare whichever route was chosen. Mellor should have kept his mouth shut, but that would have been beyond him.

Cabbie should not have done what he did, but Mellor would bring out the worst in most of us.

I am amazed that David Mellor has taken up so much space and time!

£29 for five miles during London rush-hour sounds about right to me. Is he really that hard up?

I think we are entitled to expect better behaviour from someone who has been in government and who is still in the public eye.

Without hearing the whole exchange, it's difficult to know whether the taxi driver had also behaved badly. As I understand it, black cab drivers own or rent their cabs and are self-employed, so can record a conversation if they want to - perhaps for security reasons?

It's not so much that David Mellor lost his temper - I suppose most people have "lost it" and said stupid things at some time in their lives - it was his attitude that comes across as particularly unpleasant. He was in effect telling the taxi driver that he was a little nobody whose only role in life was to take orders from his "betters". I doubt that this attitude is exclusive to David Mellor but the Sun and other tabloid newspapers have always despised him and I wonder if they'd have been so keen to print this story if it had been someone more to their liking.

It did make me smile a bit to think that DM's partner is Chairman of Visit England, this incident not being a great advertisement for doing so.

I'm astonished that the OP thinks the taxi driver behaved badly. If DM did say what the Mirror says he said then it was really not on- both the swearing and the boasting of how important he is. He seems to have form for this as well. I am increasingly astonished also at how people in the public eye ( in the last week we've had ET, JM and now DM )seem to be so unaware of how they should consider what they tweet, say etc. And finally, I have to admit to being a great fan of London Taxi drivers - was this a black cab?

Both David Mellor and the taxi driver (also the reporters!) sound thoroughly unpleasant.

When we were ripped off by a taxi driver at Heathrow we questioned it then silently fumed, but perhaps it is beyond a former politician to keep his mouth shut.

Mind you I have to say all the "Black cab drivers " I have known , and I have known a few

a] are not backward at coming forward
b] Can give as good as they get.

Still, Mellor should have behaved himself !!

If the loathsome Mellor had brought up the incident on his radio show the next morning, as he threatened to do during his tirade, then the gloves would be off and the driver would be justified.

The average London black-cab driver is well able to stand up for himself and deal with obnoxious passengers - no need to run to the The Sun with a recording.

Because you can stand up for yourself doesn't mean you should have to put up with being sworn at and demeaned and not tell the press about it. DM is a loathesome man and a very good example of what is meant by the word snob.

I wonder if he gave a tip?

He must be a good friend of Andrew Mitchell.

www.pressgazette.co.uk/police-witnesses-tell-plebgate-trial-andrew-mitchell-unpleasant-prone-tantrums-and-once-called

What on earth has Andrew Mitchell got to do with this thread?