Views From The Back of a Taxi

VIEWS FROM THE BACK OF A TAXI By Philip Walsh. “Views from the back of a Taxi” is an assembly of thoughts, ideas and opinions on almost every topic of the day. Irreverent, anarchic - relentless - Philip Walsh puts into words what many of us are actually thinking. Using the London cabby as a barometer of public opinion, the author rants on about politicians, lawyers, priests and perverts, with hardly a moment to catch breath. Read in small doses or risk brain fatigue. Twenty minutes at a time would be perfect, the length of Walsh’s typical taxi ride. - “A breath of fresh air - finally someone who isn’t afraid to say what we think.” SIR BRYAN NICHOLSON, FORMER CBI PRESIDENT - “The best grumpy old man book of the year. Politicians beware!” ANGELA RIPPON, CBE - “A heartening, exhilarating and educational read…if Parliament was stuffed full of taxi drivers and Walsh was Prime Minister we’d all be happier, wealthier, safer - and more amused.” MIKE MARGOLIS - A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR "Some of the most thought-provoking conversations I’ve enjoyed have been in the back of taxis. It’s not hard to see why. A taxi ride is like life: you know where you’ve come from and how you’re going to end up, but you’re not sure of the route, how long it’s going to take or how you might get sidetracked along the way. Plus the fact that whilst you might like to think you’re in charge of the trip, you’re not actually in the driver’s seat. So, any conversation you can cram in is a bonus. Two people meeting for the first and probably the last time, knowing absolutely nothing about each other, with the chance to put the world to rights all in the space of an average taxi ride – what’s that, twenty minutes? Long enough, I would say. In total privacy you can have an uninhibited, relaxed, agenda-less exchange of views you won’t get anywhere else. You’re not going to lose your job because of something you’ve said. You can be indiscreet, offensive, arrogant and self-important, safe in the knowledge that there won’t be any unpleasant consequences. And you better get to the point quickly. No time for wasted words, your destination is just around the next corner. This has great benefits. Without the time to beat about the bush, or couch your thoughts in ‘politically-correct speak’, it’s amazing how clear things become. I remember appointing the next Conservative leader, sorting out old age pensions and ending the war in Iraq all between Fleet Street and High Street Kensington. What are these politicians doing? Of course, the taxi driver has one hell of an advantage over you. He’s a professional – and I don’t mean just at driving. You might have a conversation like this once or twice a week, he’ll have ten or twenty a day. Which must make him worth listening to. If only because his opinions represent the distillation, cross-fertilisation and general sorting of the thousands of views and conclusions his passengers have passed on to him. One minute a prominent politician, the next a businessman, a journalist, or a priest followed by a hairdresser. Zealots, fanatics, bigots, liberalists, obsessives, addicts, heteros and homos, men, women, blacks, whites, left-wing, right-wing, Christians, Muslims – they’ve all travelled in the back of his cab and he’s put the world to rights with them all at some time or another. He’s absorbed their common ground and their divides. And you get all that for the price of a taxi ride! Jeremy Paxman eat you heart out. I started to write this book because it seemed to me that people who ought to know better were missing the point. Not just one point. Lots of points. This is not a book about lifestyle or success. On their own those things don’t matter. They’re not projects. Nor is it a book about how to be happy, in my opinion one of the silliest and most misguided pursuits of our age. So what is it? It’s a book of opinions, thoughts - ideas, if you prefer. Some will say it is of no importance whatsoever, because the originators of these ideas are of no importance whatsoever. But then if experts are usually wrong, doesn’t that mean that the opinions of the rest of us count even more? I don’t know how you feel, but to me it seems as if my views, your views, have never mattered less. That’s why I’ve put it all down on paper. Not because I want to influence anyone, not that I expect to make a difference, not even because it will make me feel better or earn me money But – and it’s a big ‘but’ – if there’s anything here that strikes a chord, rings a bell or you simply haven’t heard said for a while, well, there’s the thing. These views have been assembled from countless journeys in the back of a taxi. The cabbie has been my sounding box and I his. They are the thoughts of predominantly ordinary folk and, as the late Dave Allen would have said, thank whoever your God is that there are still a lot of us around."