I find this sticker offensive.
 

Im in agreement with Teignbridge Council in Devon on this offensive sticker issue.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/437...discrimination
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...g-sticker.html

How dare she display that sticker and cause offence to those non English people living in the UK. Let us not be fooled folks the intent behind that sticker is to say
Look Im an English cab driver who knows their way around and I wont rip you off so hop in.

Can you imagine landing back in Canada and walking outside the terminal and looking for a taxi(cab) displaying a maple leaf with local driver.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

You'd be looking a long time.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

:rofl: I was waiting for someone else to come up with that.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

I thought the subtext was "Get in this cab then you won't have to put up with a stinky foreigner who barely speaks English and will probably rip you off as well" .

I wonder why she didn't use the union flag, or the more local Devon flag? ;)

Edit. What the other drivers should have done would be to get the same stickers. If they all live locally, then they are local drivers.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Coz its shit :lol: It looks like 4 green rectangles or a typical 4 way stop junction with the red stop signs missing I mean Stop/Arret signs.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Well, I don't care about the country of origin of the cab driver but I do want someone who has a passing knowledge of the major streets and who can deal with an address expressed in English. I understand the claim that the drivers here may be bad at driving but can swap your kidney at the traffic lights however I don't believe it. They may be foreign "doctors" but only in the sense of holding a doctorate, perhaps of divinity. In any event, who wants surgery from someone who can't find Yonge Street?

Canada needs to stop trying to make surplus academics into taxi drivers and focus on importing people who are already skilled at taxi driving.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Most cab drivers now invest in a Garmin or Tom Tom GPS. They still have to know how to type in English when they are punching in the street address though.
Plus Yonge St is only 1896 kms in length so you might end up with a hefty cab fare :lol:

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

There's definitely a subtext to it if it's an English flag. Considering that she's wanting to promote her "local background" a Devon flag would be more suitable. Not that I know what that looks like. Probably a big scone with clotted cream on a blue and green background!

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

The Devon Flag
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Devon

The scone and clotted cream would look better than the 4 green rectangles :lol:

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

It would. You would think they could be a bit more inventive than that (given that is seems to have been designed in 2003).

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

It's as exciting as the English flag, presumably subtext free though.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

If one looks closely at the 2 flags Devon and St Georges Cross they are very similar in design. Both have 4 rectangles and a cross though the Devon flags cross has a black border. Same appearance almost but different colour scheme.
One is offensive the other not as much. Go figure.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

I suspect the council would lose a legal challenge to their stance.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Wow, try telling the US that they're not allowed to display their flag in their own country.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Americans aren't allowed to deface their flag by writing on it.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

In any case, the flag of St. George is analagous not to the Stars and Stripes but to the flag of the Confederacy.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Only idiots get aerated about flags.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

The problem is that the British/Union or whatever flag it is, is always going to upset someone so it seems. We have got so used to apologising for being 'us'. We colonised a lot of places and were a bit rotterish in some of them, and we were pretty good slave traders too - but how many times can we say sorry? Then the National Front swiped our flag and anything nationalistic is now mired in right wing bigotry. We have a very nervous relationship with St. George. Being 'A Proud Briton' has become a dodgy thing to do. The Daily Mail backing the cabbie makes me feel she's probably dodgy too.

Canada Day brought a lump to my throat here, all the kids and parents of every tongue and colour were waving a flag and being happy together. I don't think that's ever going to happen in the UK?

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

It happens in the UK. Plenty of solidarity at the Jubilee and Olympic events for example. The difference in Canada I think is that the "sense of national ownership" is more equal as apart from the First Nations, evereryone is a recent immigrant.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

This came up in discussion with friends on Thanksgiving when we were talking about what national holidays there are in the UK and realising that there aren't really any that annually celebrate the country. I mean, the only patron saint anyone seems to care about is St Paddy (for obvious reasons)! The closest one I could think of that people actually cared about was Guy Fawkes, and surely that's sorta against Britain? :lol: We just have May Day and Summer Bank Holidays... Which are days off and nothing to celebrate.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

In its historical context, apart from the while buring a guy thing, Bonfire Night is a celebration of discovering a terrorist plot and saving the government of the day, King, nobles etc.

Not sure how you have decided it is against Britaiin, perhaps you could explain.

May Day is a celebration of spring, which is rather lovely i think. The holiday at the end of May is Whitsun or Pentecost. A church thing.
I have no idea whatthe August one is about.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

That might upset the Cornish. :rofl:

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

They can use a pastie :)

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Who gets the ice cream?

The stick of rock?

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Haha, I understand the historical context... But I always get the impression more than it's celebrating Guy Fawkes than the opposite! I mean, we still have the bonfires, but few people actually burn a Guy Fawkes anymore. It's mostly about the fireworks, which I always considered to represent the gunpowder used in the plot.

Perhaps it's just the way that it was celebrated in the community I'm from! :rofl:

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Hmmm. Maybe Hampshire for the ice cream and Lancashire for the rock.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Blackpool? :p

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Aren't they the things you stick on nipples?

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

My avatar is the flag of Lincolnshire.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

You live and learn (and such stickers might be offensive :)). I seem to have used the American spelling of pasty. Or perhaps deriving the singular from the plural.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Did not know that. You're more Lincoln than Dorset then?

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

The plural of pasty is pasties, and in several cornish pasties. See here..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty

However Wikipedia also has this..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasties

You pays yer money and takes yer choice, but eating the wrong one, or covering you nipples with the wrong one wouldn't work too well.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Lincolnshire yellowbelly me, born in Lincoln and lived most of my life, well till I retired, in Lincolnshire, at least the Lincolnshire that was before they divided it up.

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Never heard of that ?

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

What goes with your Lincolnshire sausage? :p

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Pasty, pasties, pastis

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Its a bit less crappier than the Devon one. Same thing 4 x rectangles and a cross with different colours. Is this a southern thing with the 4 x rectangles and a cross as opposed to the Northern ones that use pretty flowers. The Northumberland one I admit is a sight for sore eyes.
http://www.englishcountyflags.com/in...d=28&Itemid=39

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Getting back on topic...

So this lady is basically saying "I'm English and proud!"

...and they want to take her licence away?

I'm confused. If she is English, and working in England, then what the hell is she doing wrong exactly????

I've only been out the UK 8 months, did I miss an invasion?

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Her licence is not being taken away, she's just being asked to remove the sticker.

I think the problem here is linking the idea of "local driver" and "English" because it implies that someone with those two factors is a better choice than someone who lacks the factors. It can be seen as divisive.

If her sticker was just the English flag, there should be no problem. There's certainly no shortage of minicab drivers displaying Jamaican or Nigerian flags for example!

Re: I find this sticker offensive.
 

Ermm .. Lincolnshire SOUTHERN, nahhh Midlands..

The term Yellowbelly for Lincolnians come from the original uniform of the Lincolnshire regiment, which had a yellow waistcoat.