The split decision; to protest or not

There is always a place for a righteous, peaceful protest. The right to protest is of fundamental importance within any modern society and is the cornerstone of any modern democracy. Within the taxi industry, at a local or regulatory level, a well timed, well placed protest can make a real difference to issues or policies that are contentious or fundamentally flawed, they most certainly can work. The placement of the Shard rank, the individual who killed his partner and was subsequently issued with a PHV licence (upon application) and allowed on the Knowledge and the Covent Garden road scheme which created gridlock, to name but three, were all issues that were highlighted through legitimate protest, and then resolved through dialogue.  Where protest, potentially becomes less effective is when dealing with issues that need to be resolved at either governmental or legal level. The wheels of justice or government move painfully slowly and protest, in the main, certainly within the taxi industry very often doesn't seem to make much of a dent. This is unsurprising, given that no government or judiciary wishes to be seen capitulating to anybody embarking on what may or may not be a righteous protest, the fear would be that they would be seen as weak. 

A viable protest needs five things, the right location, impeccable timing, a solid reason, an achievable end result and finally a well structured mission statement available to the media. If any of those five ingredients are missing then any given protest could be negated and fail to have the desired impact.

Ultimately wars are won and lost based on strategy, choosing to go into battle at the right time, armed with the right weapon, invariably will improve the odds, and so,  the opposite applies.