Is it really racist to want an English-speaking cab driver?

Rod Liddle says that the outrage directed at a taxi firm for advertising ‘English spoken here’ serves only to strengthen white working-class resentment — and the BNP

‘Rraaaaaaaacissst!’ — that Pavlovian whine of complaint, almost always from a white person, an idle and meaningless howl of outrage where once, when uttered by a black or Asian person who had suffered discrimination, it had a point and a potency. ‘Raaacisst’ — a new definition; a word which, as soon as it is uttered, can cause debate to cease, people to be punished, argument to be subverted, the Old Bill to get involved. ‘Raaaaacccissst!’ — a lie, a mischief, the last redoubt of the metro liberal imbecile who has no other guns in his (or her, obviously) armoury.

A minicab firm in Southampton has been described as raaaacissst because some of its cars carry stickers advising that the drivers actually speak English. The signs say: ‘English spoken here’. Immediately there is a furore: how dare they say such a thing? Trade unions, city councillors and local ‘anti-raaacccisssm’ activists have demanded that the minicab drivers remove them from their cabs, on pain of having their licences revoked. There is no logic to follow here, nothing to grasp hold of unless you accept that minicab drivers who speak no English whatsoever will be every bit as attractive to the average customer as those who speak it fluently. Which is obviously not the case. You need to tell your driver where he has to go, and to hear him respond in a manner which you can understand. You need to be able to tell him ‘No, turn right here!’ or ‘Please slow down, you deranged Slavic bastard’, and know that he will understand. When you say you want to go to Havant, you do not expect to end up in the Levant.