It's true, there really are male brains and lady brains

[SwirlyGates]

Rapist taxi driver keeps licence. (Mind you, he's in jail, I don't know how he's going to drive anyone anywhere.)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c78yj51m07eo

He has been banned from taxi driving. The operator's licence is a separate issue.

those who backed the licence did not want to punish Brown’s wife for her husband’s crimes after hearing she needed the income from the taxi to provide for her family.

I'm still no clearer as to why the voting went the way it did: how is it it fighting misogyny, to prevent the perpetrator's wife from running the business while he's in gaol? Do they blame her, somehow?

I didn't think I could feel more contempt for local authorities.

Yes

Surely since 2024 the wife had plenty of time to get her ducks in a row, set up her own taxi company, get her own licence and move the employees to it while filing for divorce from the bastard? Unless she’s standing by her man. Even though her man is a convicted rapist. In which case if I was a councillor I would also vote against this because rape apologists are how these men get by in life. 🤮

So true.

Totally agree. An event like this SHOULD be a bomb going off in a community's life. It shouldn't be literally business as usual.

One of the male voters has resigned from the licensing committee, not as a councillor.

From the article:

He said that with the benefit of hindsight and information that was not available on the day of the meeting, an alternative decision could have been taken.

Grafton said he asked officials if there were any legal implications around the licence, and had assured himself that Brown "presented no current threat".

He added: "The remaining vehicle licence would expire well before he was due for release.

"It is my compassion and my processing which led me to this decision on the day. We have been told in licensing several times that we are not here to punish – that is the job of the courts."

information that was not available on the day of the meeting, an alternative decision could have been taken

Why was a decision made without all the relevant information, if that is indeed the case?

What is the information that is now available, since the voters' names and the way in which they voted have been made public?

Not here to punish.

Does he honestly think revoking a rapist's licence, who is in jail for that rape, is a punishment? Should it not be a consequence?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9q2dqzl12zo

Harsh. We don't know anything about the relationship or the firm (except that there are two operating licences, and, therefore, at least two vehicles and one employee (?)).

Presumably the wife could not force a transfer of the licences to her while he was awaiting trial, so it's his imprisonment that's precipitated a complete closedown of operations.

I don't see why his family and the firm's employee(s) should be punished for his crime.

And how is she supposed to swan off and 'start her own taxi firm'? The firm's capital is tied up in the existing vehicles, the operating licences for which are owned by the husband. If there's a divorce all this will have to be unpicked.

@theilltemperedamateur Presumably the wife could not force a transfer of the licences to her while he was awaiting trial, so it's his imprisonment that's precipitated a complete closedown of operations.

The operator's licence is apparently not transferable.

I don’t think it is appropriate to allow the business to change hands. It should be shut down. There’s far too much likelihood that misogynistic attitudes were ubiquitous at the firm if the head of it not only raped a passenger but actually got convicted.