Just put yourself in a cabbies shoe.. You train 3 years to learn every road, shop, venue in London (it's apparently harder than most undergrad degrees) - have every security check imaginable and all of a sudden an app with unqualified people with 0 security checks take over cause it saves the passenger a pound or so. I remember the famous story of someone getting out of prison for kidnapping and was an uber driver the next day.

OK, Uber is not a saint, but let's do some basic fact checks: - Uber drivers have to go through background checks which TfL requires for them to have a license - Unqualified people? Except for the "knowledge" (hint: any smartphone is better than the knowledge) private hire drivers and cabbies go through almost the same type of tests. Rest assure TfL does not allow you to just sign up on Uber and start driving a few hours later, there is a process in place to prevent that from happening. Plus on top of that private hire drivers are actually required to pass an English test as well. - If an Uber driver took you on a "20 minute tour" I suggest you contact Uber and they will probably adjust the fare accordingly and you get your money back - have seen it on Twitter a few times now, try that with a cabbie.

Uber or any other mini cab company, that will replace Uber if they are banned for some reason are here to stay and will try to find a model that works for them and scale up fast ths taking a major piece of the market, if cabbies are not willing to accept that I would suggest to start where the core of the problem lies - by providing better customer service if you can't provide better prices.