Glad to see Brian Paddick launch his ten-point plan for London’s black cabs today (and to see the good BBC coverage!).

Black cabs are important in themselves – and some of the measures in the plan, such as rephasing of traffic lights – would directly benefit many other people too. But there is also a wider point here, which is one about a general approach to changing the world (if that isn’t too grand a phrase!).

Influencing how the black cab trade performs isn’t just important in its own right, but – given their key role in transport overall – it has all sorts of knock-on effects, including on the minicab market and also on people’s willingness to use public transport (people often more willing if you know that late at night you can get a safe and reasonably priced cab back).

It’s this attitude of working with one part of the market which you can influence, and then letting the effects of doing that ripple out into all sorts of others corners of activity which I think we need to see more of.

Too often the political debate is polarised between market forces – good or bad. Well – my view is that wishing market forces weren’t there is a bit like wishing that English weather didn’t feature rain. The point isn’t to wish them away – or to think that they are always right and never to be touched – but rather to exploit them for desirable ends by guiding them through influencing the rules under which the market operates.

For example – opening up information to consumers about the health impacts of different foods on sale in supermarkets can and is having – via the power of consumer choice and the market forces which come with that – a huge impact, without having to get government into regulating the contents of your or mine lunch tomorrow. We far more of this sort of nimble government – exploiting market forces and letting their power push us, as individuals and as a society, into more rather than less desirable directions.