One driver's story was particularly poignant, and demonstrates the opportunities opened up by the sharing economy for individual workers. It also illustrates the benefits to the wider economy, as well as the evils of restricting the right to take work.

My driver was Romanian, and a fluent Spanish speaker. His English was not so good, but good enough to tell his story. He had moved to Spain to seek work, and had been employed there as an appliance repairman. However, his son had fallen ill, and without any other family to rely on, he would have had to give up work to take care of him.

But my driver did have family in England, so he moved there. When he got to London he found that there was indeed plenty of work in appliance repair available, but he did not have the correct licenses to trade in Britain, so he had to study to pass the exams. He and his family would have been without regular income until he had done so.