LONDON is an amazing city. I was there at the weekend, eating on the 33rd floor of The Shard in SE1, gazing out across the landscape and thinking how lucky we are to have such a vibrant, effervescent capital.

It was just a couple of days after the Parson's Green Tube bombing, but you'd never have known that such an atrocity had occurred as people, Londoners and visitors, all went about their weekend business.

We wondered down Bermondsey Street, near where we were staying, a cosmopolitan thoroughfare of tiny, independent shops, cafes and the odd pub. It was a far cry from all the Costas and Pret a Mangers you are bombarded with in the West End.

A lovely meal was consumed at Shaun Rankin's superb restaurant Ormer in Mayfair. How did we get there? Via Uber, of course.

In among all the nice things about our capital, it's fair to say there is a bit of needle between the traditional black cabs and the Uber drivers. As we made our way along Embankment, I asked our driver what he made of all the bad blood.

"We hate them and they hate us," he replied, before cutting up a Hackney carriage as we turned into Half Moon Street. "We never let them in and they never let us in."

All a bit petty, I thought. Especially given the more concerning troubles London is experiencing at present.

So, I wasn't in the least bit surprised to see yesterday's BBC News ticker on the newsroom telly reporting that Uber had been denied a new private hire licence in the capital.

The black cabs, of course, are dancing in the streets about the decision, but I couldn't help thinking this was something of a backward step for London.

The days of hailing cabs are over, or at least should be, as the digital age takes hold. I booked a taxi in Bournemouth last week via the United Taxis iPhone app - a few clicks and minutes later, a car pulled up outside the BIC. You don't need cash as the App takes the fare straight from your bank account. It's sloth-esque easy.

Of course, Transport for London is well within its rights to make this decision and, in many cities around the world, Uber hasn't exactly done itself any favours with the way it has run into cities, John Wayne style, and blown everybody else out of the water. Moreover, if reports about the way it treats its freelance army of drivers and the background checks it performs on them, are true then perhaps TfL had no choice.

But London's reputation as a forward-thinking, tech-supporting city, is sure to be damaged by the Uber row and around 3.5 million Londoners and visitors will be denied 'choice' should the company's expected appeal fall on deaf ears.

Which brings us nicely to matters closer to home. Uber has been sniffing around Bournemouth and Poole in recent months and the company's interest has unsurprisingly riled the traditional cabbies in both towns.

But the price of progress is competition and choice. That is 2017. That is the digital age, where everyone wants everything yesterday. And, I for one, welcome it.

As soon as progress halts, we may as well all pack up and go home.