It's easy to dismiss off the protestors as old hat for not reacting gracefully to a changing market, but the issue at least in London seems to largely be with the fact that their existing businesses are subject to more costs and regulations than the kinds that Uber and other services are facing.

If they're not old hat, and so on, and their business pays more taxes, why not branch off into Uber clones? If Uber does it, they can too.