say goodbye to affordable postage

cmonstanley · 10-06-2011, 19:28

thats it while weve been hood winked by britains got talent and rubbish tv the goverment are pushing through the privatision of the post office and it will cost 10.1 billion of tax payers money for the privilege to make the privileged more money its a disgrace and people were calling the posties when they went on strike way back i siad it would be a stich up and i know this was started by blair and mandelson as i stated here http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...are-50031.html

The Royal Mail is to be privatised as early as next year after Parliament approved the plan which could cost £10.1bn of public money – £1.7bn to 'bail out' the service and £8.4bn to cover the pension deficit.

The plans protect the 'universal postal service' in its current form for at least the life of the current Parliament and the Post Office network will remain intact. Also, Royal Mail staff will be given a stake in the new private company. However, unions are working with The Royal Mail to manage the loss of 8,000 jobs a year until 2013.

Postal services have suffered in recent years with the advent of e-mail, the internet and mobile phone texting. This has seen The Royal Mail's profits plummet by 73 per cent in one year and mail volumes are expected to fall by another 40 per cent over the next five years.

The postal services minister Ed Davey said The Royal Mail needed to be on a "sustainable commercial footing" if the public was to continue to receive the level of service that it does at the moment.

"The company currently has around £1.7bn of debt facilities with the government," he said. "We intend to restructure the company's balance sheet in due course ... [and] we will need to reduce significantly that level of debt."

He added that the government would need "approval from the European Commission to provide this financial support".

The Business Secretary Vince Cable said: "Royal Mail and the Post Office are important and cherished parts of our society. Passing the legislation, reforming regulation, getting state aid approval, tackling the pension deficit – these are all vital steps that will provide momentum towards a sale of Royal Mail. They will also give the company the security and certainty it needs to press ahead with its essential modernisation programme."

But Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, took a swipe at Cable.

"The fact of the matter is the British public don't want to see the Royal Mail privatised," the union man told Sky News. "Vince Cable is flogging this company to the very people he denounced at the Liberal party conference – the spivs, the speculators and those who just want to make a fast buck."

setayas · 10-06-2011, 19:50

I know that the Tories don't and never have given one about the people of this country. But can you imagine being a Lib-Dem and having to live with yourself, knowing that you have sold your soul for a taste of power and 'ahem' glory?

setayas · 10-06-2011, 20:05

Just an after thought. Has anyone any idea what percentage of the electorate who voted in the general election actually agreed with and voted for the privatisation of the Royal Mail?

ian1 · 10-06-2011, 20:07

i work for post office and its the first i have heard about it !! !!
and if the royal mail didn't let all the competiton use all there sorting machines to sort there mail out and then let us deliver it at a loss maybee the debt wouldnt be so much !!

Neil · 10-06-2011, 20:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmonstanley

Postal services have suffered in recent years with the advent of e-mail, the internet and mobile phone texting.

Has it really?

I now use postal services more than ever because of ebay and amazon etc.

My guess is that they have lost a lot of business to other postal services because they are to expensive.

DaveinGermany · 10-06-2011, 20:39

2006 the Royal Mail lost it's monopoly & other companies could vie for licences, now in 2011 the talk is of privatisation because as an entity the R.M. apppears to be losing out hand over fist. To start crying "crocodile tears" at this junction over the loss of such a traditional service & bleating about the nasty private investors is frankly quite nauseating.

As is the case with many publicly funded amenities, the mismanagement, wasteful attitudes & self serving ways of the hierarchy has brought this problem down upon their own heads. Had the management & unions invested half as much effort into streamlining, cutting waste & improving the service on offer as they have on seeing to their own personal gains & power bases it'd likely be a much different story.

Let's be realistic in all this, being all dewy eyed about the old romantic ideals of the Postie battling his way through storms & gales to get the mail through at all costs is a fantasy of a bygone age (when did you last use the postal service to send a letter ?). Especially now in this electronic age of texts, MSM, e-mails etc. people want their info now or even yesterday & aren't prepared to wait 3-4 Days for a letter anymore, plus pay over the odds for a vague promise of punctuality.

PS. this wasn't copied & pasted either, all my own work

take it as an example.

cashman · 10-06-2011, 20:54

funnily enough dave i use the postal service more now than i ever have, have no real answer as to why, probably cos ive got more leisure time?

DaveinGermany · 10-06-2011, 20:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashman

funnily enough dave i use the postal service more now than i ever have, have no real answer as to why, probably cos ive got more leisure time?

Only cos you're down the Post office every week getting your pension.

Now come along Granddad you're holding up the queue !

Margaret Pilkington · 10-06-2011, 21:18

I use the postal service quite a bit too.
I have family in the antipodes, and yes we do keep in touch by e-mail, but an e-card is nothing like one of my hand made ones.......and I do still send small packages for birthdays and such.
Only this week I posted cards that would normally have cost me £1.68...the price had gone up to £2.06.....but what can you do? There is no alternative service for small items of mail...or at least not one that I am aware.

shillelagh · 10-06-2011, 21:29

i sent spugs birthday pressie up to him wi his birthday card last month, i send him care packages pretty regular ... coltsfoot rock, licorice tablets, etc ... cos he cant get them up there ..

cashman · 10-06-2011, 21:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveinGermany

Only cos you're down the Post office every week getting your pension.

Now come along Granddad you're holding up the queue !

nope dont use it fer that at all............yet.

walkinman221 · 10-06-2011, 21:45

No they seem to have the letter market sewn up , but for larger packages the post office is really expensive, the private courier services are a lot cheaper.Sent a package the other week weighing about 10kg from accy to brighton picked up from home too for £7.32, for two day delivery royal mail was about twice that price.

cashman · 10-06-2011, 21:51

its nearly 6 quid to send a registered letter, have sent 2 recently that required signatures. robbing pigs.

walkinman221 · 10-06-2011, 22:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by cashman

its nearly 6 quid to send a registered letter, have sent 2 recently that required signatures. robbing pigs.

Sounds about right cashy , they have a monopoly for a long time but having said that as with a lot of state owned concerns investment and need to keep competitive have been overlooked with an attitude of complacency, so improvement is either non existent or poor to say the least.

kestrelx · 11-06-2011, 15:20

My moto is "Send a letter give a postie something to do!"