Er.. no. not the pub.
There are reports that new legislation - originally designed by Peter Mandelson if I'm not mistaken - would have allowed someone to buy the Royal Mail and not put the Queen's Head on the postage stamps.
In the way that her head doesn't appear if I send an email, or a fax, or an instant message, a blogpost, a tweet or even on my post if I have a franking machine.
Why is it the Royal Mail anyway? I can understand why Victoria wanted it but she has been dead more than a century. I can understand why 'Royal' support was given to the animal charity the RSPCA, although she should have withdrawn it when that body became political. The Germans call theirs Deutsche Post, the Italians Poste Italiane. British Post could have been denatioanlised without fuss, like British Airways, which didn't have a picture of the Queen on its aeroplanes.
Let's take a small step into the 20th century at least: Off with her head!
Showing posts with label Royal Mail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Royal Mail. Show all posts
20 December, 2010
18 September, 2009
UK: postal disaster
It seems the UK is heading for a postal strike, something contemplated by the majority of citizens with a degree of equanimity. Why? Because for most of us the product Royal Mail are offering is outdated and expensive. Now the company haemorrhaging cash. Our cash.
I remember the Tories having the chance to rid the taxpayer of this burden, but they (in particular Michael Heseltine) chickened out. We shall have paid a high price for his yellow streak by the time it is all over.
But having decided to keep it (there was some nonsense about it being a meeting point for old people) governments took their eye off the ball. In the 1990s, with a buoyant economy and the internet still something new, Royal Mail made a surplus of something like £2.5 billion. This figure, however, masks a number of problems which might have been seen even then, in particular a weak management and short sighted unions. Three things have happened more recently to turn a failed industry into a national disaster:
1 The EU has forced Royal Mail to open up to competition (ie foreign competition) for letters weighing more than 50g (about two ounces).
2 Gordon Brown’s raiding of the pension funds in 1997
3 the coming of the internet
I remember the Tories having the chance to rid the taxpayer of this burden, but they (in particular Michael Heseltine) chickened out. We shall have paid a high price for his yellow streak by the time it is all over.
But having decided to keep it (there was some nonsense about it being a meeting point for old people) governments took their eye off the ball. In the 1990s, with a buoyant economy and the internet still something new, Royal Mail made a surplus of something like £2.5 billion. This figure, however, masks a number of problems which might have been seen even then, in particular a weak management and short sighted unions. Three things have happened more recently to turn a failed industry into a national disaster:
1 The EU has forced Royal Mail to open up to competition (ie foreign competition) for letters weighing more than 50g (about two ounces).
2 Gordon Brown’s raiding of the pension funds in 1997
3 the coming of the internet
Now not everyone can use the internet and it is not ideal for all forms of communication (enclosing a fiver in your letter to your grandson for example) but here is an indication of what should have happened.
Mrs Jones of Cornwall goes into her nearest sub post office with a letter she has written to her sister on the Isle of Skye. She feeds it into the scanner (the employee cannot read it), and gives her sister’s name and address. The letter is then faxed to Skye, arriving within one second, is printed and automatically enclosed in an envelope. Her sister can collect it or for a small extra charge have it delivered (about 2 miles). Quicker, greener, better in every way. The reason we haven’t got this system is the government failed to hand Royal Mail over to the private sector when it could have. A condition would have been providing a universal service and this, utilising simple technology, would have been what the new owners would have come up with.
Now we are left with a lunatic workforce which doesn’t realise it is in an industry on its last legs, and a massive underfunding of the pension commitments (socialists never fix the roof when the sun is shining). This shortfall is said to be some £10 billion, a sum we haven’t got. And they want to go on strike.
09 May, 2009
The Royal Mail
It is reported that the Government's plans to sell a minority stake in the Royal Mail may collapse because of the political and union opposition to it.
I think we should have a good look at what is going on in this service. It loses a fortune and seems unable to compete with its European competitors.
Of course governments are largely to blame, keeping it out of modern communications and insisting on a single price for all deliveries, as if it were some inalienable right. People in remote Scottish islands pay more for their cornflakes, their electrical equipment and more for their clothing so why the hell shouldn't they pay more for their letters? But here's a solution.
Old Dear Without A Computer A wants to send a letter to ODWACB. She writes the addressee's name and postcode in big letters at the top of the paper and takes it to the Post Office where it is scanned in and address recognition software, such as is already used, sends the scan to the nearest office to the recipient where it is printed and automatically folded into an envelope. The delivery would now be only a couple of miles, no vans and planes travelling expensively over the country and causing pollution. Most of the unnecessary staff could be laid off and the thing might even turn a profit. Because it costs no more to send a scan from Surrey to Benbecula than to Hampshire they could keep the single price system.
I think we should have a good look at what is going on in this service. It loses a fortune and seems unable to compete with its European competitors.
Of course governments are largely to blame, keeping it out of modern communications and insisting on a single price for all deliveries, as if it were some inalienable right. People in remote Scottish islands pay more for their cornflakes, their electrical equipment and more for their clothing so why the hell shouldn't they pay more for their letters? But here's a solution.
Old Dear Without A Computer A wants to send a letter to ODWACB. She writes the addressee's name and postcode in big letters at the top of the paper and takes it to the Post Office where it is scanned in and address recognition software, such as is already used, sends the scan to the nearest office to the recipient where it is printed and automatically folded into an envelope. The delivery would now be only a couple of miles, no vans and planes travelling expensively over the country and causing pollution. Most of the unnecessary staff could be laid off and the thing might even turn a profit. Because it costs no more to send a scan from Surrey to Benbecula than to Hampshire they could keep the single price system.
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