And collect your own post or pay a premium to have it delivered because you are more than 8 miles radius from a local sorting office
Cameron has to feather his cronies nests by privatising what he can before they are voted of this planet in the next election.
a figure of 3 billion asking price.. its making almost 500 million a year profit and more to come. definately dirty dealings going on here
The less that the state runs the better as far as I am concerned, so many posts on here calling politicians lying toads etc and then outrage when they want to offload something. We all pay in our taxes towards the Royal Mail in its present form so while the stamp price may not vary from place to place the actual cost does. Why should anyone in London subsidise postal charges to someone in Lerwick for example ? Please note that is a question not an opinion. Personally I`d like the staff to have the option to buy the entire company but anything that gets politicians meddling hands off is good. At work we use private carrier companies and they are usually cheaper than Royal Mail and offer far better service. I have used this example before regarding state ownership , imagine the state set up a National Holiday Service that you paid for in your taxes but it restricted where you could go on holiday and when. Of course you could pay more for a private holiday if you wanted and those on benefits could get free holidays as part of their entitlement. How many would go for that ? I`m not saying privatise everything but as far as I can see the Royal Mail is going to be a leech on the public coffers for years to come, let the private sector have it.
You can use the same argument for all services, why have to go to NHS hospital when you can go private? Why use local comp when you can go to an independent school? I'd rather pay 1% more tax and have some extra lazy sods working than pay that 1% and see those lazy sods on the dole, still being paid for by me, and their salary going into the private pockets of big city investors
From an e-mail sent to me by a friend in Holland: Yes we have a privatised mail service in the Netherlands, mail is delivered days after it should have arrived and no post offices - only counters in shops peopled by inexperienced staff, who don't know what they are doing. I have been fined for insufficient postage on a parcel after being served at such a counter. Since then I have made sure I always know how much should go on my parcels, as the mail service staff never do. Many people choose to avoid using the privatised mail service if they can avoid it. The sad result is that many people have thus stopped posting Christmas cards to each other. So good luck with a privatised mail service. It'll be a gas.
I can see where dukesox is coming from, these reasons are all classical statements for making a case for privatization. I also think the Royal Mail is a bit of a farce too. Courier companies seem to be able to do it cheaper, faster and more reliably. In the case of shifting goods about there appears to be enough competition in the market place to keep the companies truly competing. However if RM is to be just sold off and still have a very large slice of delivery then it may be able to charge more or less what it likes and for me that's the big no no in privatization. Privatization should only be introduced where there is a true market, Pseudo markets just don't work and Oligopolies form. Take a look at yer elektrikery or gas bills, trains are another good example. The companies don't need to collaborate, there is just a tacit understanding between them regarding pricing to not move too far away from a consumer price structure that is grossly inflated............there is enough swill in the trough for us all to gorge ourselves on. When that's the case I'd much prefer to see a public company, it may be inefficient but at least the money is getting spread around and not going into fat cat's pockets. I also cannot for the life of me understand why a public company cannot be run efficiently (apart from the obvious meddling of the political classes). Just my take I don't know enough yet to form an opinion either way John
Maybe because the people of Lerwick send a feck load of oil revenue to London? Better Together ? It seems so provided its a one way street. What a gift to the Pro Scottish Independence campaign. They must think its Christmas come early.
The Last Post?..........................And there was me thinking bradders was effing off to another forum................ Oh well........
