COULD PRIVATISATION BE THE MUCH-NEEDED SOLUTION TO RM

[TrueBlueTerrier]

COULD PRIVATISATION BE THE MUCH-NEEDED SOLUTION TO ROYAL MAIL’S PROBLEMS

http://www.express.co.uk/ourcomments/view/243132" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

THE unions say that privatising the Royal Mail will mean reduced deliveries.
Er… has anybody noticed what has happened to deliveries under our nationalised postal services? At boarding school I used to post my weekly missive home on a Sunday evening and my parents would get it the next morning. Now nothing posted after noon on Saturday arrives by Monday morning. Two deliveries a day used to be standard but now it’s just one. The first post once arrived before you left for work but now anybody you ring to check on a delivery will say “the post won’t be here for hours”.

So I do not think we need fear privatisation: the question is how much further can the nationalised system reduce the service while charging ever more for stamps. I remember telephone services before they were sold off to the private sector, indeed when they were still part of the GPO. You could wait up to 18 months to have a line installed, public boxes were regularly out of order and some lines were shared. As for gas and electricity, you had to wait in all day because operatives could not give you a call time. Whatever may have gone wrong with rail privatisation, it was hardly heaven before.

Trains were filthy, stations grimy and gloomy, the catering a joke and the entire service regularly paralysed by wild-cat strikes. So I am not fooled by scare stories, especially as any sell-off can specify minimum levels of service. On the contrary, I suspect a privatised service will improve standards as privatised services have in other sectors, so roll on the day.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

and a comment I submitted:

Oh dear Ann although your politics are different to mine I always thought you based your opinion on facts.

The 2 deliveries a day service was reduced as a direct consequence of and after Liberalisation. The Government of the day moved RM from a Public Service to a Business aimed at making a profit, albeit with the 1 shareholder being the government. So in fact your premise that services have been reduced under a nationalised system is flawed as all the points you highlighted came AFTER the market was LIBERALISED.

[Wessex]

Excellent comments made tbt. Her article highlights her and serving mp's,of all parties,ignorance of our postal system.These people really do live in another world.I feel she contradicts herself immediately ,harking back to her boarding school days and the great service she received from RM .Does she not know we were at this time not a private company? That service will never happen again under a privatised RM.
To add insult to injury these ill-informed charlatans will vote for the catastrophe that will be the new RM
And , I actually preferred the train service when it was British Rail,I'm fairly sure I could travel Southampton to London in less time, with a seat, 30 years ago than I could today .What price progress ?
And as you rightly point out much of the decline in service has coincided with the introduction of liberalisation .something which I hope she might now become aware of.

[fishtank]

To be honest i didn't get beyond....

At boarding school I used to post my weekly missive home on a Sunday evening and my parents would get it the next morning

[dvbuk55]

To be honest i didn't get beyond....

At boarding school I used to post my weekly missive home on a Sunday evening and my parents would get it the next morning

Didn't everyone go to boarding school There was many a time I was board

[pokos27]

if it means the scroungers cannot use dsa, then its a good thing.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Didn't everyone go to boarding school

You went to Gitmo.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

if it means the scroungers cannot use dsa, then its a good thing.

There will always be DSA, that Genie is out of the bottle. DSA was a cock up by the previous board as they basically subsidised the competition, Moya has already said she will get that on a better financial footing and indeed has increased the prices for it already. Privatisation wont have much effect at our level on DSA unless RM price themselves out of the market so much that the competition start delivering their own stuff.

[POSTMAN]

You're always too kind teebs.I would of said she was thick as s**t.

[DGP1]

You're always too kind teebs.I would of said she was thick as s**t.

That's why we use Teebs for PR and not us reprobates

[ziko]

I remember telephone services before they were sold off to the private sector, indeed when they were still part of the GPO. You could wait up to 18 months to have a line installed, public boxes were regularly out of order and some lines were shared. As for gas and electricity, you had to wait in all day because operatives could not give you a call time. Whatever may have gone wrong with rail privatisation, it was hardly heaven before.

Nice Anne - Now look at the price of Gas, electric and trains.! Privatise RM and watch your furry stamp double in price you bowl headed t;t

[Spartacus]

It's a very long read, might of been posted already, worth the effort http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n09/james-meek ... ing-office" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lounge Lizard]

To be honest i didn't get beyond....

At boarding school I used to post my weekly missive home on a Sunday evening and my parents would get it the next morning

and that's wrong for a start. Yes, there were Sunday collections, but never Sunday evening collections, so she could not have posted something on a Sunday evening and had it delivered Monday morning so, yes, there's no point in going beyond that first sentance.