Royal Mail privatisation approved

[Mich the Tester]

The argument between public and private ownership in terms of cost and quality can be totally won by looking at Scottish and English water.

In Scotland we pay more for our water which has the lowest quality in Britain, we also put more raw sewage out to sea than England. Your water may taste like crap but it is less likely to kill you and costs you less.

The sellers of ´Highland Spring´ won´t thank you for that. Just as the sellers of Ty-Nant wouldn't be very grateful if I told the population of Birmingham that their tapwater comes from Snowdonia and is probably the best drinking water on earth.

[shaunbhoy]

Your water may taste like crap but it is less likely to kill you and costs you less.

Only if you are paying over £1400 a year!!

[scooterscot]

They clearly need to do something.

On the other hand, privatisation of public utilities hasn't exactly been a boon for customer service standards.

Personally I would ditch the ton of advertising sh£$%t that falls through my door that ends up in the bin.

FTFY

[MrMark]

There was a dude on BBC News 24 from a big union saying that if it is privatised like in the Netherlands then they will probably reduce the post service to something like 3 days per week to drive up profits.

That prospect really does put me off.

I'd be happy with a one day a week service, so long as the post actually arrived on that day and wasn't "diverted" by dodgy Mail staff
Signed: Disgruntled of London

[Mich the Tester]

I'd be happy with a one day a week service, so long as the post actually arrived on that day and wasn't "diverted" by dodgy Mail staff
Signed: Disgruntled of London

One of our local councillors has set up a petition for the appointment of a literate postman and has already got 2000 signatures; that's Dutch privatised post for you.

[shaunbhoy]

There is also an important ideological point to make in opposing privatisation. We do not think that our services should be run as businesses to make profit – we think they should be run as services to meet the needs of the people who use them.

Agree somewhat with these sentiments. Some things should just NOT be run solely with profit in mind.
Selling off our Utilities to the Frogs was a disastrous idea that is coming back to haunt us.
As for the Post Office, I agree with Jack Dee. "If you think that the price of a stamp is too dear then here you are...here is your 41p back.............take your own fooking letter to Aberdeen!!"

[moorfield]

I'd be happy with a one day a week service, so long as the post actually arrived on that day and wasn't "diverted" by dodgy Mail staff
Signed: Disgruntled of London

40% of our post is junk mail / circulars that get binned anyway

20% is deliveries / parcels which we have to go and pick up because we are invariably out. The other 20% comes via courier / home delivery network etc.

10% is stuff which, if we had the inclination, could be downloaded from t'interweb (bills, magazine subscriptions)

Which leaves 10% that might be personal / important - wedding invites, birthday cards etc. but all these usually come with an accompanying text message or email before they arrive anyway.


The Royal Mail will cease to be within my lifetime I'm certain of that. And when it does some enterprising spark is going to buy up all the post boxes and sorting offices and turn it into the mother of all Plan B's.

[AtW]

Does it mean that the queues in Post Office will stop reminding me about queueing for bread in Soviet Russia?

[minestrone]

The sellers of ´Highland Spring´ won´t thank you for that. Just as the sellers of Ty-Nant wouldn't be very grateful if I told the population of Birmingham that their tapwater comes from Snowdonia and is probably the best drinking water on earth.

Sam Galbraith says it well in this hard hitting analysis, he may be Labour but he is neither New Labour, old Labour or Scottish Labour. I do not know why he is refered to as Mr when he is a very highly respected brain surgeon and I think (fairly sure) he might have termed the 'Glasgow Coma Scale' which is a test to see if a patient is really in a coma, a term used around the world now.

But in a blunt message to his former colleagues Mr Galbraith, who maintains that he favours public ownership where it is possible, asks: "Is the privatisation of Scottish Water inevitable? Despite our best efforts to prevent it the economics are not looking good."

Taking a swipe at the Executive, Mr Galbraith adds: "There is no good jumping up and down and mouthing the usual meaningless political slogans that pass for argument every time this subject is raised.

"Ignore the false prophets who talk in long-past dogmas and who hide from themselves, and us, the realities of present-day life. We are faced with a difficult decision, not now but in the foreseeable future."

Continuing with his hard-hitting analysis, which will infuriate his former colleagues, Mr Galbraith adds: "Scotland lives on its myths and one of these is that Scotland has the finest water in the world. Like all our myths it is rubbish.

"At the end of the last century the very best water in Scotland was worse than the poorest water in England. Privatised Thames water was purer than West of Scotland water. It may taste awful but by accepted objective standards it is better." He adds: "Part of the reason for this is that the water industry is in the public sector. There are no votes in building water-treatment plants and certainly none in sewage-treatment plants.

"It never gets the priority it is due from politicians and over the years we have failed to invest in and neglected our water and sewage. The EU has come to our rescue by setting standards for the purity of water and the handling of sewage and forcing us to comply.

His case was reinforced yesterday as the Executive announced that it was granting Scottish Water £800 million over four years for investment. Although the money is technically a loan, the sum is counted in the overall Scottish budget as spending

Privatise water - or Scotland will go broke - The Scotsman

[MayContainNuts]

Perfect opportunity from the previous thread concerning out of work families.

If you've been on benefits for a year, then you could job share sorting mail and packing bags. Not sure everything has to be privately financed when there are so many out of work.