Couldn't agree more about the Railways , I know a lot of the Railway lads , might a be a few Posties in Logistics , Distribution etc that do as well , I've heard some horror stories and I get the horror stories written by Dr B Ching in Private Eye magazine every fortnight .jemima wrote:Lots of licences would mean lots of new companies with lots more managers. And an all-new bureaucratic government layer to deal with the licences. We would have to have increased postal prices to pay for all this, they would of course have to cover the costs of the licences as well as the business operational costs. Ordinary customers would have to pay whatever was asked, and might find themselves subsidizing the mailing costs of businesses whose directors liked to play golf with the new mail companies' directors. A small co-operative organization would be a prime target for hostile business practices, in that system. I don't think I'd want to have any part in that. Also, with every company being able to blame another company's section of the route if cross-country mail was lost or delayed, standards would fall and chaos would prevail.
I suppose people are used to that sort of thing by now, since it's what the railway companies do. Perhaps the introduction of randomness makes life more exciting.... perhaps it's a new 21st century lifestyle which I haven't yet learned how to appreciate.... but I've given up traveling by rail if it's important that I arrive on time.
RM, despite its problems, provides a reasonably-priced, reliable public service. It's a government asset; it could make a lot of money if the pricing restrictions were relaxed to make the charges comparable to the Western European average. Would even Gordon Brown be foolish enough to throw RM away? Possibly. He's just paid to save Northern Rock with taxpayers' money, and he's about to give that away.I'd have thought that to nationalise it and operate it through the Post Office network would bring a better financial return on his investment. He must be prioritizing the art of networking and buying friendships. If his new friends want mail businesses, he'll see that they get them.
I got tipped off about the RMT "Rail Against Privatization " Films , comparsions between their Web Site and the CWU , for media presentations etc could be interesting
www.rmt.org.uk/ to get to the films click on RMT Media & Publications then RMT TV, not doing too bad , no affilation with New Labour with Uncle Bob & his boys !
Alternatively type RMT Union search into You Tube which gets you both films