It may happen after election due to red tape but do you honestly think anyone politically cares whether it's 5 or 6 days on letters any more 3 maybe a political wave worth delaying, but 5.. really?!
The tories definitely will as a vast majority who vote for them are the perfect demographic for actually caring about receiving letters every day. They (rightly) see RM as a national treasure that shouldn’t be carved up or changed.
And what did those voters do when the Tories privatised us?
Thats right. They voted for them again.
We are constantly told that the general public arent bothered about a 5 day letter service. I cant see either the Tories or Labour caring about any backlash from a small percentile of voters who will still vote the same way eitherway. Its really not as big a deal as you are making it.
Unfortunately.
If you tolerate this, then your paid break will be next
It may happen after election due to red tape but do you honestly think anyone politically cares whether it's 5 or 6 days on letters any more 3 maybe a political wave worth delaying, but 5.. really?!
The tories definitely will as a vast majority who vote for them are the perfect demographic for actually caring about receiving letters every day. They (rightly) see RM as a national treasure that shouldn’t be carved up or changed.
And what did those voters do when the Tories privatised us?
Thats right. They voted for them again.
We are constantly told that the general public arent bothered about a 5 day letter service. I cant see either the Tories or Labour caring about any backlash from a small percentile of voters who will still vote the same way eitherway. Its really not as big a deal as you are making it.
Unfortunately.
I agree with a lot of this but Vince Cable wasn’t a tory.
It may happen after election due to red tape but do you honestly think anyone politically cares whether it's 5 or 6 days on letters any more 3 maybe a political wave worth delaying, but 5.. really?!
The tories definitely will as a vast majority who vote for them are the perfect demographic for actually caring about receiving letters every day. They (rightly) see RM as a national treasure that shouldn’t be carved up or changed.
And what did those voters do when the Tories privatised us?
Thats right. They voted for them again.
We are constantly told that the general public arent bothered about a 5 day letter service. I cant see either the Tories or Labour caring about any backlash from a small percentile of voters who will still vote the same way eitherway. Its really not as big a deal as you are making it.
Unfortunately.
I agree with a lot of this but Vince Cable wasn’t a tory.
He was coalition and given the job . He accepted it and undersold us. We had no competition untill they sponsored Whilst purely for the sell off
It may happen after election due to red tape but do you honestly think anyone politically cares whether it's 5 or 6 days on letters any more 3 maybe a political wave worth delaying, but 5.. really?!
The tories definitely will as a vast majority who vote for them are the perfect demographic for actually caring about receiving letters every day. They (rightly) see RM as a national treasure that shouldn’t be carved up or changed.
And what did those voters do when the Tories privatised us?
Thats right. They voted for them again.
We are constantly told that the general public arent bothered about a 5 day letter service. I cant see either the Tories or Labour caring about any backlash from a small percentile of voters who will still vote the same way eitherway. Its really not as big a deal as you are making it.
Unfortunately.
I agree with a lot of this but Vince Cable wasn’t a tory.
Thats just pedantry. The Tories formed the government with the Lib Dems.
Those conservative voters who cherish the RM, as daft as some may be, arent that daft that they thought ''oh thats a disgrace the Liberal Democrats privatised the Royal Mail - my beloved Conservative party would never have did such a thing''
They knew what happened. They knew the role the Tories had in it happening.
They just didnt care enough.
If you tolerate this, then your paid break will be next
It isn’t pedantry it is fact. I despise the tories as much as anyone, but you can’t call the former leader of the Liberal Democrat’s one and not expect to be corrected. As I say, I agree with everything you said, but apportion blame to the correct political party.
Cant see the Tories passing this through legislation this year before an election and the time it will take to go through i wouldn't expect any change to happen to well into 2026,just in time for my retirement .
It isn’t pedantry it is fact. I despise the tories as much as anyone, but you can’t call the former leader of the Liberal Democrat’s one and not expect to be corrected. As I say, I agree with everything you said, but apportion blame to the correct political party.
I never called Vince cable a Tory
I said the tories were in government when the Royal Mail was privatised. Do you seriously believe the Tory voters thought the privatisation was only down to the Lib Dem’s and their party wasn’t in favour?
Are you disputing the Tories were in government as the larger party of a coalition when it was privatised? What point are you trying to make?
The Tories were in governments when the RM was privatised
Vince Cable was tasked with implementing it as part of the coalition
The traditional Tory voters knew their party was signing off the privatisation and 99.99% of them didn’t care or at least didn’t care enough to cost the tories votes at next election
The same 99.99% that stood by and shrugged their shoulders when we were privatised will do the same if the USO is cut to 5 days if the tories are in government
That’s the point I was making
Vince Cable doesn’t change that point
If you tolerate this, then your paid break will be next
It isn’t pedantry it is fact. I despise the tories as much as anyone, but you can’t call the former leader of the Liberal Democrat’s one and not expect to be corrected. As I say, I agree with everything you said, but apportion blame to the correct political party.
I never called Vince cable a Tory
I said the tories were in government when the Royal Mail was privatised. Do you seriously believe the Tory voters thought the privatisation was only down to the Lib Dem’s and their party wasn’t in favour?
Are you disputing the Tories were in government as the larger party of a coalition when it was privatised? What point are you trying to make?
The Tories were in governments when the RM was privatised
Vince Cable was tasked with implementing it as part of the coalition
The traditional Tory voters knew their party was signing off the privatisation and 99.99% of them didn’t care or at least didn’t care enough to cost the tories votes at next election
The same 99.99% that stood by and shrugged their shoulders when we were privatised will do the same if the USO is cut to 5 days if the tories are in government
That’s the point I was making
Vince Cable doesn’t change that point
I’ve made my point. Vince Cable was the minister responsible ultimately. I’m not interested in a back and forth on something that is frankly unimportant going forward. You blame the tories, I blame the tory/lib-dem coalition government. Let’s move on.
It isn’t pedantry it is fact. I despise the tories as much as anyone, but you can’t call the former leader of the Liberal Democrat’s one and not expect to be corrected. As I say, I agree with everything you said, but apportion blame to the correct political party.
I never called Vince cable a Tory
I said the tories were in government when the Royal Mail was privatised. Do you seriously believe the Tory voters thought the privatisation was only down to the Lib Dem’s and their party wasn’t in favour?
Are you disputing the Tories were in government as the larger party of a coalition when it was privatised? What point are you trying to make?
The Tories were in governments when the RM was privatised
Vince Cable was tasked with implementing it as part of the coalition
The traditional Tory voters knew their party was signing off the privatisation and 99.99% of them didn’t care or at least didn’t care enough to cost the tories votes at next election
The same 99.99% that stood by and shrugged their shoulders when we were privatised will do the same if the USO is cut to 5 days if the tories are in government
That’s the point I was making
Vince Cable doesn’t change that point
I’ve made my point. Vince Cable was the minister responsible ultimately. I’m not interested in a back and forth on something that is frankly unimportant going forward. You blame the tories, I blame the tory/lib-dem coalition government. Let’s move on.
It was conservative voters that were being discussed in relation to how they felt about Royal Mail when I made my first post. Not Lib Dem voters.
Thats why I said the Tories being in government when RM was privatised ( in a coalition ) never damaged them at the ballot box at the next election.
Vince Cable had no relevance to the discussion unless you believe the conservative voters being discussed were stupid enough to think it was just the Lib Dems that privatised us because Vince Cable was delegated to be in charge of the matter. If I said the Green party privatised the RM I would have expected an objection, but not saying the Tories.
If you had said 'with help from the Lib Dems' I wouldnt have batted an eyelid but you would have thought from your reply that Vince Cable and the Lib Dems were the ruling party and privatised us and the Tories had no hand in it. You know thats not true and not how parliament works.
If you tolerate this, then your paid break will be next
Either way Royal Mail is a politically sensitive entity. Tory voters might not give a toss about it being privatised (largely because they are typically dim witted enough to not realise what that means) but if they are told that the ‘great British institution’ is gradually being phased out and they won’t be getting their letters delivered every day, they will not be happy. This government will not endorse any change to the USO before an election.
3 days a week M, W and Fri is fine for letters / USO. What’s the point in Royal Mail throwing resources at a 6 day a week delivery service when it hasn’t met that standard for years.
3 days a week M, W and Fri is fine for letters / USO. What’s the point in Royal Mail throwing resources at a 6 day a week delivery service when it hasn’t met that standard for years.
Royal Mail's business model is entirely flawed because reducing the letter service to this extent will enable them to reduce half the workforce and sell off hundreds of delivery offices and real estate in the UK. Obviously, it will mean huge profits in the short term that will go to the billionaire shareholders and allow the new executive board to take home obscene bonuses, but what about the longer term future of Royal Mail?
For me, it's simple economics that if you continually increase the price of something and make it that undesirable and unreliable that people will eventually use the service less and less and that will mean a sharp drop in letter revenues. Most of our revenue will then rely increasingly on parcels and once the "parcel-hubs" are in full swing there will be an inevitable diminishing law of returns as we will now be competing head to head in a very competitive industry with Amazon and Evri who have staff on worse pay, terms and conditions. This is the stick that Royal Mail keep beating us with and even those new entrants on less pay on here are suggesting that its even worse working at these companies.
Obviously, no one has a crystal ball but once you've got rid half the workforce and successfully reduced the letter traffic where are your next big profits going to come from? Once your brand and reputation has gone, it's often gone forever. What is happening with the USO now is really just the tip of the iceberg and completely unnecessary when the company is using smoke and mirrors to suggest that its losing money faster than a rat up a drainpipe.
On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world.
What I find funny is how our upper management keep stressing the loss of letters. They push that it’s not economically viable to sustain a model made for 20m letters when we only now move 7m.
The thing is if we’re geared for 20m, why the hell can’t we deliver 7m on time.
No answers needed, I already know but some reporter or MP aught to ask the question. Wonder what the response would be ?
'The future' is an awfully general term. In 30 or 40 years letters will not be a thing, so it'll be be 0. But in the short to medium term I'd expect it to drop to 5 days. The job of the union then is to reduce the job as much as possible, then use it as an opportunity to improve our work life balance.
3 maybe a political wave worth delaying, but 5.. really?!
3 maybe a political wave worth delaying, but 5.. really?!