HOOPER REPORT RELEASED

[Radio]

First post here. 12 years and counting, 3 mail centres including Mount Pleasant, been around to see the slow demise of snail mail and all the hoo ha that accompanied it. What about packets? Everybody and his mum is talking about the reduction in the numbers of letters and it is a fact that letters are disappearing but what about packets? The number of packets have gone through the ceiling and we are not geared to handle packets at all. Packets/ parcels is the way forward. ParcelFarce are not geared to handle this product, we (RM) are not geared even to store packets, let alone sorting and distributing them. Parcels and packages are what companies will be fighting over in future and we have the network, we have the customers, we have the people, all we lack is expertise and willingness to make full use of this 'new' opportunity. Letter is the thing of the past and like all other dinosaurs (big management, militant union, 'us' and 'them' culture) we are trying to cling to this disappearing product and would rather disappear along with it than look for other products, markets and opportunities. TNT can't run RM, RM should buy small fish like TNT. Is the world gone mad? What next, 'NightSpeed' buying ParcelFarce???

[Radio]

Thing is though,the USO is the only thing stopping the Government from selling off Royal mail. Without it it's just another Company to be flogged off to the highest bidder.
Royal mails future lies in being as efficient as possible, and charging the going rate for its services. I've just spent over two hours reading this poxy report (It's my day off) and the one thing that sticks out is the fact that we are the cheapest in Europe other than Spain and Slovakia.
I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Postcomm and the government have blocked price rises in order to run down the company to a point where they can say "it's not working ,let's sell it"

Out of curiosity has anyone got the figures as to how much stamp prices have risen over say, the last twenty years?

Yes many things are maintained in order to run down the business and find an excuse to flog it off. Top of the list: the CWU. Where else would government tolerate such a militant union controlling an essential public service? The union's job is to make us, posties, unpopular among the general public by interrupting postal service using any excuse, by making business ineffective by systematically protecting scivers and making it unmanageable (top it off with an inefficient, pig-ignorant and stupid management and you've got a perfect recipe for disaster). Government wants to sell us off. Only our property assets would be worth billions. Now as the government is cash-strapped after bailing out banks (same banks that made trillions in profits in the past decade of mortgage-market boom) and fighting prolonged nonsensical overseas wars, they would sell us to anybody to squeeze the cash out of us. Expect no mercy from Mandelson, the guy has a track-record of treachery and all kinds of dodgy dealings :mfo We are among the cheapest postal services operating in one of the most expensive countries in the entire world. How can you pay someone London wages (most expensive city in the world along with Tokyo and Osaka) for sorting 30p letters? Is there any sense to all this? What am I missing? Please enlighten me!

[97gaz]

First post here. 12 years and counting, 3 mail centres including Mount Pleasant, been around to see the slow demise of snail mail and all the hoo ha that accompanied it. What about packets? Everybody and his mum is talking about the reduction in the numbers of letters and it is a fact that letters are disappearing but what about packets? The number of packets have gone through the ceiling and we are not geared to handle packets at all. Packets/ parcels is the way forward. ParcelFarce are not geared to handle this product, we (RM) are not geared even to store packets, let alone sorting and distributing them. Parcels and packages are what companies will be fighting over in future and we have the network, we have the customers, we have the people, all we lack is expertise and willingness to make full use of this 'new' opportunity. Letter is the thing of the past and like all other dinosaurs (big management, militant union, 'us' and 'them' culture) we are trying to cling to this disappearing product and would rather disappear along with it than look for other products, markets and opportunities. TNT can't run RM, RM should buy small fish like TNT. Is the world gone mad? What next, 'NightSpeed' buying ParcelFarce???

This "massive reduction " in letters. I'm sorry but I'm just not seeing it in my DO. We're still working our socks off and constantly asking the DOM to time all the duties in the office. He refuses point blank to do this. I'm with you on the packets though, ours have gone ballistic.

[AndyK]

Yes many things are maintained in order to run down the business and find an excuse to flog it off. Top of the list: the CWU. Where else would government tolerate such a militant union controlling an essential public service? The union's job is to make us, posties, unpopular among the general public by interrupting postal service using any excuse, by making business ineffective by systematically protecting scivers and making it unmanageable (top it off with an inefficient, pig-ignorant and stupid management and you've got a perfect recipe for disaster).

I don't see the CWU controlling the Royal Mail, or making 'us' unpopular. It is 'us' we vote for strike or not too as a member of the CWU. We are all the union not a bunch of people in Wimbledon.

[dvbuk55]

Thing is though,the USO is the only thing stopping the Government from selling off Royal mail. Without it it's just another Company to be flogged off to the highest bidder.

Thing is also the USO is stopping us from being profitable and is a distinct disadvantage in an open market AND more to the point it hasn't stopped privatisation has it - this is just the first step and if allowed to go ahead will be the death knell. My whole point is that the Hooper Report is one scenario there should have been others explored and the Governments reaction should have been a little less cautious that on the day the Report was published TNT had already been lined up - does that sound like a considered response to anyone? Or does it sound like they have known and been talking for months, lets say as long as Mandelson had been pulled out of the moth ball closet.

[97gaz]

Thing is though,the USO is the only thing stopping the Government from selling off Royal mail. Without it it's just another Company to be flogged off to the highest bidder.

Thing is also the USO is stopping us from being profitable and is a distinct disadvantage in an open market AND more to the point it hasn't stopped privatisation has it - this is just the first step and if allowed to go ahead will be the death knell. My whole point is that the Hooper Report is one scenario there should have been others explored and the Governments reaction should have been a little less cautious that on the day the Report was published TNT had already been lined up - does that sound like a considered response to anyone? Or does it sound like they have known and been talking for months, lets say as long as Mandelson had been pulled out of the moth ball closet.

But we used to make massive profits while maintaining the USO. Completely agree with you about the other stuff. This report was engineered to facilitate part privatisation of Royal mail and the twice disgraced Mandelson was brought back solely to push this through because he's the only "minister" with few enough morals to do it. Yes it was a done deal months ago before the report was done and looks likely to be pushed through as quickly as possible before anyone has a chance to organise against it. Nobody else would have touched it, In fact we already have a few MPs who've had the bottle to stick their necks out and disagree with the Gummint.


Once its through mandelson will be gone again.

[dvbuk55]

Thing is though,the USO is the only thing stopping the Government from selling off Royal mail. Without it it's just another Company to be flogged off to the highest bidder.

Thing is also the USO is stopping us from being profitable and is a distinct disadvantage in an open market AND more to the point it hasn't stopped privatisation has it - this is just the first step and if allowed to go ahead will be the death knell. My whole point is that the Hooper Report is one scenario there should have been others explored and the Governments reaction should have been a little less cautious that on the day the Report was published TNT had already been lined up - does that sound like a considered response to anyone? Or does it sound like they have known and been talking for months, lets say as long as Mandelson had been pulled out of the moth ball closet.

But we used to make massive profits while maintaining the USO. Completely agree with you about the other stuff. This report was engineered to facilitate part privatisation of Royal mail and the twice disgraced Mandelson was brought back solely to push this through because he's the only "minister" with few enough morals to do it. Yes it was a done deal months ago before the report was done and looks likely to be pushed through as quickly as possible before anyone has a chance to organise against it. Nobody else would have touched it, In fact we already have a few MPs who've had the bottle to stick their necks out and disagree with the Gummint.


Once its through mandelson will be gone again.

I would agree we used to make a profit, so did Woolworths and they close their doors next month, starved of innovation and opening the market to competitors at more than generous rates, a succession of changes which have done absolutely nothing to improve the service and here I quote a few:

Pricing in proportion
9 a.m. Delivery
Later starts
Tricycles (Abandoned)

a management that had no understanding of Royal Mail, its history and dedicated workforce has driven a once profitable organisation into debt. Much of the debt of course attributable to the pension deficit - if the government takes that away then we will become profitable again if we are allowed to compete on a level playing field.

[fmrPOSTIE]

Thing is though,the USO is the only thing stopping the Government from selling off Royal mail. Without it it's just another Company to be flogged off to the highest bidder.

But we used to make massive profits while maintaining the USO. Completely agree with you about the other stuff. This report was engineered to facilitate part privatisation of Royal mail and the twice disgraced Mandelson was brought back solely to push this through because he's the only "minister" with few enough morals to do it. Yes it was a done deal months ago before the report was done and looks likely to be pushed through as quickly as possible before anyone has a chance to organise against it. Nobody else would have touched it, In fact we already have a few MPs who've had the bottle to stick their necks out and disagree with the Gummint.

Once its through mandelson will be gone again.

The USO aint gunna be dropped anytime soon. RM used to make £600m odd a year profit - that was only back in 2005. Its the EU policy thats the problem.

[dvbuk55]

The USO aint gunna be dropped anytime soon. RM used to make £600m odd a year profit - that was only back in 2005. Its the EU policy thats the problem.

You know I can see it all now, in the future we will be saying, "You know we used to make a profit", "It was the EU that caused our downfall" AND "we used to have a USO" - because the USO is unsustainable in the long term and it's time people woke up to that fact and accepted that if they want that - and I am not sure that they do, then there is a price to pay. It may be that many rural areas will have to pick their mail up, that there is not a PIP but a sliding scale of cost depending on the cost to the company over distance. Personally I would have gone for dropping the Saturday delivery and that would be immediate and would cost jobs, but the saving would be enormous - especially in the under 50s who would have to wait to get their pension until they are 65 and give the pension fund time to recover. I still believe that there are many options and the Governments rabid acceptance of Hoopers findings are more than precipitous.

[ldsposti]

i find it funny that the dutch and germans will not open their markets but we in this country have all in all i have it with the labour party and i will be writing to my mp to say that he and his party have lost my support and i urge you all to do the same, and as for the union they should be telling labour the same and pull OUR money out of the labour party.

[wolfie citizen smith]

i find it funny that the dutch and germans will not open their markets but we in this country have all in all i have it with the labour party and i will be writing to my mp to say that he and his party have lost my support and i urge you all to do the same, and as for the union they should be telling labour the same and pull OUR money out of the labour party.

you never know once govenment has the threat of loosing All UNION FUNDING then Lord Mandleson may find himself out a job AGAIN!!!!!

[kingtubby]

...Its the EU policy thats the problem.

Correct. I've been ambivalent about the EU for some time, but it's seems more and more that it's main purpose is to create a playground where the big corporations can move in and have unfettered access to increasingly cheap and flexible labour.

[norbert]

...Its the EU policy thats the problem.

Correct. I've been ambivalent about the EU for some time, but it's seems more and more that it's main purpose is to create a playground where the big corporations can move in and have unfettered access to increasingly cheap and flexible labour.

the irony about the EEC is that it was created and run originally by former Fascists - on paper it would look like a good idea i.e. to stop France having wars with the Germans - however instead of sending armies through Europe and blowing everything and everybody to b***ery - you can effectively take over by riding roughshod over other countries sovereignty to actually run their countries .

the problem is that New Labour have fallen on their inherent 3rd way contradictions and very mixed agendas - New Labour have red lined EEC things when it's suited them but when they've been at the very best devious it becomes "interesting " . Some EEC countries have formed alliances and opposed EEC directives .

There's also been a swing to the right in Europe , the original EEC directive came from a Dutch Free - marketeer , they've also ( maybe wrong on this ? ) had the equivalent of the BNP's Nick Griffin getting into Parliament due to that murder by Islamic Terrorists , Germany have a right wing government now etc .

No I'm not UKIP or Arthur Scargill's Socialist Labour Party either ! - just skeptical about the EEC .

[norbert]

Thing is though,the USO is the only thing stopping the Government from selling off Royal mail. Without it it's just another Company to be flogged off to the highest bidder.
Royal mails future lies in being as efficient as possible, and charging the going rate for its services. I've just spent over two hours reading this poxy report (It's my day off) and the one thing that sticks out is the fact that we are the cheapest in Europe other than Spain and Slovakia.
I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Postcomm and the government have blocked price rises in order to run down the company to a point where they can say "it's not working ,let's sell it"

Out of curiosity has anyone got the figures as to how much stamp prices have risen over say, the last twenty years?

Yes many things are maintained in order to run down the business and find an excuse to flog it off. Top of the list: the CWU. Where else would government tolerate such a militant union controlling an essential public service? The union's job is to make us, posties, unpopular among the general public by interrupting postal service using any excuse, by making business ineffective by systematically protecting scivers and making it unmanageable (top it off with an inefficient, pig-ignorant and stupid management and you've got a perfect recipe for disaster). Government wants to sell us off. Only our property assets would be worth billions. Now as the government is cash-strapped after bailing out banks (same banks that made trillions in profits in the past decade of mortgage-market boom) and fighting prolonged nonsensical overseas wars, they would sell us to anybody to squeeze the cash out of us. Expect no mercy from Mandelson, the guy has a track-record of treachery and all kinds of dodgy dealings :mfo We are among the cheapest postal services operating in one of the most expensive countries in the entire world. How can you pay someone London wages (most expensive city in the world along with Tokyo and Osaka) for sorting 30p letters? Is there any sense to all this? What am I missing? Please enlighten me!

the other thing that has gone wrong is New Labour's " manageralisim "in getting these so called ominpotent " super- managers " in - that may well have been a success in their respective fields but a disaster out of it - :lfo & :cfo are just one example - there has been even worse disasters with Gordon's " Public Sector Reforms " that have been badly thought through and have failure built into them .

:lfo & :cfo were brought in by Brown's Stakeholder Executive to increase the value of government / part government owned companies - they were paid a lot in bonuses to do so , problem is that one minute it's a disaster , next minute it's a miracle - the other problem is that some of these sharp - suited spivs and crooks have too much influence on Government ministers - so if bungling Amateurs in Whitehall can't cock things up enough and can't run anything - bring in the brylcreemed gangsters to do it even more !


The other problem is New Labour's light arms length regulation in the City which hasn't worked - the problem was instead of the traditional manufacturing economy - there's been a economy based on nothing or debt at the very best .

These true blue city types don't mind socialism or nationalisation as long as the state takes the risk , no problems with angry shareholders , customers or worries about service - they are laughing all the way to the bank

It's amazing how politicians have got away with it for so long !

[norbert]

i find it funny that the dutch and germans will not open their markets but we in this country have all in all i have it with the labour party and i will be writing to my mp to say that he and his party have lost my support and i urge you all to do the same, and as for the union they should be telling labour the same and pull OUR money out of the labour party.

you never know once govenment has the threat of loosing All UNION FUNDING then Lord Mandleson may find himself out a job AGAIN!!!!!

thought the Labour Party was technically bankrupt - Mandy has only been brought in as a hitman to help New Labour save face - they MAY say it's a worthwhile gamble if New Labour just about scrape through in 2010 . It smacks of desperation and stinks .

that reptilian creature :mfo is very disposeable