Monday's Dispatches programme was an exercise in one-sided journalism. Where was the coherent analysis?
by
Roy Mayall
The opening lines of Monday evening's Dispatches programme on Channel 4 set the tone for the next 40 minutes. "Once Royal Mail was your friend," it said. "Not any more."
We were then subjected to a barrage of negativity about the culture of the Royal Mail. Rude managers. Incompetent staff. People not knowing where they were going. Inadequate training. Lax security. Mishandled packages. Late mail. Bad industrial relations. Theft and laziness.
Most posties would recognise elements of this. We know from daily experience that ours is an industry in crisis, but what the programme entirely failed to do was to offer any coherent analysis of why this should be happening....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... dispatches
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Channel 4's Royal Mail witch hunt
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borders
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Re: Channel 4's Royal Mail witch hunt
well done Roy . i appreciate your efforts 
"why should it just be the bankers, politicians and the idle rich who get all the best things ? we demand a standard of living for our members that enables them to share in the fine wines and times that the likes of Cameron and his Eton buddies take for granted " - the late great Bob Crow RIP.
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borders
- Posts: 1303
- Joined: 11 Sep 2007, 09:10
Re: Channel 4's Royal Mail witch hunt
this is one of the comments after Roys article, sums things up IMO .... PeterGuillam
9 Feb 2010, 6:49PM
I didn't see the programme, so can't comment on that.
"But what has happened, and is happening, to Royal Mail is a textbook case of the destructive impact of neo-liberalism. It starts with a publicly owned service run for the benefit of society as a whole. It works pretty much ok, and even generates a surplus for the public purse (a surplus that is not, however, used to invest in changing technology etc). But of course it can't be left alone. The ideologues know that private is better than public, and anyway, it is unionised so has to be 'brought to heel'; the pragmatists think that this could be a source of some short-term cash. So the service is de-regulated, the most profitable bits sold off (and indirectly subsidised), and the service begins to deteriorate. Up pop the ideologues again, this time announcing that the deterioration of the parts of the service left in public hands 'proves' that private is better than public and so further privatization is the only answer. That the unions oppose it only 'proves' their point.
And so the end point begins to emerge (it's still a work in progress of course). the public service rump of universal delivery becomes unaffordable. The privatized bits continually screw up (no? remember how your postie who knew you and delivered every day for years used to leave your parcel in the porch whereas now the casual contract in his van leaves you a little card entitling you to hang on the phone for a few days before discovering that you must collect your parcel from the depot 30 miles away, where it has been lost. But, hey, that's efficiency!).
And then there it is. Another little bit of decent everyday life chipped away. The postie noticing that granny isn't answering her door has gone. The feeble daily joke he shared with the dogwalker is gone. The continuity of employment and link with community is gone. The sense of pride at working in a public service is gone. The huge overseas conglomerate owns another little piece of our lives, to be disposed of at a whim. Not huge things in themselves, but huge in their cumulative effect, and when that cumulative effect is felt, what do the ideologues do? Cry crocodile tears about 'broken Britain' and (according to taste) devise ever more elaborate 'strategies for community cohesion' or ever more aggressive complaints about immigration destroying 'or way of life'.
With variations, this - from out of hours doctors' visits to utilities to demutualized building societies to town planning - is the world that the neo-liberals have created for us - and urged on by a significant minority of us. It isn't diabolical or impossible - just step after step away from the good life - or not yet, anyway: but when the last piece of public infrastructure built from the effort and sacrifice of previous generations is finally sold off then we will indeed know what broken Britain looks like."
..
9 Feb 2010, 6:49PM
I didn't see the programme, so can't comment on that.
"But what has happened, and is happening, to Royal Mail is a textbook case of the destructive impact of neo-liberalism. It starts with a publicly owned service run for the benefit of society as a whole. It works pretty much ok, and even generates a surplus for the public purse (a surplus that is not, however, used to invest in changing technology etc). But of course it can't be left alone. The ideologues know that private is better than public, and anyway, it is unionised so has to be 'brought to heel'; the pragmatists think that this could be a source of some short-term cash. So the service is de-regulated, the most profitable bits sold off (and indirectly subsidised), and the service begins to deteriorate. Up pop the ideologues again, this time announcing that the deterioration of the parts of the service left in public hands 'proves' that private is better than public and so further privatization is the only answer. That the unions oppose it only 'proves' their point.
And so the end point begins to emerge (it's still a work in progress of course). the public service rump of universal delivery becomes unaffordable. The privatized bits continually screw up (no? remember how your postie who knew you and delivered every day for years used to leave your parcel in the porch whereas now the casual contract in his van leaves you a little card entitling you to hang on the phone for a few days before discovering that you must collect your parcel from the depot 30 miles away, where it has been lost. But, hey, that's efficiency!).
And then there it is. Another little bit of decent everyday life chipped away. The postie noticing that granny isn't answering her door has gone. The feeble daily joke he shared with the dogwalker is gone. The continuity of employment and link with community is gone. The sense of pride at working in a public service is gone. The huge overseas conglomerate owns another little piece of our lives, to be disposed of at a whim. Not huge things in themselves, but huge in their cumulative effect, and when that cumulative effect is felt, what do the ideologues do? Cry crocodile tears about 'broken Britain' and (according to taste) devise ever more elaborate 'strategies for community cohesion' or ever more aggressive complaints about immigration destroying 'or way of life'.
With variations, this - from out of hours doctors' visits to utilities to demutualized building societies to town planning - is the world that the neo-liberals have created for us - and urged on by a significant minority of us. It isn't diabolical or impossible - just step after step away from the good life - or not yet, anyway: but when the last piece of public infrastructure built from the effort and sacrifice of previous generations is finally sold off then we will indeed know what broken Britain looks like."
..
"why should it just be the bankers, politicians and the idle rich who get all the best things ? we demand a standard of living for our members that enables them to share in the fine wines and times that the likes of Cameron and his Eton buddies take for granted " - the late great Bob Crow RIP.