Complaints after Government pro-EU pamphlet is sent out in Leicestershire County Council magazine because of nesting...again

Post by **POSTMAN** » 13 Apr 2016, 14:55

http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Compl ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Complaints have been made to Leicestershire County Council after its magazine was sent out to homes with a copy of the Government's pro-European Union leaflet inside.

County Hall has sent out 280,000 copies of the latest edition of its Leicestershire Matters publication but some have been arriving containing the controversial pamphlet issued by the Government ahead of the June EU referendum.

The 14 page document, costing £9.3 million, is being sent to every household in the country setting out why the Government says the UK should remain in the EU but the council has stressed it should not have been sent out with its own magazine.

The Conservative-led council deliberately opted not to take a stance on the referendum as an organisation.

Brexit supporters however say the joint distribution of the two publications may give a skewed impression of County Hall's position.

A County Hall spokesman said: "We have a very strict contract with Royal Mail which says this should not be happening.

"We have had a handful of complaints but there will probably be more as our magazine gets round.

"Under the distribution contract, no third-party material, such as political leaflets, should be inserted into Leicestershire Matters – a practice which is known as nesting.

"However, we have received some reports that nesting has taken place on some occasions.

The council has explained to Royal Mail why nesting should be avoided with a list of addresses where nesting complaints have previously been received.

UKIP county councillor David Sprason said: "This has happened before.

"Royal Mail chuck in all the junk mail together and it ends up in the county's magazine.

"It could look like the council is endorsing the Government position when we know the Tory administration sat on the fence.

"This is the danger of the Government spending taxpayers' money - and lots of it - on propaganda."

In 2014 the council received complaints after a UKIP flyer was circulated with Leicestershire Matters in the run up to the European election.

fishtank · Post by **fishtank** » 13 Apr 2016, 15:26

Dumb as a box of rocks, these guys and the so called managers that allow it to go on.
Give it a few weeks and the posts will start turning up "I've been suspended and it's sooo unfair".

borgpicard · Post by **borgpicard** » 13 Apr 2016, 16:13

Maybe its because we are fed up with getting 5 plus d2d every week, and getting paid peanuts for it, should go back to the way it was, also fed up with lying every day, mail is down /, its fu@king not in our office, I'm using up to 2 EXTRA pouches a day, not due to packets, but MAIL, oh and theres the small matter of being treated like s**t, never paid overtime, but always expected to do it, if not the usual threats come out, moral is at an all time low, of course people are gonna short cut, we've ALL had enough. rant over.

thegreatestfreddy · Post by **thegreatestfreddy** » 13 Apr 2016, 16:35

Not surprised... Week in week out I see perhaps 95% of people nesting d2d... Managers see it and don't say anything... I've even told various dsms and doms and they say they're going to have a purge but never do...

Some people reckon they 'burst' open on the mat after being put through the letter box but of course they dont.. It's the old ton of coal / ton of feathers scenario it all stays intact and hits the ground in a oner and stays that way...

Managers at our place even encourage nesting by getting people to pre prep them for colleagues in that way.. Presumably fearful that if they dont they won't get done...

What a shambles... And a top FTSE 100 company at that too !!

motherhubbard · Post by **motherhubbard** » 13 Apr 2016, 16:51

borgpicard wrote:Maybe its because we are fed up with getting 5 plus d2d every week, and getting paid peanuts for it.

You should be grateful you get paid peanuts.
Most of us don't get a penny for D2D. The unit payment disappeared about 6 years ago.

DB1100 · Post by **DB1100** » 14 Apr 2016, 16:45

thegreatestfreddy wrote:Not surprised... Week in week out I see perhaps 95% of people nesting d2d... Managers see it and don't say anything... I've even told various dsms and doms and they say they're going to have a purge but never do...

Some people reckon they 'burst' open on the mat after being put through the letter box but of course they dont.. It's the old ton of coal / ton of feathers scenario it all stays intact and hits the ground in a oner and stays that way...

Managers at our place even encourage nesting by getting people to pre prep them for colleagues in that way.. Presumably fearful that if they dont they won't get done...

What a shambles... And a top FTSE 100 company at that too !!

It's not just a shambles because of D2d,look at the way parcels are handled,I had a parcel delivered by a firm this week and could even track were the van was and got told within 10 minutes of when I would get my parcel,compare that to the way we do it,and RM want to be number 1 in the parcel game,no chance ,in fact it's like we are back in the dark ages,now that is a shambles.

meercat · Post by **meercat** » 14 Apr 2016, 23:05

If people are so stupid as to not recognise they have two different publications in front of them one being the local council magazine the other being an EU leaflet from the Government then they should not be entitled to vote in this referendum.

The only skills required here are reading.

motherhubbard · Post by **motherhubbard** » 15 Apr 2016, 05:49

If people are so stupid that they don't understand that the council doesn't want to be seen to be endorsing either opinion by having someone else's leaflet stuck inside their magazine then they shouldn't be allowed to vote.

DB1100 · Post by **DB1100** » 15 Apr 2016, 15:24

motherhubbard wrote:If people are so stupid that they don't understand that the council doesn't want to be seen to be endorsing either opinion by having someone else's leaflet stuck inside their magazine then they shouldn't be allowed to vote.

If you could be bothered to have a look at the Leicester Mercury you would see how daft your statement is.http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Labou ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

fishtank · Post by **fishtank** » 15 Apr 2016, 15:36

How does that make it a daft statement?
The council is yet to vote on whether they support staying in the EU.
The leaflets have already been nested.
Even if they do vote to support the remain campaign it's still not their leaflet.

Why is this so difficult to understand?

DB1100 · Post by **DB1100** » 15 Apr 2016, 15:44

fishtank wrote:How does that make it a daft statement?
The council is yet to vote on whether they support staying in the EU.
The leaflets have already been nested.
Even if they do vote to support the remain campaign it's still not their leaflet.

Why is this so difficult to understand?

Even if this pro european leaflet wasn't nested people would still ring up and complain,people like to complain about pointless thing's,why didn't royal mail just limit the d2d's for that week to the leaflet,I can't speak for other DO'S but because of this and the other 4 d2d's we have had this week nearly every walk has cut off and therefore ahs cost royal mail a fortune to get it all covered,all could have been avoided.

thegreatestfreddy · Post by **thegreatestfreddy** » 15 Apr 2016, 20:30

I've posted this before... Point is nesting has the effect of 'hiding' leaflets which firms have paid for to make people aware of their services... It is called 'advertising'...

A relative of mine paid for such a service for his small business... Needless to say his leaflet got nested and hence hidden and possibly thrown away without people even being aware of his business... He went absolutely wappy over this and will probably never use RM again !!

meercat · Post by **meercat** » 16 Apr 2016, 23:42

motherhubbard wrote:If people are so stupid that they don't understand that the council doesn't want to be seen to be endorsing either opinion by having someone else's leaflet stuck inside their magazine then they shouldn't be allowed to vote.

I understand fully what the council said - I did read the OP. The point is they are incorrect and patronising their constituents.

Very very very few people will think a separate leaflet covered in references to 'the Government believes this' and 'the Government thinks that' is in any way related to the 'Council's view' or their magazine just because it happens to be inside when it drops through with the rest of the junk mail. And my point is anyone who DOES think there is an endorsement is so STUPID as to not have the faculties to make an informed decision about Brexit. This leaflet has been mentioned in ALL media outlets and is explicitly a central Gov publication - everyone bar idiots knows this as fact.

Tell me - would YOU think the Gov leaflet was endorsed by the council? Would your partner? You work mates? I'd say not. Think about how STUPID someone would need to be to think otherwise. Now think, should they be trusted to vote in an informed manner on the future of the country and our economy?

Post by **TrueBlueTerrier** » 17 Apr 2016, 08:51

meercat wrote:
motherhubbard wrote:If people are so stupid that they don't understand that the council doesn't want to be seen to be endorsing either opinion by having someone else's leaflet stuck inside their magazine then they shouldn't be allowed to vote.
The point is they are incorrect and patronising their constituents.

Very very very few people will think a separate leaflet covered in references to 'the Government believes this' and 'the Government thinks that' is in any way related to the 'Council's view' or their magazine just because it happens to be inside when it drops through with the rest of the junk mail.

The quote reference Council endorsing the Governments point of view comes from UKIP

UKIP county councillor David Sprason said: "This has happened before.

"Royal Mail chuck in all the junk mail together and it ends up in the county's magazine.

"It could look like the council is endorsing the Government position when we know the Tory administration sat on the fence.

"This is the danger of the Government spending taxpayers' money - and lots of it - on propaganda."

The council said:

A County Hall spokesman said: "We have a very strict contract with Royal Mail which says this should not be happening.

"We have had a handful of complaints but there will probably be more as our magazine gets round.

"Under the distribution contract, no third-party material, such as political leaflets, should be inserted into Leicestershire Matters – a practice which is known as nesting.

The councils right - nesting is not allowed with D2Ds - ever.

In my opinion, UKIP are the stirring it to get column inches. But they were the ones doing the patronising if anyone was, the council just want what they are paying for.