As The Man Says - Mail Order

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Selling the family silver' was how Lord Stockton, the former Tory Prime Minister Harold MacMillan described the privatisation of public utilities. That was in 1990, towards the end of the Thatcher era. Not that Margaret paid a blind bit of heed to him, and what's worse, the process has been accelerated under New Labour.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, when they set out to win the 1997 General Election were determined to assure the business community that New Labour, far from being a threat to business was its cat'spaw, in thrall to banks and financial institutions, with the dire results which we know only too well. The latest proposal, by Trade Minister Peter Mandelson, is to sell off substantial sections of the postal service. About 30% has been mentioned in preliminary reports, but there can be no one in any doubt that this 30% is merely the first tranche, the thin end of the wedge, as an overture to selling the entire concern.

As has been apparent from the selling-off of the railways, whoever benefits from these transactions it is not the public. Shareholders pocket large profits and dividends, the price of the ticket has increased alarmingly and there has been a decline in the quality of the service. The British government has displayed a great eagerness to pour in thousands of millions of pounds to bail out ailing banks, and the Royal Mail is an equally important utility, although the monies involved are much smaller in scale than the amounts given to the banks. It is all a matter of priority, and a political will.

The increase in texting, e-mails, and other forms of electronic communications have meant that people who, not so long ago, would have written a letter or a postcard are now more likely to pick up a mobile phone. That is why the price of a stamp continues to increase. Some people wonder how, in the light of these developments, private business can aspire to make a profit when the public utility has not done so.

The answer is that the private sector will cut back the workforce and reduce the salaries of those whom it retains, or of those who come in as replacements. This has already happened in Omagh with the abandonment of the Post Office building at the top of High Street, which has been lying idle for some years now. In many parts of Britain former post offices have been discovered to be 'listed' buildings, not readily suitable for other types of enterprise because their 'listed' status makes conversion difficult, if not impossible.

The Post Office, as we know it, has its origins in the introduction of the penny stamp, the famous Penny Black, in 1840. This was a revolutionary development in that up until this the recipient paid for the correspondence, often having to part with a hefty sum. The penny post brought the service within the means of Everyman, and a social revolution was under way, boosted by the spread of the railways and the steamships. The Victorian postal service could boast that a letter posted in any given part of these islands would reach its destination within 24 hours. Today you have to buy a special stamp for first-class mail, and even then there is no guarantee.

Some years ago I received a communication from the Royal Mail, a letter entitled 'Reform of Postal Services'. When I was at school 'reform' meant advance, improvement, change for the better. Now it seems to simply mean 're-form', as the letter informed me that there would henceforth by only one delivery in the day instead of two, and that the delivery would be made later in the day. As with so much else these days the 'business' component has taken over from the 'service' element.

In Britain for years now there has been a chipping away at the Royal Mail monopoly, and quite a degree of cherry-picking, whereby profitable areas go to selected private tenderers, whilst the unprofitable ones are left for the public services, as with the de-regulation of public transport.

You could have a situation where mail deliveries will cease altogether and the punter will have to present himself at a local office, to enquire whether there is any mail for him. He will then go on to deliver the letters himself. There seems to be no end to folly and daftness.

No one has ever explained to my satisfaction how a publically-owned body such as the Royal Mail can be sold off, over the heads of its owners, to such individuals as may have the financial means to pay for it, or for parts of it.

[k979aaa]

We had the penny post NOW WE ARE LOOKING AT THE POUND POST!.

[johnsouthwales]

a penny in those days was a lot of money... pity the queen doesn't say "oi, what you doing to my post office?" lol

i dont see email as replacing a letter, even though it has to be typedout as one. i see email as a replacement of a phone or an extension of a phone or an advancemet of telex. as email gets sent through the telephone line or airwaves if sending through a mobile phone. it's easy to construe it as a threat to post. texting is a messaging service. i can see the point in thinking its replacing letter writing. but then again, it's just a method of communicating. morse code was a method of communicating. or even amateur radio (talking on the radio replaces letter writing), cb, walkie talkie is a method of communicating. the older generation hadthe art of letter writing to a T, it was a pastime, mainly because people could not afford telephones between the 1920's and the 1980's.
times changed. people prefered to talk one to one rather than the letter. in effect, the telephone is a culprit of the letter writing demise??.. some people who had telephones still wrote personal letters, maybe out of habit..

what didn't you have in the 1970's that was phased in during the 1980's and 1990's? more business mail was created in the 80's and furthered in the 1990s.. now the evolution has turned in another direction.. maybe back to the mail level of the 70s?

[Broxi51]

I dont see the mail volumes ever going back to the 70's. Mail is a cheap advertising medium. Customers will pick up a letter and open it and that is where the advertiser can get the impact that emails and phone calls cant. Customers can read the item at their leisure unlike phone calls. Emails are hard to read on a screen and are usually wiped out of your inbox the moment you see one but a letter is personal, has your name and address and that is enough for you to open it.
Compared to television advertising it is much cheaper to use the post and it allows you to target the areas you want.

[johnsouthwales]

what was sent through the post in the 70s? personal letters (like today), tickets - concert, football , theatre (like today), football pools (unlike now).
didnt have paper gas bills in the 70s, we had a gas meter, so a collector came round and empty the 50pences and usually had a rebate (unlike now where its either direct debit, pay at p.o/counter or still can send a cheque by post. electric. (token meters take out paper-bill but can be bought at p.o/counter)..
water rates posted out by book (paid at p.o). rent was collected by rentman (now direct debit, post a cheque to council).
rates were included in rent collection.

electricity stamps and phone stamps purchased at p.o in the 70s, had bank books/building society filled in manually..

the 80's created more mail volume..by creating paper bills. then direct debit came along and paper bills still had to be sent out (even now)..
benefits were sent out by post...