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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » The coalition could be heading into stormy weather over the Royal Mail privatisation
In the first polling since Vince Cable’s Royal Mail sell-off announcement shows very substantial opposition right across the political spectrum.
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Am sure that separating them increased their costs unnecessarily
PS Maybe instead of doing a conventional privatization -> floatation thing they should consider just selling the whole thing to Deutsche Post. The voters might be a bit more enthusiastic if they could be convinced their stuff would actually get delivered under the new arrangement, rather than getting the same old rubbish British service but with more money paid to the managers.
Our batsmen need to fire this afternoon and Cook needs to get his house in order. Shocking captaincy over the last hour, Strauss would not have been this tactically naive.
Any polls prior to BA or BT being privatised ?
Ignore and sell the flaming mess on.
@Tykejonno.
As you don't live in a highly populated area (population density of Bradford Urban is half that
of Inner London) why are you commenting?
I bet you have never been to Bradford,I remember last year,when you posted something about Bradfords population in which you got it wrong.
In the last 2 to 3 years in my area,the immigration from eastern Europe as been overwhelming,I see it with my own eyes matey not someone like you who bangs on everythings fine living in your lovely middleclass area.
Now I think they are just the people who stick a note through my door telling me that I've got a parcel to collect from the other side of town because I "wasn't in". That parcel is usually a book that I should be reading on my Kindle but I'm still nostalgically attached to buying in an inefficient format of pulped dead tree because it also looks good on a shelf after being used.
Time to get out of the postal business whilst someone is still stupid enough to buy into a dying industry. In ten years time you wouldn't be able to give the thing away.
However, the earlier problem which must be resolved is the fact that the EU has ruled we can't have a monopoly (ie unchallenged Royal Mail dominance) which means profitable deliveries can be undercut whilst the Mail gets lumbered with the unprofitable bits.
From a business perspective this seems odd. From what I saw on the news last night it seems that the government will dictate the price of stamps and the private provider will be obligated to deliver everywhere. Given rival private operators will not have the latter obligation I fail to see how this will resolve the problem of private competition.
Off topic: WTF is the IMF playing at in the Eurozone?
The IMF is there to help countries, not to help currencies. Right now the IMF, under its French boss, is actually damaging countries in order to help keep the Euro alive that little bit longer. This fatally compromises the credibility and impartiality of a vital international body.
A quick peek at the wiki page told me that the Eurozone countries contribute 19.5% of the IMF’s funding and get 19.5% of the votes. What are the other 80.5% supposed to make of giving money to the GIPSIs and enforcing the usual spending control disciplines but without also requiring the usual devaluation and liberalization requirements (that are impossible within the Euro)? The Eurozone periphery is in an inescapable debt spiral, it’s passed the event horizon. Lending money to insolvent sovereigns is not what IMF money should be used for without demanding that the causes behind the insolvency be repaired. For the GIPSIs that will mean leaving the Euro. Shock horror. (Would be their salvation).
I think the UK should demand a new MD for the IMF (Lagarde is deep in French bribery ordure anyway) and push for a vote (led by the other 80.5%) to stop pissing international money up the Euro wall. Time for a non-European MD methinks before the IMF loses itself
On Royal Mail of course it should be privatised. Why should the government be in the job of competing with UPS?
"A review has found G4S and rival security company Serco both over-billed the taxpayer for running the tagging schemes .....
It also emerged Ministry of Justice officials first became aware of some of the problems in 2008 but failed to take appropriate action - and Mr Grayling said some civil servants may now face disciplinary action....
He added: "The audit team is at present confirming its calculations but the current estimate is that the sums involved are significant, and run into the low tens of millions in total, for both companies, since the contracts commenced in 2005."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10173615/G4S-and-Serco-Taxpayers-overcharged-by-tens-of-millions-over-electronic-tagging.html
It is nanny state comfort, red pillar boxes with cast-iron crown insignia, jolly bicycling postmen chased by barking dogs all straight out of Ealing Street Studios. It is island deliveries and penny postage.
It is kindly matrons in village sub post offices delivering Christmas parcels to Hovis boys in shorts. It is Hornby train sets capturing plastic mail bags.
It is pure Danny Boyle Olympics Opening Ceremony sentiment.
There is no place in a progressive 21st Century Britain for such nonsense.
The sensible solution is to stop yet another subsidy given to the countryside.
Have you perchance heard of them?
The universal service is worth keeping, but I cannot see how it can be maintained in the long term. Successive governments have allowed the private sector in - initially for large parcels, and now for smaller ones. The RM's monopoly is long gone. They are being squeezed by competition in a market (for letters) that, junk mail aside, is reducing. Competition on profitable parcels service is fierce.
It is hardly a sustainable business model for the long-term. They need to be freed up so they can truly invest and compete, or be kept in-house with the knowledge that losses to the taxpayer will mount.
Not true in Maggies day - not that the static analysis dimwits will grasp the concept.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23268512
You, the viewer, should decide....
* Nothing to do with Al-Beeb or a broken Labour party: Payoffs only apply when it demonstrates as a common purpose. [Legal issues to be dealt with internally. '"Cookie"; what a rac1st name for a cat!']
Forget about interim price regulation and cross-subsidy. It will pass as a competitive market develops.
Starting an unpopular measure within 18 months of a GE which will give a wounded opposition some more ammo is just stupidity at its basest level. I would attribute HMGs slow recovery in the polls to taking a break from self-inflicted wounds. When the press have nothing to hit HMG round the head with they turn on the house of cards which is Ed's Labour and huge gaping holes in its policy are given the full spotlight treatment. This government is clueless.
As for your original justification on RM that just defies belief, it's precisely the quirky irrational attachment to the past which makes any nation. I'd much prefer that to the bland brand corporatism which you so clearly espouse, where multinats give us no real choice and pay no real taxes either.
As someone who - ahem - works within the industry I can assure you that certain UK post-codes are not reachable.* [The routing-tables are horrendous.] DHL* is not the solution....
* Norwegians and Swiss are almost unaccessable: Naught to do with money....
** Never worked on DHL systems, nor any that I knowingly know to have employed them....
There is no "the NHS": Each nation has it's own. England's management is not an issue for Edinborough....
At Lord Ashcroft immigration live-poll event, tracking publics reaction as they watch videos of the 3 leaders outlining their views #IoT
Daniel Bond @danbond1
Miliband and Cameron getting good showing. Not so much for Clegg. #IoT
I similarly defer to your specific industry experience and it's not really my area. Superficially the idea appealed to my instinctive economic attitude.
I fear some Warwickshire wag must have painted all the county's postboxes in a fetching shade of London 2012 magenta.
Then voters and politicians can decide whether they are prepare to spend tax receipts in that manner.
George Osborne says married couples tax allowance will be unveiled in his Autumn Statement later this year.
Royal-Mail was extremely profitable in 1995 [IIRC]. It even won the contract to run the Argentine mail-service.
And then the left*rds were elected. Within a couple of years the union-fed eejits destroyed a state asset.
Thankfully they had a - ahem - reasonably honest Business Secretary; one Peter Mandelsoehn. Even he knew when to untie the dead-and-the-driftwood....
As for grumpy, what do you expect ? Just when you think HMG might have come to its senses you get episode 26 of The Madness of Twerp George.
Perhaps you could send him up here dressed as a grouse, about the 12th of August should be about right.
Declaration of interest: I vaguely know Richard Hooper, my wife used to work with him.
Kirsty Buchanan @KirstyBuchanan4
"It's not the right time to give MPs a pay rise," says the Chancellor
Kirsty Buchanan @KirstyBuchanan4
Osborne comes out strongly for HS2 despite soaring costs of the project
Kirsty Buchanan @KirstyBuchanan4
That will please the Tory backbench - Osborne sets Autumn Statement deadline to introduce married person's tax allowance
He used to import Koreans to work at the production plants. They would sit by conveyer belts watching the chicks go by and pick out any flawed ones to dispose of them. Apparently Koreans are particularly good at spotting genetically flawed chickens by sight alone...
Either the market is fixed in their favour and all mail operators in Britain have to offer a a universal service at the same pricing tiers or RM is allowed to drop it. I don't mind either tbh, but it doesn't make sense to privatise RM and put it into a free market where they are at a huge disadvantage.
privatisation is a good idea. First, govt should get out of business. Secondly, it will play well to um, younger voters. Snail mail is so, well, snail-like. Thirdly, what do we get by mail these days? Direct mail (20% of all mail), bank statements - good nudge to go electronic - and greetings cards. BFD.
And there will be any number of horizontal and vertical integrations into postage-inclusive offerings from moonpig, etc.
So in all a good thing, shows the Cons to be a modern, principled small state party. Hoorah!
But, more importantly, what in god's good name is happening in the cricket!?
Edited extra bit: that was phrased clumsily. I meant that not everyone wants to be online, or do their activities through that medium.
That was really my point, though. To say it's "sorted it's stuff out" is too broad brush. It's curate's egg and will remain so until we scoop the nasty bits out at some point in the future. As it stands currently as an entity it is toxic and unsellable (caused by the pensions bit).
Verging into semantics on my part, I suspect, so I will desist.
The lefties never learn.
Betfair must be all over the shop right now.
Ned Simons @nedsimons
Asked if he wants to be PM, Osborne says: 'I'm extremely happy doing this job and hope to continue doing it'
PoliticsHome @politicshome
Chancellor jokes about photos of him jogging in St James Park. "It's not easy being Oliver Letwin's correspondence secretary"
Paul Waugh @paulwaugh
Osborne reveals he's wearing a Jawbone 'Up' bracelet that monitors his steps, sleep u name it
Ned Simons @nedsimons
When did the chancellor last have a McDonalds? 'last week' he reveals.
George is planning to free the sub post offices not hold them up.
Osborne cites his favourite piece of political wisdom: "oppositions move to the centre ground, governments move the centre ground."
Since the package and postal market have already had a high degree of monopoly reform, there will be no similar gain with RM, we're dealing with the hard to handle bits now.
Alex Wickham @WikiGuido
Outstanding RT @keewa: Kate Middleton didn't realise she was in Labour, she was signed up automatically as a member of Unite.
There are no state post-offices in The Netherlands. TNT was going to be bought by United Parcels Services but - ahem - shyte happens. Not all successful programmers who work in the industry have to have a link to the Indian sub-continent.
Naught wrong with what is happening in The Netherlands. The same model will surely work in the UK ('Arriet-'Ardbint and her "gamer" trolls permitting)....