Re: Royal Mail price rise (split from Tory thread)

British Gas was privatised in 1986 ( Margaret Thatcher )
British Steel was privatised in 1988 ( Margaret Thatcher )
Water was privatised in 1989 ( Margaret ThatcherElectric was Privatised in 1991. ( John Major )
Railways was Privatised in 1994 ( John Major )
National Coal board was Privatised in 1994 ( John Major )

Still conservative policy and privatisations AB - and the planning and organisation necessary to do it must have been on the table before John Major was Prime Minister

Re: Royal Mail price rise (split from Tory thread)

My postman says there has been a huge rise in the number of parcels being sent due to online sales/ebay. This should help to compensate for the decline in the number of letters being sent

Re: Royal Mail price rise (split from Tory thread)

Yes I heard that as well Meg. I'm still using stamps bought before the last increase and will definitely be buying lots more before they go up again.

Re: Royal Mail price rise (split from Tory thread)

It's a sign of the technological times though, isn't it? We've come a long way from the penny black and the thre'penny red.

I receive and send emails regularly to my friends in Canada and Sweden and, provided they're online, I get a reply back almost straight away but, if I wrote, it could be weeks before I heard from them again.

I used to love hand-writing letters, but I don't really think it will affect the general public as much as it will affect businesses who still have to send out letters, parcels, etc.

Re: Royal Mail price rise (split from Tory thread)

The Coal board and Railways were on the table during Harold Wilsons term in office.
Of course the Conservatives are for Privatisation that is the nature of their party whereas the nature of Labour is for the working man or was, Since Blair and Brown it is now more right wing than the Tory's.

Re: Royal Mail price rise (split from Tory thread)

Wrong yet again Bob. During much of Wilson's premiership I worked for British Rail and after I left, still retained connections with people in the industry. There was never any plans to privatise the Railways through the 60s or 70s. It was only at the end of the 70s when Thatcher (phth, phth,phth) became Prime Minister that plans were drawn up to privatise the system.

Re: Royal Mail price rise (split from Tory thread)

Joe you really do need to stop listening to socialist propaganda and get the true facts.

In the late 60's/70's due to my parents being in business, I was lucky enough, on numerous occaisions, to have meetings and meals with the Late Barbara Castle, a woman I admired most of all. She used to say that the possible downfall of Wilson would be his opposition to the Labour party's policy of Nationalism.
She used to tell of meetings that discussed getting rid of non-profitable industry's by off loading them onto the private sector, which she was against, Coal and Railways being at the top of the list.
When Beeching made his historical list of railways to close, Wilson publically opposed it and said that the Labour party would reverse the decision when they got back into power, in fact he did the opposite and made Barbara Castle shut the unprofitable lines which she strongly objected to and indeed successfully refused to close several lines.

Although she was TRUE labour she wanted to curb the power of the unions so she produced a White paper on the subject, I forget what it was called, to which most unions were up in arms about. So you see it was not only Maggie who wanted the trade unions put into place and privatise industry.

Re: Royal Mail price rise (split from Tory thread)

Yes Bob, 'heady days', I remember them very well. The 'white Paper' was entitled "In Place of Strife" and I was present at the TUC conference in September 1968 and the Re-convened TUC conference in Fairfield Halls in May 1969. Yes the Trade union movement were bitterly opposed to the policies advocated in the White Paper and Wilson and Castle were warned in no uncertain terms that despite the White Paper's intentions, there would be industrial and political action against the policies.

The General election in 1970 was lost by Wilson because he lost support of the Trade Union movement. The incoming 'Heath' government resurrected Castle's 'white paper' in the Industrial Relations Act of 1971. It was this Act which substantially brought down the Heath Government three years later when he posed the question "who governs???" - the answer came back that it wasn't him or his government!!!

Re: Royal Mail price rise (split from Tory thread)

Thought I'd post this link as it's relevant to the original post:

A man in Cornwall has set up his own postal service, delivering letters around his local town while riding a penny-farthing.

Graham Eccles set up this unique service following Royal Mail's recent announcement that the price of first-class stamps will rise to 60p.

The man who lives in Bude now delivers mail within his hometown and the surrounding villages for 25p a letter, more than half the price of Royal Mail's postage.

There's video at this link....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17619173

Re: Royal Mail price rise (split from Tory thread)

Good for him. An enterprising chap, I'd say.

I couldn't believe the news the other day when they said first class was going up (again) to 60p this time, and second class 50p. That's a scandal.