Off Topic The "Discuss Anything Else" Thread

Well said.
I was going to answer Oddy's question and say that as far as I can see Labour's strategy is to adopt any minority cause. It gets great plaudits from those 'noisy' minorities, gets affirmation from the BBC but forgets that the majority of people in this country are still not like that.

At the 2010 election I remember a Labour supporter being asked what had Labour achieved and why was he going to vote for them. He answered that by saying they had banned foxhunting and allowed same-sex marriage. Hurrah.

Yes I am a dinosaur.

 

The Prussians are coming.

 

Hopefully not. I think the German police and related intelligence people have successfully cooked their goose for the time being. However, we must always be diligent and on-guard against these crackpots.

 

Oddy, ditto!! I’ve just watched 10 minutes of their childish, Facebook type sh**. If anyone is anti-royalty, then she certainly loads their gun. They suit each other.

 

Niveau riche!

 

Changing the subject, what does everyone think of Royal Mail?
20 years ago, we had 2 deliveries per day, fairly promptly about 8.15 and 14.30.
Now, we have one delivery, anytime between 13.00 and16.00.
During COVID, their official policy was to ring your bell and stand at the bottom of your drive until you acknowledged the delivery.
This was never done. They simply ring the bell and disappear, even leaving a new iPad all day on my doorstep.
My stepson posted my birthday card first class on the 29th November for my 3rd December birthday, and it arrived on the 7th December.
Companies like DPD and Amazon are in a different league. My package from Amazon, ordered yesterday afternoon, is arriving after lunch.
With DPD, you can track the driver to your door, and gauge his arrival down to within 15 minutes of the ‘tracked time.’
As Royal Mail’s postage prices have rocketed, their service has deteriorated to become shambolic.
Their days are numbered and deservedly so.

 

No more so than klaus Schwab.

 

The post office are a letter delivery service trying to move into the parcel business.

 

Have to agree with you almost 100% on Royal Mail, but it would be remiss and unfair of me not to mention one good effort by RM. Briefly, my dear wife is crackers about stem ginger in syrup (years ago used to buy it for her from none other than Fortnum & Mason, as the best stem ginger in syrup is from UK suppiers. certainly not from German-based sellers). So, I ordered a couple of large bottles of the best stem ginger I could find on the UK market, and the supplier sent it by Royal Mail. Imagine my surprise when it arrived in just a few days via the Royal Mail 'Priority' delivery service, at least two weeks before the previously estimated arrival time here in Munich. A much appreciated effort by RM, must say.

 

https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/a...cy-systemic-collapse-and-pandemic-simulation/
if you want some understanding of what’s been going on for the last few years have already of this.

 

Interesting article in the Daily Telegraph today.
Anyone on Universal Credit- provided the person works two days and earns no more than 658.00 per month- can claim benefits up to £45,000 per annum. This equates to a gross salary of £62,000 for a normal weekly worker.
And many politicians tell us most immigrants are not economic migrants.
I think I’ll go and loctite myself in the Commons as my right to protest!

 

Unfortunately your blackrocks and vanguard own governments. They dictate policy all over the planet.

 

The HK mail service was set up by the Brits. 6 years ago it cost the equivalent of 4p to send a letter to someone in HK. Not surprising you might say, but it only cost 35p to send an airmail letter to the UK. Had the ridiculous situation of having a pair of sink taps I needed to send to France that I'd bought in the UK. The cost of posting them in the UK was something like £6, so took them to HK and posted them airmail to France for 50p.
The HK Service is efficient and makes big profits. Now how does that work?

 

I guess it depends where you live as to how long a first class item takes to actual arrive. My sister-in-law had her latest birthday on Monday 5th December. I posted the card on Friday 2nd December, figuring it could arrive early (Saturday, but she would know what it was anyway) or the Monday (two working days). It only had to go 20 miles as the crow flies but I knew it would go nearer 100 miles via Royal Mail sorting offices. Anyway, it did arrive on the Monday. If you want something to be guaranteed to arrive next day (strikes permitting) they have an extra charge service for that now.

It is amazing how stupid people are in supporting the Royal Mail strikes, where the union has consistently used false information in support of their claims and then when somebody challenges them about the pay rise that is on offer they claim that the strike is not about that but terms and conditions.

Royal Mail staff are paid more than the people that deliver parcels for the other couriers and have much better pensions yet they want more money despite the fact that the UK Royal Mail is losing £1m a day. The union keeps harping on about share dividends paid out years ago (especially during the pandemic when deliveries rocketed) but they do not bother to point out that most of the Royal Mail’s profits come from their European parcel delivery business.

In the Royal Mail Q1 financial summary for 2022, UK Royal Mail business made a loss of £92m – there are roughly 91 days in a quarter so they lost £1m a day. The European Royal Mail business made a profit of £94m, so overall in the first quarter, Royal Mail’s operations made a profit of £2m on a business with a turnover of hundreds of millions.

Just as with the RMT workers, the employer wants to reform the prehistoric working practises to try and get more productivity from their employees for their wages. The unions oppose this because that means doing more work and efficiency savings mean fewer jobs for their union members. The RMT have made their dispute totally political.

If the Royal Mail was split into two businesses, shareholders would dump the UK business in a nano-second as they would never get a return on their investment.

 

As I understand it Royal Mail has a charter to deliver Mail. It wants to become a parcel delivery service but it’s charter prevents this.