Cost of living crisis.

[foxes1988]

11 minutes ago, Claridge said:

Depends if the unions are making un realistic demands from a business, which they are as they are a bit of a throwback compared to new modern companies. Whether these new companies are good for workers is another matter, but as companies like Woolworths found out, people will use cheaper/better businesses. I don't like what Amazon are doing re the high street, but they are amazing at what they do and I often use them. Sentiment or brand loyalty doesn't come into it anymore for lots of people. Royal Mail are a bit like the BBC, on borrowed time

Cannot say I know enough specifically about Royal mail and the pay dispute but the industry in general has been offering quite a bit more then what the Royal Mail has offered.  The fact that with a 77% turnout  97.6 % of members have voted in favour would indicate that they aren't asking for unrealistic demands.

 

I think company profits are as much an issue as workers demanding pay rises.  These companies will realise that they cannot continue to be competitive with current profit rates and may have to swallow some the current costs themselves.

[urban.spaceman]

DWP payment finally through. Barely enough for me to spend on drugs and hookers. The rest I'll just squander.

Edited 20 July 2022 by urban.spaceman

[Trav Le Bleu]

15 hours ago, Claridge said:

Horrific service compared to Amazon prime etc…last chance saloon for posties, can’t see them lasting long with their idiotic old school unions

You see, you're thinking like our bosses do.

 

We don't do what Amazon do. We deliver everything, everywhere. If you live in a farm on the Outer Hebrides, you ain't getting an Amazon Prime delivery, they'll bung it in Royal Mail and get us to do it.

 

They also don't have 500+ houses to deliver letters to each day. And before you say, "nobody gets letters any more," I beg to differ.

Certainly less, but still enough and lots of very important stuff too.

 

The number of Amazon parcels I see every day sticking out of letterboxes (so that I have to pull them out (and usually find somewhere better to put it, not in plain sight and then write a note to tell them where it is, which is what the Amazon guy should have done!) to put my letters through, or just thrown on the doorstep in full view of passersby. 

 

Also, the number of Amazon Prime parcels that I deliver every day... and this isn't exactly the Outer Hebrides.

Edited 20 July 2022 by Trav Le Bleu

[Foxdiamond]

12 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

You see, you're thinking like our bosses do.

 

We don't do what Amazon do. We deliver everything, everywhere. If you live in a farm on the Outer Hebrides, you ain't getting an Amazon Prime delivery, they'll bung it in Royal Mail and get us to do it.

 

They also don't have 500+ houses to deliver letters to each day. And before you say, "nobody gets letters any more," I beg to differ.

Certainly less, but still enough and lots of very important stuff too.

 

The number of Amazon parcels I see every day sticking out of letterboxes (so that I have to pull them out (and usually find somewhere better to put it, not in plain sight and then write a note to tell them where it is, which is what the Amazon guy should have done!) to pu my letters through, or just thrown on the doorstep in full view of passersby. 

 

Also, the number of Amazon Prime parcels that I deliver every day... and this isn't exactly the Outer Hebrides.

More than happy to retain the services of The Royal Mail

[adam1]

5 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

These are the bands

 

So you would add another between 80k to 150k? Be better to add a 5% extra at the current additonal rate surely?

Increase over £150,000 to 50%

 

Add a new band in at £75,000 - £149,999  for 45% .

 

Wont happen as MPs wouldn't want to pay an additional 5%....

[Claridge]

1 hour ago, Foxdiamond said:

You seem to want to target union bosses as fat cats but not fat cat bosses.

Can't stand either

[Dahnsouff]

4 hours ago, Bert said:

That doesn’t give him any right to put the fear of life into people. 

So only free speech that contains no element of fear should be allowed?

[Wymsey]

Chips are going up.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-62227146

 

[ealingfox]

6 hours ago, Foxdiamond said:

I remember Jack Dee saying see how far you get with delivering a letter for the cost of a 1st class stamp

 

Exactly. Obviously mistakes and bad experiences happen but I find the idea baffling that overall the Royal Mail isn't a good service.

Edited 20 July 2022 by ealingfox

[Free Falling Foxes]

9 hours ago, Greg2607 said:

It's crazy that £50k is "higher rate tax" really.  Especially as the band's are being frozen for a few years.  People on £45k will find themselves in a higher rate tax bracket by the time the freeze ends if they do get pay rises over the next couple of years. 

Now you tell me. The day after I win the Euro millions too.

[Foxdiamond]

On London News today referring to the 10 years since the Olympics. The plan was for at least half of the new housing was to be truly affordable for local people. In fact only 1 in 8 affordable. 

[taupe]

I read an interestingly article recently about the London games, the big plans for them (under Livingstone) and how they basically got ****ed over by Boris sticking his oar in.

 

It was an ambitious project to regenerate the area, provide more affordable homes and jobs - all using the funding the games would bring in. Then a short-term thinking narcissist took control.

[grobyfox1990]

10 minutes ago, taupe said:

I read an interestingly article recently about the London games, the big plans for them (under Livingstone) and how they basically got ****ed over by Boris sticking his oar in.

 

It was an ambitious project to regenerate the area, provide more affordable homes and jobs - all using the funding the games would bring in. Then a short-term thinking narcissist took control.

The area is totally transformed and regenerated, I lived there for over 7 years pre and post olympics. Affordable housing? Maybe not.. 

[Parafox]

7 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

You see, you're thinking like our bosses do.

 

We don't do what Amazon do. We deliver everything, everywhere. If you live in a farm on the Outer Hebrides, you ain't getting an Amazon Prime delivery, they'll bung it in Royal Mail and get us to do it.

 

They also don't have 500+ houses to deliver letters to each day. And before you say, "nobody gets letters any more," I beg to differ.

Certainly less, but still enough and lots of very important stuff too.

 

The number of Amazon parcels I see every day sticking out of letterboxes (so that I have to pull them out (and usually find somewhere better to put it, not in plain sight and then write a note to tell them where it is, which is what the Amazon guy should have done!) to put my letters through, or just thrown on the doorstep in full view of passersby. 

 

Also, the number of Amazon Prime parcels that I deliver every day... and this isn't exactly the Outer Hebrides.

Amazon don't deliver hundreds of pointless leaflets, pamphlets or advertising shite like pizza menus like the RM are contracted to do. It's not uncommon that I get one letter (usually advising me of the need to understand that the water supply on my property is my responsibility and I need to take out some deal with Severn Trent in case a pipe bursts) plus 3-4 other bits of mailshots advertising things that I don't want.

[taupe]

Quote

The area is totally transformed and regenerated, I lived there for over 7 years pre and post olympics. Affordable housing? Maybe not.. 

 

True, 'transformed' the area has been. I lived nearby, the other side of the A12, in Old Ford and I knew/could see the area as was.

 

 

 

 

Edited 20 July 2022 by taupe

[Foxdiamond]

8 minutes ago, grobyfox1990 said:

The area is totally transformed and regenerated, I lived there for over 7 years pre and post olympics. Affordable housing? Maybe not.. 

Thank you. A major element of the legacy not met. 

[SecretPro]

7 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

You see, you're thinking like our bosses do.

 

We don't do what Amazon do. We deliver everything, everywhere. If you live in a farm on the Outer Hebrides, you ain't getting an Amazon Prime delivery, they'll bung it in Royal Mail and get us to do it.

 

They also don't have 500+ houses to deliver letters to each day. And before you say, "nobody gets letters any more," I beg to differ.

Certainly less, but still enough and lots of very important stuff too.

 

The number of Amazon parcels I see every day sticking out of letterboxes (so that I have to pull them out (and usually find somewhere better to put it, not in plain sight and then write a note to tell them where it is, which is what the Amazon guy should have done!) to put my letters through, or just thrown on the doorstep in full view of passersby. 

 

Also, the number of Amazon Prime parcels that I deliver every day... and this isn't exactly the Outer Hebrides.

I can see you haven't had a response to this - because there is no reasonable argument to present. 

 

Chapeau 

[nnfox]

10 hours ago, kenny said:

Plus the 13% Ni contributions. It would be a shame to forget that, although its not a tax I suppose?

Once you hit the higher tax bracket your NI employee contributions drop to 3.25% (Employers contributions remain at 15%)

[kenny]

6 minutes ago, nnfox said:

Once you hit the higher tax bracket your NI employee contributions drop to 3.25% (Employers contributions remain at 15%)

Very true. I feel much better now.

[grobyfox1990]

1 hour ago, taupe said:

 

True, 'transformed' the area has been. I lived nearby, the other side of the A12, in Old Ford and I knew/could see the area as was.

 

 

 

 

Nice. I was down the high street about 5 mins from the station 

[Trav Le Bleu]

2 hours ago, Parafox said:

Amazon don't deliver hundreds of pointless leaflets, pamphlets or advertising shite like pizza menus like the RM are contracted to do. It's not uncommon that I get one letter (usually advising me of the need to understand that the water supply on my property is my responsibility and I need to take out some deal with Severn Trent in case a pipe bursts) plus 3-4 other bits of mailshots advertising things that I don't want.

You don't want pizza?!?!?

[Parafox]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

You don't want pizza?!?!?

I don't want pizza from a place that needs to tell me they actually exist. I definitely Don't want Papa John's or Pizza Express, thank you. If you're delivering to my address, chuck them in my recycling rather than through my door. Cheers.  

[dsr-burnley]

I think one of the GPO's problems (apart from constantly changing their name!) is that under EU competition rules, they had to open up their market to competitors - which means that they have to let their postmen deliver competitors' mail - and further, that the competition commission decided that half the job is collecting the post and taking it to the sorting office, and half the job is delivering it.

 

Which means that if Joe Soap plc wants to send a letter to every household in the country, he can get a cheapo company with no postmen to frank his envelopes at say 70p a time, of which 25p goes to the cheapo company for taking the letters from the printer to the nearest post office, and 45p goes to the Post Office for sorting it and delivering it to every household.  As if that was fair and/or reasonable, which it clearly isn't.

 

That's a genuine Brexit bonus that could be applied pretty quickly - but it hasn't.  (Which I presume is ignorance and incompetence by the politicians and civil service, rather than deliberate policy.)

[Trav Le Bleu]

15 hours ago, Parafox said:

I don't want pizza from a place that needs to tell me they actually exist. I definitely Don't want Papa John's or Pizza Express, thank you. If you're delivering to my address, chuck them in my recycling rather than through my door. Cheers.  

Wish that I could.

 

You want to hate leaflets? Try delivering 1500-4000 every week for no extra money.

 

[pazzerfox]