Stamps.

Had to send a couple of Christmas cards today. Bit late I know, but I sent them first class. The stamps cost £1.25 each. Now I know I'm a bit behind the times and all that, and the missis usually sends them, but I was flabberghasted. £1.25. . . Phew !

Jacks this is why people are sending less and less Christmas cards If you have been following the news both national/local there is the double trouble . The royal mail have been concentrating on parcels or do not have enough staff to deliver letters 1st class or not Last week I saw the postie 3 times out of 6 delivery days

At one time the GPO employed loads of temporary postmen due to the volume of cards at Christmas,we have had only two delivered this year.It is now too expensive and the Royal Mail is unreliable and it is pot luck with deliveries.

I see my postman on a daily basis, he is usually delivering advertising material for various companies.

Loved doing the Christmas Post when I was a student.

About two weeks ago I sent four Christmas cards to European countries and it cost me around £12 - and, that was only for the stamps.

When I whur a kid, it was 2.5d for a letter postage stamp.

But there was a thing called 'Printed Paper Rate', so if you tucked in the flap so envelope was unsealed it would go for tuppence, (2d) that is pre-decimal pennies. (about one and a quarter of our decimal pennies)

ie an increase of 100X from then to what jacks paid. (in opening post)

First post was delivered before you left the house for work, typically around 6-00am. There was another delivery around 2-00pm.

At this time of year, there could be additional deliveries to supplement the regular as above.

In the early seventies when I was made redundant, I worked as a Postman when it was in the public sector and was a far better service than what it is today since Thatcher put it in the private sector.




Never any staff shortages with many of the older postmen and women having served in the war and always willing to help newcomers with preparing a delivery to go out on time which at the time was first delivery by 7am with 1pm for the second delivery.











At Christmas, there was so much mail that I was for three years made a temporary postman higher grade (Chargehand) during December on a 12 hour shift 9pm to 9am at Wigan North Western Station where along with a team of students offloaded the many mailbags off the numerous mail trains.




What I made during the Christmas period paid for the Christmas period of my Wife an I.




And the staff I worked with during the time were some of the best people I ever worked with in all the time I was employed with a attittude of one for all and all for one in any disprute with management.




I only left because I got a better higher paid job at Metal Box in my normal trade of engineering.

Just something else the Tories have messed up

Growing up we could get 3 deliveries a day. Today lucky if I get any Mail and yesterday my neighbour got my Mail and I am always getting other peoples mail. My usual postie was day off and he said it’s agency staff these days.

Owd Codger

"Thatcher put it in the private sector"

No, Cameron and Clegg privatised it and that was about ten years ago, going back to 1979/80 the GPO (general post office) was run as a public service, to facilitate the operation of the country, everyone used it and every company and government department used it, but it was profitable, but that was because of just one reason, the telephones, the GPO ran the telephone network and they charged a fortune for using it, so Thatcher hived off the telephone side of the GPO and called it BT and that was privatised and the loss making rest of the GPO became Royal Mail and then they split off the parcel delivery side of it, but it was never in a profitable enough condition to privatise, until Cameron and Clegg tinkered about with it, and now just like gas, electric, water, public transport it costs a bloody fortune to use it, just like every other privatised industry

The split may have come about anyway, even if Mrs T had not so acted.

Even back in the 1960's, within the industry such a split was frequently under discussion.

In any case, it was something of an anomaly. When telegraphy emerged, the Post Office claimed the wire service was an electronic form of mail. Telephony, of course, evolved from telegraphy as the needed technology developed.

Although telephony was a very profitable industry (Just look up history of Bell Telephone Corp in USA), technology developed in such a way that large demands for capital occured from time to time. In UK, the willingness of Government to provide such capital was seen to limit development.

Jacks, Its still good value at £1.25 to send a letter anywhere in the UK, Just think how much it would cost for you to take it in person, Even to take it Sent helins would cost a fiver in petrol,

I usually send around 50 cards, I've limited them this year to family and very close friends. The rest will get an email

The people who I really care about live local and I can walk or bike and meet and hug or shake hands but, My family in Canada it would cost a lot to post so, we ' Moonpig' a greeting card or, ' amazon' a gift or ' paypal' them some cash, To ' Moonpig' a card is about £2.50 and that travels 3000 miles,,,, Cheap at half the price,,,,,

I do not generally collect stamps: most hold no interest for me.

However, I do have one highly specialised thematic collection. It illustrates hyperinflation in Germany.

The same stamp goes from 12 Marks, overprinted with a range of new denominations, to end at, 20 MILLION, MILLION Marks!

Tommy Two Stroke

My aplogies for thinking that Royal Mail was one of the many industries that Thatcher privatised for the yuppies when she was in power.

However, it would appear that it was the Labour government of 1997 which started the ball rolling towards Royal Mail becoming a plc in the private sector and floated on the stock exchange.

How then can Handsomeminer claim that it was the Tories who messed things up?

Answers may be made on a postage stamp!

Ena, I too worked for a couple of weeks at Christmas when in the last couple of years at school.. Loved it.. We wore a GPO armband which let us travel on the bus for free. When we we got back after the first delivery. We would go to the canteen for our dinner. Before setting off for the second delivery.
The first year I was delivering in Shevington and then the second year I delivered in Marsh Green.

this year also using moonpig because there is only one airline flying from here....

Posted by: peter israel (2030) View peter israel's page

this year also using moonpig because there is only one airline flying from here....

Replied: 23rd Dec 2023 at 00:15

admin

At the time I was working for Royal Mail between 1970 and 1974, it was only free travel on the buses of Wigan Corporation and If you were on a delivery where for example, Ribble were the bus operator, you had to pay the fare and the following morning submit the ticket to the PHG who give you back the amount of the fare.

Gosh, that takes me back, Admin and OC.

It was in the early 1970's when I did the Christmas post as a student temp.

They had offered me regular nights. (more pay).
I did a little letter sorting, much more parcel sorting, but mostly loading and unloading the rail parcel cars on the station in the middle of the night. (I would not have bumped into you, as this was in Leicester)

So, I never got to do delivery walks, which I would have liked, as I enjoy long early morning walks. No armband or free bus rides.

However I mention because:

Over a decade prior to this, I had also been working for the Post Office. (sort of, anyway it's too complicated to go into on here)

This was when the microwave network was being established, if you recall, Telstar, Post Office Tower etc.

Anyhow, this entailed working outside on exposed locations in winter, for which they graciously provided me with suitable clothing: oilskins, souwester and a huge greatcoat, etc.

The latter was a black military style garment. On the labels it had crown emblems, and in red the letters GPO.

Mostly, there were not busses in the locations we found ourselves working, but on the rare occasions that I caught a bus, whilst wearing that coat, I could never get the conductor to accept the bus fare which I proffered.