Crazy new post office rule

[Phil Pascoe]

The problem was that state run industries were so shambolic, inefficient and expensive that any option was seen as a good one. I had the misfortune to have to take train to school for six years - trains were dirty, rarely on time (sometimes cancelled altogether), and B.R. staff would see you die before they bothered to lift a finger to help you, but still you hear people hark back to the good old days of British Rail. The fact that they're bad now doesn't mean they were good then.

 

[Eric The Viking]

The problem was that state run industries were so shambolic, inefficient and expensive that any option was seen as a good one. I had the misfortune to have to take train to school for six years - trains were dirty, rarely on time (sometimes cancelled altogether), and B.R. staff would see you die before they bothered to lift a finger to help you, but still you hear people hark back to the good old days of British Rail. The fact that they're bad now doesn't mean they were good then.

That's true, but privatization was a crazy answer.

There *were* some extremely well-run public sector organizations: Ordnance Survey, the CEGB, most of the water boards, etc. I'd almost guarantee that traditional parts of the county councils' activity - road repairs, etc. were more efficient when done in-house. The classic example of this is road clearing in winter. When there's heavy snow, drop everything else; put everyone on snowploughs and gritting. Net extra expense: very small, only overtime.

You also didn't have loads of organisations trying to dig up the roads piecemeal, fight over wayleaves, etc. the present "system" is barking.

Similarly, with the Post Office: how much more efficient does competition make letter and parcel delivery, to cover all the new administration infrastructures (and their marketing departments, sales teams and advertising budgets, etc.) that now exist? We all pay for all of them, one way or another, as organisations we deal with use them. If it was one big integrated system, it could be very efficient indeed...

... just sayin'.

E.