Another post

Royal Mail is putting up the price of posting a letter again. This won’t matter to most people, who rarely write letters (when was the last time?) But it’s the old story, when a service isn’t being used very much the bosses always resort to price (or fare) increases, thus further reducing the demand for their service. That’s the alternative to fresh thinking. Haven’t the top dogs at Royal Mail noticed that vinyl is back—big style? How did that happen? And the government too might look again at what a thriving Royal Mail might mean for the country, and with a bit of creative thinking, children’s education. Instead, all we get is another company sold off to foreign ownership. So a first class stamp will be £1.70 and second class 87p. In 1840 the first stamp the Penny Black, as the name suggests cost one (old) penny. According to the Bank of England inflation calculator, that penny would now be 33p. Even if that were the price of a stamp today, if pitted against social media nobody would pay it. But social media is virtual and snail mail is physical. I can’t see that it would be too difficult to build a successful marketing campaign on that basis. But it would take more than the new owners of Royal Mail or the government to make a campaign of it. I don’t suppose either side has identified any shared interest in the matter. Consequently the service will continue to deteriorate with the supine regulator’s approval.