An eery stillness pervades .....

[Spitfire]

[Sooty655]

We were all waiting to see who would jump in first.

[Spitfire]

Did someone speak ....

[34053]

Kind of spooky isn't it

Must be the time of year

PW

[Aceyone]

Where's Waldo ?

[Spitfire]

Where's Waldo ?

Pfffttt ... flippin' American influence

If you meant WALLY ..... well he's here somewhere ...

[Aceyone]

I know where Wally is,he is the Argos delivery driver with my new fridge/freezer and I just found out he has had an " issue " with his lorry and is running approx 2 hours + late

[Spitfire]

Nope - Wally works for the Royal Mail ...

My son needed a parcel in London today so I sent it yesterday at 12 noon Special Delivery from Cornwall - £8.45 guaranteed next day (today) before 1pm

He's just texted - not received ... so I track it - 'progressing through our system' it says .. so I ring and it seems in Truro last night someone misread the postcode and sent it to the Home Counties area on the wrong lorry despite it saying clearly in permanent marker LONDON ... when it arrived they realised the cock up and forwarded it on - but now he wont get it till tomorrow morning

We get a full refund as 'compensation' but that's not good enough for a missed deadline ....

I despair at so called modern 'progress' - so much for postcodes

[Mayfly]

Last week there was a funeral we wanted to attend but it was invite only as it was a very prominent lady who lived in our area, we didn't get an invite so was sorry to miss it - then our invite arrived 4 days after posting [1st class] at 15.55, 2 hours after the funeral.

To say I was p'd was an understatement!!!!

[Aceyone]

Hmm,I understood privatisation was suppose to improve services

[Spitfire]

Well it did arrive 24 hours late - and I did get a refund of the £8.45 I spent - and 2 verbal apologies on the phone...but that's not the point - you can't rely on anything nowadays ...

And as mentioned above its all part of the deterioration of service after privatisation - profit before service now ...

Every single company that was privatised under Thatcher has gone to total bollox in the name of profit ... electricity is crap - gas is crap - water is even more crap (especially down here in Cornwall) - BT is crap - The trains are crap - directory enquiries is total crap .. and so it goes on

It was all supposed to bring us competition and therefore keener prices - all its done is sell services to the absolute lowest possible bidder who then gives the leanest and most trimmed down service they can give to us plebs so they can get the shareholders and fat cats bigger salaries and dividends....

And another one that winds me up is when diesel was cheaper than petrol it was the panacea to cure all - 'its far cheaper because it doesn't cost as much to produce' - it's less pollution than leaded petrol so go out and buy a diesel car and save the world ...

So we all buy a diesel car ....and now the price is FAR higher than petrol [how did that happen I wonder - or profit] and suddenly they've discovered that diesel emissions are polluting the air more than leaded petrol was - it was all a big con

We've all been sold down the river

[Ray C]

Anyway..........Happy Christmas from Manchester where everything works ok.....

[Spitfire]

Awwww come on Ray - we almost had a thread going there

[RLN]

WTF?

[Spitfire]

Hoorah - someone else joins the fray

Just trying to stir this old place up again ....

[Sooty655]

Yes, BT was much better as a union run dogma-before-service public company. How we all enjoyed the two-year waiting list to get two existing wires re-connected in the exchange.

As for electricity, I was thrown off site at a UK power station for carrying my own toolbox when I had a staff union card as opposed to a shop-floor one. Apparently I was (grudgingly) allowed to use the tools, but not to carry the toolbox.

Not anecdotes, both true and both personal experience.

[Spitfire]

OOooo do I detect someone doesn't like unions

I don't have enough experience of them to comment - never having been in one or come across one - but I am sure you will realise that I have enough true and personal experiences, not anecdotes, about similar stupidity and totally appalling service within non-union privatised industries to black cat yours - but, unfortunatey, not enough space because there's so many

[Sooty655]

OOooo do I detect someone doesn't like unions

I don't have enough experience of them to comment - never having been in one or come across one - but I am sure you will realise that I have enough true and personal experiences, not anecdotes, about similar stupidity and totally appalling service within non-union privatised industries to black cat yours - but, unfortunatey, not enough space because there's so many

You most certainly do. The corrosive influence of the British model of trade unionism over 1970s working life was one of the main reasons I left the country for 25 years.

However, on your second point I make no claim that things are any better now, particularly for the "customer". My argument is with those who pretend everything was better before privatisation. I'm old enough to remember that it most certainly wasn't. It was largely the same crap with a different hat on.

[Spitfire]

So there we have common ground then ..

I make absolutely no claim that anything much was better before privatisation - just that now its all shedloads worse ...

[Sooty655]

On the basis of that logic it must have been better before because it certainly improved after.

[Dee]

oiiiiiiiiiii im here!!

[Aceyone]

Unions have traditionally received a bad press cos that's what the ( mostly ) Tory influenced media wanted but apart from the more stupid antics of a few Unions there are a lot of who work tirelessly for their members without the unneeded histrionics of the far left brigade, as for whether things were better or worse before privatisation some things have improved but they probably would have anyway ,the basics like water/gas/electricity/mail/transport are still being provided more or less exactly as they were but at a much higher price , it was always in the Tories interests to stir up the Unions ,for them it was the road to re-election !

[Sploosher]

you pay more for diesel duel than petrol because you get more MPG, so you have to fill up less often, but HMG still wants your money via fuel duty

[Ray C]

Morrisons Stockport have the cheapest petrol I've seen so far.....£1.18 Lt...Going down nicely...

[Spitfire]

you pay more for diesel fuel than petrol because you get more MPG, so you have to fill up less often, but HMG still wants your money via fuel duty

Aha - I see - so when petrol was more expensive and we weren't buying diesel we weren't getting the extra MPG ... but as soon as we started buying it because we saw the extra MPG they increased the price to sponge off our good fortune

Governments eh .. who'd trust one - of any persuasion

Petrol - Sainsburys Penzance 112.9p - diesel 119.9p