What happened on 8th June 2023 - with your comments in the Web

On Thursday, Royal Mail’s plan to stop delivering post on Saturdays has been blocked by the government in a blow to the company, which has claimed a six-day service is financially unsustainable.

The postal company had requested that the government change the universal service obligation (USO) – a condition of its privatisation in 2013. However, the business department said it had no plans to adjust the requirement to deliver on Saturday as well as the five weekdays, in a response to a report by MPs on the business select committee. MPs would have to vote through any changes to the obligation.

Kevin Hollinrake, a minister at the Department for Business and Trade, wrote: “We currently have no plans to change the minimum requirements of the universal postal service as set out in the Postal Services Act 2011 … including six-day letter deliveries.”

 The reaction was coherent.

"Established in 1516 as a public service

Survives 500 years of public ownership

Sold off between 2011-2015

Now needs to make cuts to availability because "muh financial sustainability"

Hilarious"

"it's just greed. They likely want to drop Saturdays so they can put the same staff on parcels. The money made off those will likely be used for more shareholder and top boss bonuses, and the day to day service wouldn't see any improvement. Past precedent - look at what they did during COVID. Record profit, threw most of it at shareholders with next to nothing happening for workers or the service." - "Nah, they want to drop Saturday deliveries because it means they can sack 1/6 of the workforce if they do. Royal Mail have done everything a private company can do to generate profit - they've cut services, they've increased prices, they've sold off frankly absurd amounts of land, they've closed sites and moved them to cheaper areas - all they have left to cut is the employees.

That's why they're fighting so hard against any pay rise, and why they're so desperately trying to undermine the current terms and conditions - and why they want a 5 day USO. A 1/6 reduction is over 25,000 people they can get rid of - that's what this is about, as with any private business. Them not getting a 5 day USO won't stop that however, they'll still get rid - they'll just keep violating the USO deliberately to force the issue, as they're already doing across the country."

"Funny that. It’s almost like certain public services can appear to operate at a net positive as their fees largely offset their operating costs… when they don’t have to pay out shareholder dividends.

Then it gets privitised, shareholders buy in, their investment gets frittered away as bonuses for the higher ups or on wasteful “IT modernisation” projects (ie, someone’s mate owns a tech firm and wants a juicy contract) and then the shareholders are left trying to ravenously claw at any of the unchanged incoming monies."

On the same very day, a weekend heat-health alert has been raised from yellow to a more severe amber warning in eastern and southern England, and the Midlands.

The amber alert - in place from 09:00 BST on Friday - indicates high temperatures could affect all ages and impact the health service. The alert, issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), continues until 09:00 BST on Monday.

Temperatures are forecast to hit 30C and some thunderstorms are expected. Parts of the country are predicted to be hotter than Marbella, Ibiza and Tenerife in the coming days as a plume of warm air moves in from the south, the Met office says.

 

This time the news was read with less distrust.

"Oh no.It’s not even supposed to be that hot, just wait until mid July when we hit 35 degrees for a few days in a row. We’ll all be doomed."

"Time to browse air conditioner units and cry again."

Some readers shared their life-hacks:

"Sounds silly, but buy some survival blankets and tape them to the glass on the outside. Makes a huuuge difference on those baking days" - "Even better if the sheets are slightly damp. Spray them up once they are there."

"You can buy a cheap transparent film that reflects back a large amount of the sun's heat. Genuinely do work. MDP Supplies they are a good source and have great prices."

"Get a light-blocking blind / window shutters!!! Growing up on the continent these were so much more useful than an air con unit. Put them down and trust it’ll keep your rooms so cool: then just leave your windows open at night and it’ll be grand" - "It's most effective on the outside of the building. If it's inside the window, you have a load of hot air being generated between the curtains and the glass, and that hot air will percolate into the room through the day"

On Thursday, as well, NHS chiefs have blamed staff shortages for waiting lists reaching another record high, with 7.4 million people in England waiting to start treatment as of the end of April.

One NHS leader said the figures showed that unsustainable “pressure continues to pile on an overstretched NHS”, and urged the government to speed up publication of its long-awaited workforce plan, which has been repeatedly postponed.

Waiting list figures in England have crept up again after showing signs of improvement in recent months, despite Rishi Sunak citing bringing numbers down as one of the government’s top five priorities for 2023.

It raised indignation among British readers.

"35% pay cut for doctors since 2008. Not exactly shocking this is happening is it? I personally know of an entire stroke department that's shut because 80% of the doctors there just moved to Ireland for the pay rise from £89,000 to £250,000.

Blame the Tories but Wes Streeting's pretty clear he's not fixing this either."

"I don't get it, the doctors' union should just strike. Who in society does not think doctors should be the highest paid large class of workers? It's not like there's no sympathy. What will it look like if all the doctors just say "hey, July 30th, we're all off, all of us, all at once, unless you pay up".

Nobody has society by the balls as much as the medical people, why don't they squeeze? Train drivers seem to be doing ok out of it, why not follow their example?"

Shockingly some people hate the idea of unionised workers getting better pay. If the pay is anywhere near the national average they seem to think they should appreciate it as it is and no one should earn more than their miserable wage. They don’t seem to understand that they too are probably massively underpaid and union forced pay rises generally end up benefiting the wider population too."

 On Thursday once again, Brits were informed that lynx and wolves are likely to become feared and hated if they are reintroduced into Britain’s forests, the adventurer and broadcaster Ray Mears has warned.

Speaking at Cheltenham science festival, he said Britain was not ready for such rewilding schemes, despite the potential ecological benefits. “I don’t think we should be discussing reintroducing lynx or wolf at this stage because we still have two apex predators that we can’t live with – the hen harrier and the golden eagle,” he said. “These are still being poisoned.”

So, better management of existing apex predators and compensation schemes for farmers and gamekeepers needed.

The Redditors noticed a confusing presentation of info in the article, and local problems of nature conservation, as well:

"You'd think the article might push the idea that we should maybe do better at prosecuting the people murdering our existing top predators."

"Maybe someone who knows more about this will chime in but I assume that it’s extremely difficult to police what happens on remote farms which golden eagles visit etc. It’s hard enough to prosecute criminals in cities where there’s literal video of their actions.

That might be why it focuses on incentivising people to do the right thing. It might be a much more productive approach since I assume that farmers only do criminal things when there’s a significant incentive to do so."

"Ref crime Rural policing is a nightmare, response times are a joke but at the same time you don't have the foot traffic and associated crimes of opportunity so it tends to be theft of agricultural machinery stolen to order and shipped abroad by organised gangs.

Everyone knows everyone and vehicles not from the area are noticed. When I first moved to where I am now I was spied on a couple of times and I just walked over and introduced myself. No one is out to get anyone just looking out for stuff.

With the golden eagle if you're on about wildlife crime then I'd probably say any released predators would do fine provided they didn't start preying on livestock. Farmers aren't there for a hobby they have to make money, one way round this used in a few countries is the government has money set aside from the project funding to compensate farmers for lost livestock that pays out once it's a certified attack by whatever has been released.

We have a major problem with deer in Britain and over the next few years it could really get out of hand. The reintroduction of predators could be really successful for both the released animals and the deer (ironically), look at Yellowstone national park in the US as an example.

Final point and I'll shut up, the people you want to get on side for this the land owners/famers obviously but gamekeepers and deer stalkers, they know the land better than anyone, where the prey are, where the quiet spots are for dens etc and would be probably the best allies because they'd love to see predators back in the environment.

Final final point, people need to be prepared for the first time a wolf (for example) is killed. If a bloke loses 3 cows in a week to wolf attacks then is out and sees a wolf attacking one of his cows he should be well within his rights (like with dogs) to shoot it to defend his herd. They shouldn't be demonised for that and we shouldn't have 'evil farmer murders defenceless wolf with assault rifle' on the front of the daily mail."