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The new government has only been in power for five minutes but they need to urgently halt the sale of our 500-year-old institution for £3.5bn to Czech tycoon who made his billions flogging Russian gas
Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Where is Postman Paul, our reliable mailman?
He’s always here in his shorts, rain or shine, winter and summer, lugging his heavy bag round Cross Hills village. But he’s been missing for a week, and I worry. Has he followed the example of The Missing Postman film, jumping on his bike to escape bullying Royal Mail bosses?
There’s been no delivery, either, and the Keighley sorting office number is out of action. Royal Mail in London said Paul is “temporarily reassigned” and there is no outstanding mail. This is untrue. Important stuff sent up to 12 days ago, and Mrs R’s birthday cards, are stuck in the post.
I hear that local managers have imposed a new computerised system of the ‘walks’ and chaos reigns. This must be the tip of a very nasty iceberg. Royal Mail is being gutted for delivery to Daniel Kretinsky, the multi-billionaire Czech tycoon bidding £3.6bn to buy this great British institution, privatised by the Tories.
He already owns 27% and wants to buy the lot. The bosses are up for it, and shareholders will decide in September, presumably at great profit to themselves. What about us? It doesn’t have to be this way. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds can ‘call in’ the deal under laws giving ministers the power to scrutinise or even block such takeovers.
Royal Mail was founded by Henry VIII 500 years ago. Labour has only been in power for five minutes, but they should move quickly to stop this hasty sell-off to a fast-buck foreign investor who made his billions flogging Russian gas. Posties privately voice their suspicions that Royal Mail would like to get rid of letters altogether, and concentrate on the lucrative parcels business.
That makes a kind of sense. Nonsense.
Biden getting Covid reminds us to be vigilant
Covid-19 disappeared from the headlines. It wasn’t even mentioned in the King’s Speech. But now it’s back. President Biden has it, and the first report of the official inquiry into the disease that killed more than 230,000 in the UK came out yesterday.
As expected, it lambasted the Tory government’s unpreparedness for the pandemic. In truth, Covid never went away. Three generations of my family – mother, daughter, grandmother – have all been affected by the virus in the last week. These days, too many people treat the disease as a minor ailment and don’t take up the latest vaccinations, especially old folk.
This is folly. All of us should get the jabs offered, because Covid doesn’t read the papers.
I was a silly billy over goat buying expedition
King Charles bestowed the royal title on the golden Guernsey goat, an honour richly deserved. The goat is a lovely animal, capable of eating almost anything.
Years ago in deepest Hertfordshire, I went with two chums to Aylesbury cattle market to buy a billy. We returned at midnight, much the worse for wear, with no animal except a road-kill rabbit that Mrs R threw in the bin. Oh, well.
Gareth deserves free pint in every boozer
A knighthood for departing England manager Gareth Southgate would be good. Something better would be the OBB: the Order of the British Boozer.
Our football hero, who single-handedly saved so many British pubs in the Euros, should be entitled to walk into any hostelry and ask for a pint: free, gratis and for nothing. That’s the kind of national thank you that fans – and publicans – would understand.
