It’s a picture that has been burnished into the collective memory. Queen Elizabeth II smiling, a little frail, clutching her late husband’s shepherd’s crook while a roaring fire blazed behind her, just 24 hours before she died. We all remember the time, and indeed the place: September 8, 2022, at …
Read More »Royal Mail’s cuts pose risk to patient safety, warn NHS chiefs
Last week, the annual British Social Attitudes survey found that public satisfaction with the NHS had dropped to its lowest level on record, with fewer than one in four happy with the service. The public’s unhappiness was driven by GP and dental practices but reflected across all services. New data …
Read More »Royal Mail delivers card 27 years after it was posted
Her plea reached Ms Meleyal, who now lives in Hull, who said she “was shocked but pleased as punch that someone was thinking of me all that time ago”. “At first I thought it was a joke but when I got the letter I was excited and when I found …
Read More »US Navy destroyers can hunt subs. But a dedicated frigate is better
The Type 23 does have the Magazine Torpedo Launch System, which enabled me to lob a torpedo straight into the water next to the ship. That’s a lot, lot better than nothing (as many warships have) and I found it a comfort. But I’m a big fan of ASROC and …
Read More »Companies roundup: DS Smith takeover & Entain
DS Smith (SMDS), Entain (ENT), car registrations, Future (FUTR), Ascential (ASCL), Motorpoint (MOTR) and Gooch & Housego (GHH) Packaging giants DS Smith (SMDS) and Mondi (MNDI) are still in merger talks, having reached an agreement in principle last month. The Panel on Takeovers and Mergers has extended the offer deadline from 5pm on 4 April …
Read More »Small businesses and greetings card firms blast ‘drastic’ Royal Mail plan to end daily second class deliveries and cut the 85p-a-letter service to five times a fortnight
Royal Mail has come under fire from small businesses and greetings card firms over plans to slash daily second-class letter deliveries. The company revealed plans yesterday to scrap the deliveries on Saturdays and cut the service to just five times every two weeks. But critics including the Federation of Small Businesses …
Read More »Five-bedroom mansion once owned by mastermind of £70m Royal Mail fraud can be yours for £2.75million – and you’ll have Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne for neighbours too
A five-bedroom mansion once owned by a scammer who fleeced the Royal Mail out of £70million has gone up for sale after being seized. Complete with a detached pool house, the sprawling property is the former home of Narinder Sandhu, 62, who used the proceeds of an elaborate postage scam to buy …
Read More »Royal Mail faces a reckoning with a public it holds in contempt
If you’ve ever rummaged through a box of old postcards at an antiques fair, you might have noticed not only the quaint images from the 1890s or 1900s, but the extraordinary messages on the back: “Dear Cissie, Elsie and I will come for tea today. Will arrive about 4.30. Yours, …
Read More »Royal Mail could cut 1,000 jobs if it is allowed to scrap second-class letters on Saturdays and only deliver them every other weekday
Royal Mail has warned up to 1,000 jobs could be axed under bombshell plans put forward to slash its second-class letter delivery service. The company has outlined cuts to non-first class letters by delivering them only on every other weekday – and scrapping Saturday deliveries entirely. The postal giant said …
Read More »Royal Mail asks to scale back deliveries
Second-class deliveries under scrutiny Possible cost savings of £300mn Royal Mail has proposed halving second-class letter deliveries and slowing down business mail, in a bid to save £300mn a year. The UK courier, which is part of International Distributions Services (IDS), wants to deliver all non-first class letters every other weekday, …
Read More »