Good old new net does the work again EBay or no sea bay
PARIS — The choice of Barack Obama on Friday as the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, less than nine months into his eventful presidency, was an unexpected honor that elicited praise and puzzlement around the globe. Normally the prize has been presented, even controversially, for accomplishment. This prize, to a 48-year-old freshman president, for “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” seemed a kind of prayer and encouragement by the Nobel committee for future endeavor and more consensual American leadership.
But the prize quickly loomed as a potential political liability — perhaps more burden than glory — for Mr. Obama. Republicans contended that he had won more for his star power and oratorical skills than for his actual achievements, and even some Democrats privately questioned whether he deserved it.
- QUOTATION OF THE DAY - "The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world. And who has done more than Barack Obama?"
- THORBJOERN JAGLAND, chairman of the Nobel Committee.
- In most adverts the time displayed on a watch is 10:10
- If the INQUIRER is to be believed....
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
I am suffocated and lost when I have not the bright feeling of progression.
-- Margaret Fuller

This time last year, nearly all the parcels i got were via royal mail.

Now its all couriers.

A stike will really be a shot in the foot. No-one wants to use a company that won't deliver. Once you find another courier you never go back!!!

... of an episode of Cheers where there's an impending postal striken and Cliff (the postman) eventually tries to end an argument on this by asking how people would cope without the post .. only of Woody (the stupid barman) to say "good question, I expect we'd have to use fax - it would be just the same except letters would arrive at the right address, on time and undamaged"

N.b. I lived in the US of 3 years at the end of the 90s and it was noticeable there that for anything important people tended to use FedEx to send documents and as a result there was a well established networks of drop off points (just like post boxes) and counters in small shops (just like the post offices that are now being closed).

If the Govt let Royal mail charge a decent price for letter post, maybe they'd have some profits and wouldn't have to try to skimp on staff.

Seriously, how much would you pay someone to take several pieces of paper, and transport them anywhere else in the UK? Forget 'stamps have gone up tuppence blah blah'. Think realistically. What do things cost these days?

I think that service has got to be worth half-a-cup-of-starbucks-coffee or more. So, about a pound. If things cost £1 to send, we'd still send the important stuff, and junk mail would become uneconomic, and nobody would care.

"Back in the real world, the strike was simply unavoidable".

That turns out not to be the case. It could have been avoided by simply not declaring a strike.

"The workers felt that a line had to be drawn somewhere and that they had nothing left to loose [sic]".

Well, in that case they felt wrong. They currently have jobs; if they keep going this way, presently they won't have jobs.

Actually, I find it hard to believe that Post Office employees are simple-minded enough to vote for a strike like this. Was there a bone fide vote, or is it just some overpaid union bosses trying to justify their existence again?

In case you get the wrong idea, I have a lot of sympathy with the Post Office workers, little with their managers, and none at all for the government whose policies are largely responsible for this unnecessary confrontation. Surely the Post Office is a national asset and a valuable public utility, and as such worth a thousandth as much as the NHS to keep in business?

Royal mail staff want to terminate their own employer? excellent own goal!

"retailers will switch to couriers then release the service is better and cheaper and just never go back to royal mail."

So that's a bad thing? Surly, if it's cheaper and better then everyone will benefit and the strike will be a great boost to economy.

Back in the real world, the strike was simply unavoidable. The workers felt that a line had to be drawn somewhere and that they had nothing left to loose. The management are still working towards the promised foreign takeover and have to get shot of full time staff, replace them with casual workers, phase out deliveries, close sorting offices, etc, so they don't feel they have anything to loose either. It may seem that the union has played into the managements hands, after all, Royal Mail is not a company trying to make a profit, it's a company being wound up for a cheap sale, so the more damage done the better. But for the workforce there was just nowhere left to go and nothing left to try.

In practice it will be a minor inconvenience for a few people for a little while and will be forgotten a few days later, unlike the major inconvenience visited upon me by Parcel Force this week which I shall remember for many years to come.

I wonder if you need planing permission to erect a large catapult. It would be quicker, more accurate and less likely to break stuff. And when it went wrong there wouldn't be some spectacularly unhelpful automated system on the other end of the phone.

doing this AGAIN at xmas is just so stupid, retailers will switch to couriers then release the service is better and cheaper and just never go back to royal mail.

gone are the scargill days of holding britain hostage, ban the unions!

It's so typical of us British to strike. Come on, now, that's so 80s. It doesn't get you anywhere and the time spent not working injures the company and thereby the employee. Maybe if people spent some time actually f-----g working and not just refusing this country wouldn't be freefalling into the s---ter. You wanna know why you're paid so little? You spent all last year on strike action and so your company made no money so it can't pay you.

but the hat in hand.

Mail volume never came back, people and companies found other ways and then stuck with them. Most of the stuff in my mail box is junk mail, bulk mail is just about all they have left. Gone are the days that postal workers can blackmail the country for a fat pay hike.