Does the postal strike make sense?
What's it like being a Royal Mail postman 24 hours before you go on strike? This morning an insight into their job - the routine, how the job has changed over the years and what's the one thing that would make their job better. We're going to speak to three postmen on the programme all of whom are members of the CWU and all of whom voted for the strike.
Also what was Robbie Williams first live performance for 3 years like, and Windows 7 - are you going to fork out for it?
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~51~RS~)
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just a point about the footy research, its mostly useless to say that the gain after sacking a manager is around 4 points , since we will never know the performance of the sacked manager if he hadnt been sacked over that post sacking period.
really pre sacking to post sacking comparison has no real informational benefit with regard to manager performance.
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why would anyone want to sell gm foods or promote them.
i had to laugh at the minister promoting gm foods, who at the time presented a dossier akin to that stern report (climate change) that predicted food shortages and just like the stern report he had the answer - gm foods. along with the reports came the immediate media response (propaganda) especially the bbc promoting guess what food shortages and gm food as the only solution just as they have the propaganda for climate change .
gm foods are found to detrimental to people, environment and diversity.
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Louisa:
1)STRIKE: No it doesn't make any sense of changing anything....Because The Royal Mail will simply keep using temp workers until the regular staff returns...
2)WINDOWS: No, I will not buying it...
~Dennis Junior~
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The establishment, via big business, by lobbying the EU parliament to introduce the EU Directive on postal services, has been attempting to wrestle any and all publicly-owned postal services away from the state (IE- you and I, the people) because they know how lucrative it really is.
This, actually, is nothing more than class war.
The establishment is not willing to share the booty from any enterprise, except with their own (banking, stockbrokers, etc.). Anyone like a shopworker or call-centre staff is nailed down to minimum wages with no benefits much as possible.
Now they seek to gain our National Institution, not by paying a fair price, nor keeping terms and conditions constant with those already established.
By constant attacks on the industry, transferring large contracts to private companies, reducing the service-standards, reducing wages, benefits, pensions, and entitlements for employees, and all the rest, they are devaluing Royal Mail in order to snap it up later at bargain rates.
In the process, Mandelson and chums have now precipitated this strike- i9n order to break the Union. In the current climate- the very time when most of the public will be staggered to see strike action, this will be all the easier.
Sadly many people are of the mind that postal workers have it easy, and are being greedy.
Rather than forming unions of their own to fight for their own benefits, they'd see others done down, a mentality which truly is perverse. Look back through history, and there are few examples of employers ever giving anything they haven't been obliged to to the employee.
Any rights to holidays, pensions, breaks, reasonable hours, a safe environment, cleanliness, and respect, have generally had to be hard-FOUGHT for. We are returning to the time when workers had little power, and it will not be long before the right to withdraw labour, the last action of a desperate employee, is taken away.
This strike will achieve nothing.
It will be broken. The employees will not obtain any gains. Mandelson and Crozier will make sure of that.
At some point later, Royal Mail will be sold for peanuts, and then mail will cost a lot more, and service will improve for people in cities, generally, and generally be awful and yet more expensive in rural and isolated areas.
Don't say I didn't tell you.
When the whole country refuses to go to work for a couple of months, the politicians may take some notice, 'cause they can't sack everyone. It's going to take a revolution to change it, but I can't see it happening, can you?
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Surely Victoria should be anchor in the studio? Matt can't do it. Since when was he the journo on the crew?
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Why can't some people get it into their heads that the CWU are NOT! against modernisation. It is in the interest of the CWU to ensure the survival of the Royal mail for its members ( and the UK public! ) not to see it fail.
The CWU vision of modernisation is to develop new services, get into new types of markets, properly introduce new technology and to move the business on with the full involvement of the workers and not have them marginalised.
The RM management and Mandelson's vision of modernisation is to cut services, cut pay, cut full time jobs into part time jobs, down size the business and sell off the Royal Mail to a foreign postal operator. Foreign postal operators who in many cases are having severe problems in their own home postal markets and who are not themselves ham strung by unfair competition rules that Royal Mail have to contend with.
It's up to whoever to believe who they want, but as a Royal Mail worker I just feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall trying to get the reality of what is actually happening right under the British public's nose over to some people.
Royal Mail is being sold short, sold out, and if some greedy people have their way, sold off! just like every other public service in this country has been over the years, and who have all failed with regards to their objectives as privatised companies.
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This blog is a repeat of the one on the Breakfast Progamme blog, which highlights (again) the weird decision to do away with the messageboards.
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Is there no other news today?
I'm fed up of hearing about the postal workers, it's the sme story being rehashed over and over again. I think I'm turnng over to Radio 2!
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Mariajh wrote:
Is there no other news today?
I'm fed up of hearing about the postal workers, it's the sme story being rehashed over and over again. I think I'm turnng over to Radio 2!
Well! its pretty important to some people so ta! ta! off you go and listen to uncle Ken
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The postmen on the picket line talked about "protecting their livelihoods". If they can't explain what they are striking about, beyond general grievances about "modernisation" or "the management", then they are only depriving themselves, and their families of a days pay, for no good reason.
Perhaps they want to keep alive some romantic notion of union power and solidarity, not seen since the 1984 Miner's Strike? But that strike ended after a year with victory for the government, and extreme poverty for the miners. There is no romance in that.
Applications are flooding in for the temporary postal jobs - if those on strike lack the belief in their cause to even turn up on the picket line, then they are sleepwalking into the dole queue. As with everything in a globalised econonmy, if you don't appreciate the job you have, there will always be someone harder-working, more committed and more appreciative waiting to step into your shoes. The postmen get no sympathy from me.
All four sections of the Royal Mail are in profit for the first time, because of the recent modernisation programmes introduced, all of which the union will have fought every step of the way. Were the unions any less demanding during all those loss-making years? Of course not.
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Yesterday i witnessed three white youths . one of these youths spit in the face of an asian mother with child. to every action there is a consequence, a reaction.
the bbc chose to provide the minimal response to the use of the p word by one of its employees, today it is legitimising nick griffin of the fascistic bnp.
thank you bbc for all of your support against racists, bigots and the extremists.
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the bbc claims that it is against censorship, maybe it would help to ask whilst the bnp get legitimised the recent DEC appeal on behalf of the gazans and the alleged israeli war crimes (richard goldstone : UN) was censored and denied an airing.
to blame 'democracy' is disingenuous. its dishonest. its the bbc.
the bbc does not provide a voice to all people since they would argue that those views were too abhorrent or against decent civilised societies.
they do censor by way of not reporting or providing all sides of an issue.
the bnp in reality cannot lose, with a large viewership, no real debate and plenty of populist rhetoric.
the fact is those who vote bnp do so for the very reason that they are fascists, , that they are racists. one doesnt need nick griffin to tell us that much and we dont need some two bit panelists to extract that from him.
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vicky obviously has never been on the receiving end of bnp-bigots violence and intimidation.
vicky clearly lives in a parallel universe to not understand the nature of racism and violence outside of the leafy suburbs and the bubble wrap of bbc.
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Notwithstanding the world according to Wendy, what is the point of a programme-centric "interactive" blog if the programme relevant post comes after the programme?
Anyway, it's all well and good spitting about the BNP but, then, the likes of Anjem Choudary go on the streets and in mosques and spout a similar brand of hate-filled rhetoric without let or hindrance from the authorities or otherwise. It was only a couple of months ago his group was in the press for stopping a public meeting to discuss something he didn't agree or approve of and only last week he was on the front page of the Express trying to antagonise the majority. No censure there, though...
If we want to stop the BNP, we have to stop the other extremist groups too, whether they are organised as political parties or not, or whether they have elected representatives or not.
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vicky is putting forward the argument that in a democracy everything is allowed ?
can we expect all of those who have been banned from entering the uk by the govt because of their views to be given voice on the bbc - since the bbc believes in democracy and not censorship?
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"If we want to stop the BNP, we have to stop the other extremist groups too, whether they are organised as political parties or not, or whether they have elected representatives or not."
no one is arguing against stopping extremism, but we cant justify the bnp being legitimised by the likes of the bbc. anjem choudry has a following of no more than a handful of vociferous idiots the bnp has received support from almost a million wannabe fascists. there is a difference the level of threat and extremism.
if you are not a victim of that racism , that violence is invisible to you in the main, you dont suffer that daily abuse intimidation. it is ok for the bbc hierarchy to talk about 'democracy' but what about the democratic right of those who are the victims of the bnp's rhetoric and violent activities.
its interesting the line the bbc have taken , trying to muddy the water by invoking democracy when the issue is not about democracy but about representation and legitimisation of fascists such as those affiliated to the bnp. if it was about democratic rights, then surely the rights of those minorities who the bnp persecute should have been of primary concern.
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qt is the premier show for sound bites and populist rhetoric. it is not about scrutiny, interrogation or truths. to pretend that it is anything else is dishonest.
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Surely the BNP being forced to change it's constitution as a result of being elected to the European Parliament is a good thing. To me, it denotes the beginning of their demise, which is a good thing. They will not be able to survive the glare of heightened public scrutiny in the long term.
As a supporter of democracy, i think the BBC have made the right decision. The more people here what he has to say, the less they will vote for his party. Set against this, we have a lot of well intentioned people who seem to be suggesting that the general populous are too stupid to be exposed to his views. A lot of people will find this quite patronising and some may be tempted to protest at the ballot box in the obvious way. I think it is called the law of unintended consequence
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The BNP hasn't been legitimised by the BBC. If it indeed has been legitimised it's by the electorate and the democratic process.
The BNP says it's stuff as close to the law as it can get away with in public. Choudary goes into the effectively closed shop of the mosque and, if recordings of him delivering his "sermons" on YouTube are any indicator, he's very much advocating things well outside the law, and encouraging them. It's there to see and hear, so why aren't the authorities gunning for him, too? They weren't exactly in a hurry to stop Abu Hamster from ranting and inciting and only nipped him in the bud when the Americans asked for him. They don't go anywhere near Choudary or his growing band of acolytes, regardless of what he or they say or do. It's a point of fact that the authorities chose to maliciously pursue a documentary team for exposing the bigoted and inciteful things they found being pushed into impressionable young minds instead of pursuing those breaking the law by saying and advocating such hatred and incitement. All of which will only push ever more disgruntled and disenchanted people to put their X in the BNP box, whether they wholly agree with their entire manifesto or raison d'etre or not - simply because they see the mainstream as ignoring them, failing to act and marginalising their views and concerns.
Wot no mention of an allegedly illegal war somewhere yet...? Still, the day is young...
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I am a delivery postie, so many people today asked why I was not on strike, I had to explain that deliveries will not be effected until Friday. I heard similar comments on the programme today, it worries me that seemingly sensible people do not listen to the detail of the news and only hear the headline. The same applies to the BNP, many people seem to react to their headline message and do not hear or perhaps want to hear the dangerous detail within.
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What a waste of time that was (QT) tonight. I was looking forward to some debate but no. Soooo stupid of Jack Straw, Dimbleby et al to harunge and bully - made Griffin out to be a/the victim.
I know the Beeb were under pressure by some people who seemed unable to comprehend why the BNP were invited on (HINT - didn't mean that the Beeb suppported the BNP) BUT that didn't mean that the show had to descend into some Gladitorial shindig to appease those with an IQ fewer than their collective digits.
Take a look at the QT website. About 95% of the hundreds of comments on there are in agreement.
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