June 2008 Archives

Anyone else tired of asking for things in supermarkets and shops and being told there is no demand? They cannot grasp that the mere fact you have asked for them negates that statement.

I see the National Trust has now jumped on the 'let's make an eco-killing band waggon' and started charging for its carrier bags.

Apparently this is to reduce the amount of plastic and is in response to customer feedback - amazing how often customer response/feedback/requests and so on come into play whenever an organisation changes something, particularly if it is going to cost more. Strangely, as a member, I am no stranger to NT properties and have never been asked my opinion about carrier bags nor do I know anyone who has been asked.

I just wonder by what authority the NT and other shops charging 5p a back feel they have the right to effectively impose an environment tax, which is what it is. I don't mind if they say we can't afford free bags any more so we are charging for them, or even announce they have decided to charge to make more profit, I can take honesty, but to claim it is for the environment and they are really doing it for us is cynical in the extreme. The Trust's 5p is straight in their coffers, a little eco-windfall, while even the shop chains offering to give the money to charity will no doubt take out the cost of bags and manage to make a few grand interest before their donations make it to the inevitable cheque presentations.

No chain has yet come up with anything to really help that involves them actually doing anything, such as announcing it will only use biodegradable carrier bags in future or, even better, will in future only use paper sacks and paper bags which can all be recycled.

I see Post Offices are under threat again with another 4,000 closures predicted on top of the 2,500 already in the pipeline. If the powers that be had their way we would end up with one post office, one pillar box and all letters would be delivered to one address by one postman on £300 a week. You can almost hear the champagne corks popping as the suits in charge celebrate their performance bonuses.

In the real world though something seems to be wrong somewhere. We flog off the railways and open up the buses to private companies whose sole objective is to make as much profit as they can and then pay them vast subsidies - £6 billion a year or so - to provide some semblance of a service.

Meanwhile Royal Mail, whose sole purpose is to provide a service, is charged by the Government with making a profit who put people in charge who see a balance sheet as some sort of holy scripture. If we can chuck money by the trainload at transport companies we don't own who are growing rich at our expense can anyone see any reason why we cannot subsidise an essential public service that we own?

The problem with accountants and businessmen who have never made anything but a profit or loss is that they can never see the cost of putting people out of work or closing offices which serve a community and in some cases are the heart of the community - they probably do not even understand the concept of community.

I have a suspicion that in the not too distant future Royal Mail will be deemed unviable and hived off to private enterprise and once more we will be paying vast subsidies to highly profitable companies to provide the service we are in the process of dismantling.