It was a funny sort of day today indeed your humble servant never seemed to get into the swing of things.
At lunchtime I found myself sitting on a bench in Frogmoor with the usual pigeons to keep me company.
My lunch box was almost empty when a friend happened to pass by and decided to join me for a quick chat.
Naturally the conversation kicked off in the best way possible with the usual reminisces about old Wycombe and how things were better years ago.
Then a Royal Mail van went by and my friend remarked on the Government sell off of the postal delivery service which has been state owned for the last five hundred years.
There has not been a privatisation on this scale since the late 1990's.
No doubt many of the youngsters will not remember those halcyon days of the 1980's when everyone clambered to invest and jump on the privatisation bandwagon in the hope of becoming rich.
It's a different world now yet it seems a lot of people are prepared to take a punt and buy some Royal Mail shares in the hope of making a quick buck.
Even my good self took the first steps to make a few inquiries however when one discovered the minimum amount that anyone can invest is £750 naturally your humble servant soon walked away. Sorry but that's too rich for me, do they think I'm made of money?
Of course there is a big difference between the Royal Mail and the other nationalised industries when they were sold off.
The Royal Mail is a profitable company that, excuse the pun, actually delivers unlike the other monoliths of public ownership sold off previously that were still lumbering in 1970's style inefficiency.
So should the current privatisation go ahead? Well, to be honest I think not.
What is there to gain by selling off a business which is an asset to us all?
Suppose a foreign company takes over the Royal Mail, it's perfectly possible and most probable given the fate of many of the utility companies that became private in the 1980's.
Do we really want postman Pat replaced with postman Heinrich or even postman Yang-Ying? Indeed it doesn't really have the same ring to the name does it?
I do hope the dream of short term profit for the greedy is not taking precedence over long term stability for us all indeed it would be s shame if the humble postbox becomes a cash cow for faceless shareholders.
My good self still relies on the postal service to deliver letters after all they are a more personal way of communicating than the modern internet mail rubbish so many use. It would be a frightful shame if the postal service declines as a result of the privatisation.
It is such a pleasure to have a visit each day from a member of the Royal Mail delivering letters on behalf of the monarch not to mention posting my freshly written letters into a pillar box.
Sadly I fear in a very short while the once trusty postman will visit our homes on behalf of the faceless shareholders in order to add a few more pennies to their already substantial profits.
What do you think?
*My next exciting and enthralling blog will be published on Thursday evening around 8pm.
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