RCM&E Subscription Rates in An Independent Scotland

[Erfolg]

I have just had a thought about a benefit to those of us in the UK when Scotland goes its own way. I would expect the premium price that we all pay for delivery by the PO, will reduce, after all, the very high cost of providing a universal service to the far orth of Scotland will no longer be valid. So my on line purchases will reduce in total cost, right! Or will it?

[PatMc]

The English regions were given the opportunity of having elected regional assemblies 10 years ago but when a referendum was held in the NE it had a very low turnout & nearly 80% "No" vote from those who did vote. Due to this overwhelming result the plan to hold referendums in other regions was dropped.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

The mind boggles Mowerman, the government of the day daren't show it's face, till late on in the stay in campaign and leave it to Darling then Brown, what a sorry lot

John

[Erfolg]

Patmac

From memory the then Labour government , only offered the NE, not the NW. Also, what appeared to be proposed was a talking shop, designed to consolidate the power of the big labour conurbations.

Probably the most important aspect that must happen if there were a no vote, would be no more Scottish, Welsh or Northern Ireland MPs voting on matters that only affect England.

A down side of a no vote, will be even more preferential treatment of Scotland, again particularly relevant to the North of England. We would again pay, by a lack of preferential treatment, investment, and also government leaning on large business where to locate there principle operations.

I expect that devolution to mean an end to the Barnett formula, in its present form, with Scotland paying for what it spends out of its own income.

Assuming a yes vote "which I anticipate", there again is a danger, that Scotland plays hard ball, where as the UK Government sells us down the river, by being fair, offering olive branches. I expect that it is the duty of the UK Government to inform the BE and other regulators, they expect financial services etc., to locate their assets in the UK, with no protracted transition. We need politicians as self interested as Alex Salmon, favouring the UK.

Even the boundary between the UK and Scotland should be fixed on the normally recognised process, after all we do not want a Crimea here.

More importantly, i want to see the PO postal charges to be addressed.

[Dai Fledermaus]

Posted by ken anderson. on 10/09/2014 09:49:00:

according to the jungle telegraph--- if the scot's people do decide to vote yes and go their separate way's-Cameron will have no choice but to throw himself on his sword - because apparently he has been criticised by the power's to be for not letting the whole of the united kingdom have a vote on the independence issue ...you heard it here first....

ken Anderson ne..1 .... politics' dept.

The Labour Party is as equally to blame for this disaster. It was founded by a Scot, It is dominated by Scots. It is dominant in Scotland, they have 41 of the 59 seats, and they delivered the Scottish Parliament. All of this has been stolen from under them by a promise of Utopia by Alex Salmond.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Self interested politicians Erf ? we have plenty of them, the emphasis on self. Will the Scots be better off ? I dunno, but good luck to them. I think they'll end up just as disappointed with their new lot.

John

[PatMc]

Posted by Erfolg on 10/09/2014 11:35:20:

Patmac

From memory the then Labour government , only offered the NE, not the NW. Also, what appeared to be proposed was a talking shop, designed to consolidate the power of the big labour conurbations.

I've already said why it wasn't offered outside of the NE.
Had it gone ahead, they would have replaced the then existing non-elected Regional Assemblies with elected assemblies in any of the 8 regions that said "Yes" in their referendum. I don't see how you think they would have simply been talking shops or why they were designed to consolidate your imaginary "power of big labour conurbations" when they would have covered the whole of England.

[Erfolg]

Patmac, because the aims were essentially about social engineering, with aims of removing inequalities based on income and social groups etc. This was not about giving voters a say in what concerned them, or working for sections of the community.

Having experienced and witnessed what only can be described as underhand practises in trying to push through "road pricing" in Greater Manchester, stating that they had evidence of a whelming positive response to the implementation to the concept. It was only when Stockport, Trafford and Bury forced a vote revealed the truth, that was 79% against. The scale of deception can only be described as unbelievable.

You wonder why anybody would trust the Labour party and their objectives.

We will not agree, only disagree.

Although I would point out that many in one side of our close family are middle ranking Labour politicians, would I trust some of them, defiantly not, with good reason.

[PatMc]

Posted by Erfolg on 13/08/2014 21:30:39:

There are many ironies with respect Scotland, effectively it was a with a Scottish King that unification tool place (Anschluss). It was James the 2 of Scotland that decided that London was a much nicer place to be than Edinburgh.

It was in reality Scot on Scot at Culloden, or put another way the Scottish state fighting Scottish rebels. My daughter lived there, the Curidan tree (Clootie well) has a certain feel, festooned with ribbons, as does the moor on a wet or misty day. Yet the battle was Scot on Scot fighting for differing paths for Scotland and England.

Yet for some Scots it has been the English that have always been the oppressors of a proud strong people. The Scots are certainly proud and have much to be proud of, but England has not been the villain, if theres is one, it is almost if not always a fellow Scot.

Your take on the history of unification is wrong.
You're also wrong regarding Culloden.
England has been the oppressive force in much of Scottish history from the 13th century to the 18th century & complicit with the landowners in the Highland Clearances up to the mid 19th century.

[kevin b]

I should thing that the Post Office will be backing the YES vote. Just think of all those import duty handling charges ! (Both directions)

[PatMc]

Posted by Erfolg on 10/09/2014 21:15:54:

Patmac, because the aims were essentially about social engineering, with aims of removing inequalities based on income and social groups etc. This was not about giving voters a say in what concerned them, or working for sections of the community.

Having experienced and witnessed what only can be described as underhand practises in trying to push through "road pricing" in Greater Manchester, stating that they had evidence of a whelming positive response to the implementation to the concept. It was only when Stockport, Trafford and Bury forced a vote revealed the truth, that was 79% against. The scale of deception can only be described as unbelievable.

You wonder why anybody would trust the Labour party and their objectives.

We will not agree, only disagree.

Although I would point out that many in one side of our close family are middle ranking Labour politicians, would I trust some of them, defiantly not, with good reason.

Seems about as accurate & fair assessment as you're previous history lesson.

[Erfolg]

Patmac, I suggest you go to the exhibit at Culloden, find out who actually was Scottish and who was English, as you may find there were precious few, then look who lead the armies and why. The scales may fall from your eyes.

Then again I just know we will never agree, on anything. On that basis I suggest we drop this discussion..

[Dave Hopkin]

You really think the (now privatised) PO will drop charges if Scotland leave the Union? Dream on!

[PatMc]

Posted by Erfolg on 10/09/2014 21:55:35:

Patmac, I suggest you go to the exhibit at Culloden, find out who actually was Scottish and who was English, as you may find there were precious few, then look who lead the armies and why. The scales may fall from your eyes.

Then again I just know we will never agree, on anything. On that basis I suggest we drop this discussion..

**LINK**

[Craig Carr]

Hardly on topic and tedious

If ever I saw a case for thread lock.........

 

Edited By Craig Carr on 10/09/2014 23:29:43

[PatMc]

Craig,
it's in the Chit Chat section & hasn't been on a specific topic since the first page.
If you find it tedious - you don't have to read it.

AFAICS no forum rules have been broken so see no reason it should it be locked.

 

Edited By PatMc on 10/09/2014 23:44:35

[Codename-John]

According to Forbes - Alex Salmond has given his clearest indication yet that he would want an independent Scotland to keep the pound, even without a formal currency pact, after stating “we are keeping it, come what may”.

The no campaign is mostly a scare tactic from all parties, there is no difference between the 3 of them anyway, 99% of their policies are the same, nothing ever changes for the better and whoever gets elected we all get screwed over just the same

So there would be no difference in subscription rates, Scotland will be accepted in the EU without question, just look at Ukraine to see how desperate the EU expansion plan is, so there will be no import / export duty etc and Royal Mail will operate the same as usual, they`re not suddenly going to change their business model (especially now they have shareholders to answer to)

[i12fly]

There's something a bit fishy about Alex Salmon and Nicola Sturgeon......

[Ernie]

Perhaps, the solution is independance for London,

Then the posh schoolboys could get on with their skullduggery, and stop sponging off the rest of us.

ernie YES

[Jamie sawyer]

Well as a Scotsman and living in Scotland I'll just sit back and read everyone's comments. It will be what it will be but Scotland having a little bit more say on how it runs can't be a bad thing.......There is a lot of pros and cons followed by endless arguments lol

Lets not forget that not so long ago the cronies cut our RAF to almost non existent even though there was countless petitions and debates!!!

Its a case of the have to show willing in the past and end up doing what they want throwing us a few crums at the end to keep us happy .....

[Prop Nut]

The whole debate has become very bad tempered and things have been said that won't be forgiven or forgotten for generations. The huge resurgence in Scottish nationalism has provoked an English desire to assert their own nationalism in a way that makes the divisions between the two countries even wider. It's probably better all round that the decision be 'Yes', so we can both be free to benefit from our own efforts. It's hard to see a way back now, especially if the decision is 'No'.

[Codename-John]

Posted by Ernie on 11/09/2014 07:52:25:

Perhaps, the solution is independance for London,

Then the posh schoolboys could get on with their skullduggery, and stop sponging off the rest of us.

 

ernie YES

The City of London seems like its already separate from reality never mind the rest of the Country, where else in Britain could you pull off Massive Fraud and other Criminal activity every day and never even face questioning by your own private Police force

Back to Scotland though I found this interview about how Scotland could become one of the Highest GDP per capita countries in the world very interesting -

 

Even the Financial times Agree`s LINK , what is even more interesting is David Cameron`s quote from 2007 -

that argued there was no point in trying to keep Scotland inside the union 'through fear of the economic consequences' of leaving. 'Supporters of independence will always be able to cite examples of small, independent and thriving economies across Europe such as Finland, Switzerland and Norway,' Mr Cameron wrote. 'It would be wrong to suggest that Scotland could not be another such successful, independent country'.”

 

Edited By Codename-John on 11/09/2014 11:02:36

[Erfolg]

I watched the video, I did not find it in anyway convincing. It was all about bitcoins.

Perhaps more interesting was the observation that the prices charged by PO would not change if there is a yes vote. I do think most of us do accept that, putting the notion forward, tongue in cheek.

From the PO perspective I guess the situation is more interesting. Being a private company, that just happens to trade throughout the UK, that never the less has some privileges and obligations, that provide partial protection of the delivery market. In Scotland, the cost base presumably will go up, principally due to higher costs of individual deliveries to isolated locations, if the same arrangements were to be entered into by the Scottish government. Would the Scottish government allow an increase in postal charges. If not, what would the UK governments reaction to effectively a cross border subsidy.

However this type of issue is resolved in the immediate future. It would not be unreasonably to expect that different arrangements to be entered into in the longer term, but not that long.

A smaller UK could encourage delivery organisations such as the TNT entering into a universal delivery service, with the removal of privileges to the PO. The removal of privileges and increased competition could be good for consumers. Indeed, my own recent experiences with the PO have been more favourable since privatisation. No longer chasing the post man down the street, to say, I have the card, where is the parcel. Has not happened in the recent past.

The present pricing structure, and the relationship and complexity of the size and weight of letters, seems to dissuade HK for example to send small items out as letters, the smallest package seeming to be 100g, although whatever i buy seems to throw up the 200g, as a parcel. Now all this could be primarily a HK, issue. What I can say with a degree of confidence, that the non PO, Parcel Force delivery companies, for parcels offer keener delivery prices and service (that is to-date).

Could a yes vote, lead to improved delivery service for the UK in the long term.

Edited By Erfolg on 11/09/2014 15:40:34

[Dai Fledermaus]

Did anyone see Charlie Mayfield, CEO of the John Lewis Partnership on BBC Breakfast this morning? He gave the most sensible view, I've heard yet, of what is likely to happen in the event of a yes vote. The following is a quote from his later interview on Radio 4.

"The debate has clearly become very, very fractious. As a businessman it is not my place to tell Scottish voters how to vote in next week's referendum.

"But I will say two things.

"From a business perspective there will be economic consequences to a Yes vote, not just in uncertainty but some of the turmoil we are hearing about.

"And it is also the case that it does cost more money to trade in parts of Scotland and therefore those hard costs, in the event of a Yes vote, are more likely to be passed on."

He went on: " On the day after the referendum the shops are going to open on time, nothing will change.

"For various reasons - regulation and transport costs etc - it does currently cost more money to serve parts of Scotland.

"Most retailers don't run different prices, they absorb that in the totality.

"If you go forward several years and you see a divergence of different things - particularly currency - that creates the likelihood, not the certainty, that costs would be higher.

[Codename-John]

Posted by Erfolg on 11/09/2014 15:36:46:

I watched the video, I did not find it in anyway convincing. It was all about bitcoins.

 

So you Totally ignored the first 5 minutes and just focussed on the part where they discuss that instead of using the British Pound, Scotland has an opportunity to create something new ( they just happened to discuss Crypto Currency because the guest is an Author on Bitcoin )

Also worth baring in mind is that the Video is from Feb this year, and in it they Discuss that RBS had Threatened to leave Scotland should the vote be yes, When sky news LINK Is reporting this as a recent announcement from the result of a board meeting yesterday, like they are doing the Politicians a favour, by fear mongering with not long left until the vote

 

Edited By Codename-John on 11/09/2014 18:26:46