SECRET – Last Friday I received a leaflet from Royal Mail (“Biker waives £1,000 speeding ticket after failing to deliver Royal Mail”, report, 24 November), offering me a postal delivery service for NHS prescriptions. It’s a question of how well this will work, given that we rarely get more than one or two deliveries a week anymore.
Royal Mail’s lack of self-awareness regarding their current level of service is mind-boggling.
Chris Pilkington
Weymouth, Dorset
Sir – I read the Royal Mail advert (Letters, 24 November) in utter disbelief: “Keep this private. Send a card”.
Royal Mail services have become unreliable and slow and their charges have increased significantly.
While he’s clearly disconnected from his customer base, he’s keenly aware that the only reason nearly everyone I know is sending as few Christmas cards as possible this year is because of the cost of stamps. Some have stopped completely. If we could afford the stamps and believed they would be delivered within a day or two of being mailed, we would send cards.
Shirley Elomari
Shrewsbury
SECRET – Only an organization as tone-deaf as the Royal Mail would dare run an advert encouraging us to send Christmas cards, given the price rises it imposes on us.
The irony of his ad is clearly missing. Can I offer discounted stamps for Christmas cards? This may encourage people to post again.
Tim Lovett
claygate, surrey
SECRET – My husband’s birthday was November 12th. The next day, with great apologies, our lovely postwoman handed out a pack of cards to him, and a considerable number of cards to me (my birthday was on November 1st). Many had a first-class stamp. In his view (and he has over 20 years’ experience), the problem is that Royal Mail is understaffed and should be hiring and training more people, but it isn’t.
Royal Mail’s website states that its first class service “aims to deliver next working day, including Saturdays”. Doesn’t he sell first-class stamps under false pretenses, knowing that he cannot live up to that claim?
Susan Fleck
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
SECRET – Kris Bartlett (Letters, November 25) sent a first-class letter to Oxford, 10 miles from home, and it took six weeks to arrive. I can do better.
I received a Christmas card five weeks ago and was impressed with the efficiency of the sender, who lives a mile away from me. When I checked the envelope with a first class stamp attached, I saw that it was mailed in December 2022.
Karen Mullan
Hove, East Sussex
Covid shenanigans
SECRET – Camilla Tominey rightly shed light on the Covid investigation charade (Commentary, 25 November).
Not only does the prurient delight in scrutinizing the details of politicians’ vulgar behavior suggest the legal team has stepped off the set of No Sex Please, We’re British, but the central premise is apparently that isolation is a good thing. thing, and our leaders are generally a bunch of idiots.
There is also a risk, as Ms Tominey points out, that the inquiry will be hijacked by activists using Covid deaths as a battering ram; whereas these and the deaths resulting from isolation are equally important.
I write as someone whose father was in a nursing home for 18 months and deteriorated at a shockingly rapid rate as a result of cruel and inhumane regulations that ultimately served little purpose. He and thousands of elderly and vulnerable people “did not go gently into that good night” because they were betrayed by ordinary people who were obsessed with optics and completely failed to do any cost-benefit analysis.
Families traumatized by their disastrous failures will punish these pantomime politicians at the ballot box.
Doctor Catherine Moloney
Liverpool
Pothole repair failure
SIR – As someone who has worked on county councils, I fully support Ken Mitchell’s letter on potholes (November 25) and in particular his praise for “patching up the gangs”. The disappearance of county and department surveyors dedicated to the maintenance of roads was, in my opinion, the beginning of the pothole problem, which coincided with the huge increase in road traffic.
In those days, patching was considered a permanent repair before preventative maintenance such as surfacing. Today I see short-term patch and patch repairs being made without any sealing around the edges, allowing water intrusion and premature failure.
Stephen Bridgwater
Shrewsbury
Nissan’s disadvantage
SIR – News that Nissan will continue to produce cars in the UK is welcome (report, 25 November). I bought my Qashqai because it was made here.
But why doesn’t Nissan trust the product enough to offer a seven-year warranty like Kia, rather than the ridiculous three years it currently offers? This fact alone means that I haven’t yet decided when to buy my next car.
paul spencer
Thame, Oxfordshire
drop an accent
SECRET – I can understand Sophie Pender and her experiences that led her to support the “old boys’ old news” campaign (“City lawyer fights old boys’ network”, Business World, November 22).
I grew up in Northern Ireland and went to Cambridge to get my degree. In April 1965 I had an interview to join a law firm in London whose senior partner was a friend of my mother’s. The interview was brief and set the tone when he told me: “If you want to come work with us, you’ll have to get rid of that terrible Belfast accent.”
Five hours later I arrived at Belfast airport to be met by my mother. After a few minutes he turned to me and commented on my “terrible British accent.”
David Denton
Belfast
unbanked towns
SIR – (November 24) You report that cost cutting at Barclays will not impact customer-facing branch staff. This is because it has already closed most of its high street branches.
Here in North Yorkshire there are no banks in the market towns of Bedale and Leyburn. These were towns with many small businesses and senior citizens, and bank branches were heavily used by the public.
Now we need to go to Richmond or Northallerton, both 10 miles away. I was there last week and stood in line for 25 minutes. Other people left in disgust. A graph was created in the branch rating performance of banks for commercial and private customers. Barclays was at the bottom.
Bridget Garvin
Garriston, North Yorkshire
Telegram‘s sound
Sir – I was reading daily telegram If any new ownership changes the nature and freedom of how the newspaper has always reported on domestic and world events, it would be nothing short of devastating.
Charles Moore is right to express concerns about potential buyers (“Abu Dhabi’s Telegram And Spectator”, Comment, November 25). we can’t allow Telegram Under the influence of owners who do not share our values of freedom of expression, we become a limited voice.
Christopher Hunt
Swanley, Kent
Dropping DAB radios
SIR – It is disappointing that popular stations such as Classic FM have abandoned DAB radios in favor of DAB+ technology (report, 25 November). Replacing my two old but perfectly good DAB devices with DAB+ models will cost around £300.
Against the ongoing pressure on household budgets and the drive towards reuse and recycling in the name of sustainability, stopping a DAB service seems like an ill-considered decision.
I’ll be voting with my dial in the new year: Radio 3, here I come.
Doctor Tim Brooks
London E11
rising prices
Sir – I topped up my car in Shropshire at 143.9pm. Petrol costs 179.9p on the M25. How can this be allowed?
Peers MS Carter
Southern Fleet, Kent
creativity Doctor Whocostume makers
SECRET – I was interested in reading the 10 worst episodes of Doctor Who (Culture, telegraph.co.uk, 22 November). As a young child, I watched the show from the first episode and the stories captivated my imagination. I didn’t notice the squeaky props and costumes (although my parents did). Perhaps the production wasn’t such an outlier compared to other shows of the time, such as Muffin the Mule and The Woodentops.
I especially remember “Web Planet” and was impressed when I later learned that my new math teacher was featured in it. I was fascinated to hear about the craftsmanship of the costume makers. For example, the insects’ multifaceted eyes were plastic tea strainers.
Years later, when I learned that the BBC had found this episode and released it on DVD, I bought a copy and had an interesting moment when I heard one of the creatures speaking clearly in my teacher’s voice.
Jonathan Mann
Gunnislake, Cornwall
Reasons to regret the decline of the rough collie
SECRET – I was saddened to read about the decline of the Rough Collie (“Ten dogs on the brink of extinction – and what their deaths say about us”, Features, November 24).
The Kennel Club offer completely undersells this magnificent breed. Yes, they do need some brushing, but other than that they require very little maintenance.
They do not need excessive exercise (unlike the border collie, for example). They are intelligent, full of character, extremely affectionate and wonderful companions.
I can’t recommend them enough to potential dog owners.
Andrew Dalgarno
Westhill, Aberdeenshire
SECRET – As the proud owner of one of the few Irish red-and-white setters in the UK, I was saddened to read that this lovely breed has earned the unwelcome accolade of being the most endangered breed in the country. They have delightful personalities: They are overflowing with joy, but they are also quiet, gentle family dogs.
However, of all the types featured, they are the cheapest (by half in many cases) and I cannot understand why a high price tag is given as a reason why they are not more popular when they are now much cheaper than numerous others. popular designer hybrids.
Jan Bardey
Kineton, Warwickshire
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