Postwatch & public's reaction to abolition of 2nd delivery

Most of the country couldn’t care less about the news that the Royal Mail is thinking of abolishing its second daily delivery, and charging extra to businesses that want their letters and parcels delivered before 9.30am. Even Postwatch, the official watchdog, has welcomed the announcement, saying that it is good that Consignia (as the state postal service mysteriously likes to call itself) is looking at all the options. The public relations people at Consignia no doubt see this mass apathy as a great triumph. They are probably slapping each other on the back this morning, congratulating each other on having buried a piece of bad news under a mountain of public indifference. But the truth is that customers can no longer be bothered to protest, because their expectations of the Royal Mail have already sunk so low that they cannot sink any lower. Nobody any longer expects, with any confidence, that a letter posted with a first-class stamp will arrive the next day – no matter how many deliveries there may be. In the 19th century, when there were up to 12 efficient deliveries a day, nobody would have stood for this. In the 21st, we are so used to the collapse of public services that we greet the deterioration of another with a resigned shrug. But the planned abolition of the second post is a very serious matter. Like the inefficiency of the roads and the railways, it will clog up the arteries of British commerce. Goods and payments will take ever longer to come through – and serious businesses will take their custom elsewhere.