So Royal Mail has increased it's letter postage costs by the biggest margin ever known ....

I suppose it's inevitable, Snoopy, as fewer and fewer communications are sent by 'snail mail' they have to make their money somehow.

Like you, I grew up with it (and, yes I'm old enough to remember the telegram boys) and I still think it's pretty good value to be able to send a letter to anywhere in the country and have it delivered the next day. But you are right in saying that the business model is out of date and needs tweaking.

I wish I knew the answer, but I don't. The worst case scenario would be privatisation resulting in higher costs for sending letters to remote locations.

Would be interesting to get Darry's take on this, Snoops. Wonder what's happened to Darry, he seems to have disappeared...shame, he was such a nice guy.

Har I bought 500 stamps 2years ago so im alright jack.

They used to print the price on the stamps when i wur a lad!

Now if you buy loads of stamps they will always hold whatever value 1st or 2nd is on the cover.

It could actually be an investment - say you bought 100,000 1st class stamps at 30p and sold em for what ever it is now i wonder what profit you could make?

Yeah Darry was a nice guy I hope I didnt frighten him off like I think i did with Donk!

I will PM him and let him know he is wanted!

I remember the time when we used to receive mail two or in fact three times a day many years ago now.
My how the times have changed.

We only get the one delivery a day which doesn't arrive until 1.00-2.00pm, it's a shame if you're waiting for a document or even a birthday card and now we are expected to pay more for this depleted facility, still I suppose it's a sign of the times (I do tire of saying that.)

Btw prescriptions went up 20p to £7.40 also this week....sigh.

I'm sure the Royal Mail are getting less items to post as far as actual 'letters' and 'birthday cards' are concerned, but they must have a vast amount of Ebay items to deliver, and Amazon items .... well, all the internet shopping sites send items out by post and mostly by Royal Mail. I'd have thought this new trend of shopping online would go a long way to make up for business lost to emails.
Still, I love the post and would be so sad if it were lost. I can live with 46p or 75p cost to send a card. I remember we used to get 2 deliveries a day, but we never got 3 and I don't recall telegram boys at all.

I can remember 2 deliveries... They only stopped that in 2003. The first post of the day always used to come around 7am, before I went to work which was great! Now it arrives sometime between 10:30 and 14:00. Grr. I can't remember 3rd posts or telegram boys though. When did they end?

I can remember three deliveries a day and telegram boys probably back to the late fifties, possibly early sixties. And while we all love Royal Mail and Postman Pat, they are sadly becoming outdated along with everything else in life. But as Wendie says, parcel deliveries must be growing. But letters and parcels are two different things. As more and more people shop online, parcel deliveries ( be it Royal Mail of other multi-drop compamies ) will survive and survive well. Alas, I do see the role of the 6 day a week postie getting less and less.

I wonder if the royal mail will stop using posties and set up the equivalent of post office box centres where everyone in a 1 or 2 mile radius will need to go to pick up their mail, rather than having it delivered to their homes? It'd probably keep costs down. Not sure how rural communities or the infirm would get their mail though!