50 is  magic number at the Royal Mail:-

• 50 is the number of bits of junk mail sent to all 29 million addresses in Britain every year.
• That represents 50% of all the 54 million items of daily post.
• 50 pence is now the cost of a second class stamp!

It is hard to know whether to grumble about the junk mail or smile about the ridiculous situation the postal service is now in.

Delivering millions of unwanted letters, which go indirectly from forest to fireplace.

There again, without all the junk mail, we would probably find our second class postage stamps would probably cost twice, thrice or even 50 times as much.

P.s     The £1.1 million a year salary of Ms Moya Greene, Chief Executive of the Royal Mail,  is what qualifies her to reassure us that 5o pence for a second glass stamp is a bargain.   I guess the elderly won’t be sending out quite so many Christmas cards this year, at this new cheap rate !

P.p.s     In a quiet and almost unpublicised move, the Government, on our behalf, has taken on responsibility for the Royal Mail Pension fund.   Sounds like a great deal – to gain £28.5 billion of assets taxpayers took on £37.6 billion of liabilities.

In a time of such austerity it is hard to see how this makes much financial sense – unless – you have a grand plan to sell off the postal service.

P.p.p.s     You can, in theory, reduce the amount of junk mail you receive by registering with the mailing preference service.   Let’s hope it is more effective than the telephone preference service.

(For earlier blogs on this subject, click in the TAG CLOUD on “GRUMBLESMILES POST”)