gregory
No - the UK post office has been effectively privatised, and it HAS to make a profit to avoid the lovely government insisting on allowing even MORE competitors to work against it. This would in turn threaten rural deliveries, as already there are about a million competing parcel services - who, please note, don't trouble themselves with doing this kind of crap on behalf of customs. They just cherry pick the services with most profit, leaving the PO legally obliged to maintain door to door delivery to the Outer Hebrides and the Scilly Isles. Which is one of the things that means prices rise - the easy stuff is picked off by other companies who offer business ridiculously cheap rates. At the moment, not a lot of competitors do letters - I THINK ordinary people are not allowed to send that way. But if they are allowed to in the end, the PO will be left with ONLY places like the Hebrides - and ironically, these competitors pay the PO to finish the delivery chain to places like mine - because they don't want to actually DELIVER to rural areas....<frown> It *is* double-dipping: the government ends up spending both charges, yes? Sounds deeply suspect to me. Don't let our public servants know or they'll do it too. Now, I just find they occasionally question or destroy things of mine. Which doesn't happen often - I'm resigning myself to being careful about what I buy from overseas <sigh>.
Mess ? Don't get me started. But the money they get goes back into the Post Office, NOT to the government, is all.