BS: Postal Problem (UK)

Subject: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 12:49 AM

In a radio interview earlier this morning, Howard Johnson, General Secretary of the British Union of Post Office Workers. Mr. Johnson was up in arms about a recent proposal that the British mail adopt the German method of addressing envelopes in which the house number is written after the name of the road, not before it (i.e. Downing Street 10, instead of 10 Downing Street).

Johnson spoke at great length about the enormous burden this change would place upon postal employees, insisting that "Postal workers would be furious because it would turn upside-down the way we have learned to sort." "Not only that, it would cost in the region of 40 million pounds to pay for these alterations."

His comments elicited an immediate reaction from the listening audience, many of whom phoned up to voice their support for Johnson's campaign.

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 06:10 AM

Check the date... this morning......

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 06:39 AM

As a person who made a living delivering things to peoples houses, I think that any house which does not display a name or a number, clearly visible from the road should not receive deliveries. As for people who have no letter box, or are ex-directory so you can't phone them for directions should you wish to, they should be hung drawn and quartered, and shot at dawn for a week.
So there!!
John

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: kendall
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 07:09 AM

Oh yeah? well, you Brits should talk, you eat with the wrong hand, you drive on the wrong side of the road, and you put the day before the month in an address.

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 07:17 AM

It is already illegal not to have your house number visible from the road. The law is not often enforced though.
The emergency services rely on being able to locate a property quickly. O.k. the fire service may just head for the house in the street with smoke pouring from its windows, but the Ambulance service don't get the same level of clues if someone indoors is having a heart attack.

As to the news story, I support the comments of Liz.

BBC Radio2 have just been having a discussion about secret deals to allow France & Germany to use the Puond. This is because the Euro has failed to live up to its initial promise

CHEERS

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 08:42 AM

Billy Hayes is the PO union secretary anyway.
eric

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 09:39 AM

Kendall, these things are called traditions and are the result of hundreds of years of obscure behaviour which makes them rather charming.

Sadly the US has not been around long enough to form traditions, so really you only have habitual behaviour.

I shall now run and hide from the fall out ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Amos
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 09:42 AM

SC:

Well, really, your honored traditions are just habits that have grown mould, innit?

A

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 09:57 AM

Ah yes Amos, but they have been around long enough to grow mould ;-) Rather like our splendid cheeses, with age they get tastier and more mature.

BTW I am not the person who signs off as An English Patriot!

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 10:34 AM

Amos you're not allowed to spell mould like that, how can we mock you Americans if you start spelling properly?
John ¦¬]

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 10:36 AM

I work in the mailing business in the USA. (I used to work for a company that prepared bulk mail. Now I work in a university's post office.) I have had lots of experience trying to make sense of addresses.

I can tell you that changing anything as fundamental as where you put the number would be very disruptive. The main problem is, there would be a long period of adjustment in which some people would be following the new standard and some would be following the old. Some people seem to never get the word that a change has been made; some, just out of orneryness, will refuse to comply.

What about all the businesses that maintain huge mailing lists on computer? Converting to the new system will be expensive for them, and not error-free by any means. I can imagine that the conversion programs will sometimes confuse house numbers with apartment numbers, and make every other conceivable (and inconceivable) mistake. It is more difficult than you might imagine to write a computer program that can successfully parse a mailing address into its various components, and a program that works well on one company's mailing list might not work on another's.

You can be sure that most of these companies will not comply unless and until they are forced to, which means you've got to either charge them higher postage if they don't comply, or refuse to deliver their mail altogether. And whatever rules you make for the big companies have to apply to grandma who wants to send birthday cards to her grandkids as well.

On the other hand, I can imagine that within the EU, there might be a strong incentive to standardize address formats across the various countries. Just as they've adopted one currency, the Euro, they might want to adopt one kind of postage stamp, one set of postal rates and regulations, etc.

Even if the EU adopts new standards, I suppose the UK can opt out of them, just as they opted out of the Euro.

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 10:41 AM

As Liz pointed out, today is April Fools Day.

I suppose the thing is, there is so much daftness around that this is no dafter than lots of real stories.

I was reading through the paper today looking for the April Fool story, and I kept on finding what seemed like it, only to find over the page another one every bit as likely. It's quite good actually - we start reading every story with a heightened level of scepticism, which is really how we should always read them, the way we should read anything we come across on the Net.

Remember - "It ain't necessarily so..."

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Doktor Doktor
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 10:49 AM

Well it's sad but the numberless days of "Hollyhock Cottage" and "The Old Manse" are doomed.
The key is in the "higher postage ....refuse to deliver their mail" objectives.

Phoney Queer's already well along with his plans to "privatise" the dear old cheery whistling posite with his red van and his unfailing early morning bon mot. He will be usurped by crass brown-nylon besuited yankies in wierd-looking trucks or (shudder) gruff Germans, their smiles surgically expunged.

Time to write a ballad on how good the old ones should have been.

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: GUEST,Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 02:40 PM

Does this mean I've been had? What a shame. I went to a lot of trouble to frame that brilliant analysis of the situation.

On the other hand, don't you suppose there will be, sooner or later, if there isn't already, a proposal to standardize address formats, postal codes, postage rates, and so on, throughout the European Union? What's it like over there now? If you want to, say, order a CD by mail from Germany, is it just as easy as getting one from a company based in the UK? Will the price, including "postage & handling" (Do you use that term?) be comparable? How about delivery time? If you live in, say, the south of England, is it more expensive to send a letter to France than to Scotland?

If there's any significant difference, I assume that's one of the problems that the EU was meant to solve.

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: GUEST,Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 02:53 PM

Regarding April Fool's Day, I don't think we give it nearly enough attention here in the US. Our news media, as far I know, don't publish any deliberately bogus stories. One notable exception is National Public Radio. They've done a few.

A couple of years ago, they told a story of an Irishman who was being recruited to play basketball for the Boston Celtics. He agreed to play for them only if the team agreed to change the pronunciation from "seltics" to "keltics"!

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Strollin' Johnny
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 03:12 PM

Kendall, the practice of putting the day before the month in a date is not only the logical mathematical method (smallest-larger-largest) it is chronologically correct. You don't write time as mm:ss:hh, so why write a date as mm:dd:yy?

Johnny :0)

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 03:24 PM

Actually, the most logical way to write times and dates would be the opposite: largest, smaller, smallest. 2004-Apr-01-PM-03:20:30.

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 04:57 PM

Leave that kind of logic to the Vulcans.

Here is a Guardian round-up of today's newspaper hoaxes; and a link to "the top 100 April Fool's Day hoaxes."

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 06:30 PM

'Early morning bon mot'? We're lucky if the post gets here before lunch time, and as for bon mots - I nearly got my head bitten off because I opened the door as the postie was approaching the step - scared the bejesus out of him.

However, I will say this, they got a parcel to me from Germany in 3 days. I just wish they could find the letter I posted to my employer 3 weeks ago, which had just over 8 miles to travel.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: kendall
Date: 01 Apr 04 - 09:52 PM

What do you know of ready, young Luke Skywalker?
I really thought I'd "kick up a rough" with that one. Oh well, I'll just have to try harder, but, it's not easy finding fault with my British friends.

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 02 Apr 04 - 04:28 AM

Yes, as the Guardian link above shows, the British media have a field day on 1st April. However, they also seem to hold back stories until that date which seem highly unlikely, but are actually true. This makes it difficult at times to spot which is which. Is it a genuine con, or a genuine story posing as a con?

Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Hrothgar
Date: 02 Apr 04 - 04:51 AM

A local radio station signed up 200 volunteers whom it convinced that the Olympics were to be held in Brisbane because Athens had decided the construction timetable was too tight, the expense too great, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Postal Problem (UK)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 03 Apr 04 - 04:35 AM

The Olympic story might not be so far from the truth..... I hear the building works in Athens are not going to plan!

My back garden is available if they can't find an alternative - I've got a swimming pool (pond), high jump (archway) relay course (bit round the washing pole) pole jump (next doors' fence), sprint (up and down the path) and long jump (down the path, over the cat poop). Not sure what to do about javelin, but we've plenty of plates for discus and the shooting target can be the traffic sign across the road.

LTS