SIR – Last Friday I received a flyer from Royal Mail (“Motorist swerves £1,000 speeding fine as Royal Mail fails to deliver”, report, November 24) offering me an NHS prescriptions postal delivery service. One wonders how well that would work since we now rarely get more than one or two deliveries a week.
Royal Mail’s lack of self-awareness about its current level of service is baffling.
Chris Pilkington
Weymouth, Dorset
SIR – I read the Royal Mail advert (Letters, November 24) in complete disbelief: “Keep it special. Send a card”.
Royal Mail’s services have become unreliable and slow, and their costs have risen significantly.
While it’s clearly out of touch with its customer base, it does realize that the cost of stamps is the sole reason why almost everyone I know is sending out as few Christmas cards as possible this year. Some have stopped altogether. We would send cards if we could afford the stamps and were confident they would be delivered within a day or two of sending.
Shirley Elomari
Shrewsbury
SIR – Only an organization as tone-deaf as Royal Mail would dare to publish an advertisement urging us to send Christmas cards, given the price increases it has imposed on us.
The irony of the ad is clearly lost on her. May I suggest a discount stamp for Christmas cards? That might encourage people to start sending them again.
Tim Lovet
Claygate, Surrey
SIR – My husband’s birthday was on November 12th. The next day our lovely post lady very apologetically delivered a stack of cards for him, and a significant number for me (my own birthday was on November 1st). Many bore a first class stamp. According to her (and she has more than 20 years’ experience) the problem is that Royal Mail is understaffed and should be recruiting and training more people – but that’s not happening.
Royal Mail’s website says the first-class service “aims to deliver next working day, including Saturdays”. Does it not sell first-class stamps under false pretenses, while it knows that it cannot meet that demand?
Susan Spot
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
SIR – Kris Bartlett (Letters, November 25) sent a first class letter to Oxford, 10 miles from his home. It took six weeks for it to arrive. I can do better.
Five weeks ago I received a Christmas card and was impressed by the efficiency of the sender, who lives a mile away from me. When I checked the envelope, which had a first class stamp on it, I saw that it was posted in December 2022.
Karen Mullan
Hove, East Sussex
Covid charade
SIR – Camilla Tominey has rightly shed light on the charade that is the Covid inquiry (Commentary, November 25).
Not only does the prurient taste with which details of politicians’ tawdry behavior have been studied suggest that the legal cast has been infiltrated from the set of No Sex Please, We’re British, but the central premise is apparently that the lockdown was a good thing. thing and our leaders are generally a bunch of losers.
There is also, as Ms Tominey notes, the risk of the research being hijacked by activists using the Covid deaths as a battering ram, when these and the lockdown deaths are equally important.
I write as someone whose father spent 18 months in a care home and deteriorated at a shocking rate due to draconian and inhumane regulations that ultimately served little purpose. He and thousands of elderly and vulnerable people did not “go gently into the good night” because they were betrayed by mediocrities obsessed with optics and a complete failure to conduct any kind of cost-benefit analysis.
Families traumatized by their abject failure will punish these pantomime politicians at the ballot box.
Doctor Catherine Moloney
Liverpool
Hole hole repair failed
SIR – Having worked for county councils, I fully support Ken Mitchell’s letter (25 November) on potholes, particularly his praise for “gang patching”. The demise of the provincial and divisional inspectors, who were concerned with road maintenance, was, in my opinion, the beginning of the pothole problem, which also coincided with the enormous increase in road traffic.
At that time, patching was considered a permanent repair, prior to preventative maintenance such as surface treatment. Nowadays I see repairs being done at short notice without any sealing around the edges, allowing water to seep in and cause premature failure.
Stephen Bridgewater
Shrewsbury
Disadvantage of Nissan
SIR – News that Nissan will continue to build cars in Britain is welcome (report, November 25). I bought my Qashqai because it was built here.
But why can’t Nissan have enough confidence in the product to, like Kia, give it a seven-year warranty, instead of the ridiculous three years it currently offers? This fact alone means I have yet to decide on my next car, when that should be a given.
Paul Spencer
Thame, Oxfordshire
Lost an accent
SIR – I can empathize with Sophie Pender and her experiences that led her to champion the “old boys old news” campaign (“The City Lawyer fights the old boys’ network,” Business, November 22).
I grew up in Northern Ireland and went to Cambridge to do my studies. In April 1965 I had a job interview at a law firm in London, where the senior partner was a friend of my mother. The interview was short and the tone was set by him saying to me, “If you want to come and work for us, you’re going to have to get rid of that awful Belfast accent.”
Five hours later I arrived at Belfast airport where my mother was waiting for me. After a few minutes she turned to me and commented on my “terrible English accent”.
David Denton
Belfast
Bankless cities
SIR – You report (November 24) that cost savings at Barclays will not impact customer-facing branch staff. That’s because it has already closed so many of its high streets.
Here in North Yorkshire, the market towns of Bedale and Leyburn are unbanked. These are cities with many small businesses and seniors, and the bank branches were used intensively by the population.
Now we have to go to Richmond or Northallerton, both 10 miles away. I was there last week and stood in line for 25 minutes. Other people left in disgust. There was a graph showing the industry rating performance of banks for corporate and retail customers. Barclays was at the bottom.
Bridget Garvin
Garriston, North Yorkshire
Telegraph‘s voice
SIR – I have read The Daily Telegraph since 1978. It will be nothing short of devastating if new ownership changes the nature and freedom of the way the newspaper has always covered events at home and around the world.
Charles Moore is right to express his concerns about the potential buyers (‘It would be unforgivable if Abu Dhabi were to nationalize the economy’). Telegraph And Spectator”, Commentary, November 25). We can’t resist Telegraph become a limited voice, influenced by owners who do not share our free speech values.
Christopher Hunt
Swanley, Kent
Dropping DAB radios
SIR – It is disappointing that popular stations such as Classic FM are abandoning DAB radios in favor of DAB+ technology (report, November 25). Replacing my two old but perfectly working DAB units with DAB+ models will cost around £300.
In the face of continued pressure on household budgets and the push for reuse and recycling in the interests of sustainability, discontinuing a DAB service appears to be an ill-conceived decision.
In the new year I will vote with my dial: Radio 3, here I come.
Dr. Tim Brooks
London E11
Inflated prices
SIR – I refueled my car in Shropshire at 143.9p. On the M25 petrol costs 179.9p. How can this be allowed?
Colleagues MS Carter
South Fleet, Kent
The ingenuity of Doctor who‘s costume makers
SIR – I was interested to read about the 10 worst Doctor Who episodes (Culture, telegraph.co.uk, November 22). As a young child I watched the program from the first episode and my imagination was captivated by the stories. I didn’t notice the creaky sets and costumes (although my parents might have). Perhaps the production wasn’t too bad compared to other shows of the time, such as Muffin the Mule and The Woodentops.
I particularly remember “The Web Planet,” and was later very impressed to discover that my new math teacher had appeared in it. I was fascinated to hear about the ingenuity of the costume makers. For example, the insects’ multifaceted eyes were plastic tea strainers.
Many years later, when I discovered that the BBC had found the episode and released it on DVD, I bought a copy and experienced a remarkable moment when I heard one of the creatures speak unmistakably in my teacher’s voice.
Jonathan Mann
Gunnislake, Cornwall
Reasons to lament the demise of the rough collie
SIR – I was saddened to read about the demise of the rough collie (“Ten dogs on the brink of extinction – and what their demise says about us,” Features, November 24).
The Kennel Club quote completely undermines this beautiful breed. Yes, they do require a little brushing, but otherwise they are very low maintenance.
They do not need excessive exercise (unlike, for example, a border collie). They are intelligent, full of character, very affectionate and great companions.
I can’t recommend them highly enough to potential dog owners.
Andreas Dalgarno
Westhill, Aberdeenshire
SIR – As the proud owner of one of the few Irish Red and White Setters in Britain, I was saddened to read that this beautiful breed was given the unwanted honor of being the country’s most endangered breed. They have a wonderful personality: they are overflowing with joy, but are also calm, gentle family dogs.
However, I don’t understand why a high price tag is given as one of the reasons why they are not more popular, when they are the cheapest (in many cases by half) of all the breeds on offer, and cost much less than the numerous current breeds. popular designer crosses.
Jan Bardey
Kineton, Warwickshire
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