Royal Mail

My share certificate for 277 shares has arrived which I will transfer to the member of my family who is such a wonderful help to me. The dividend of about 6% will be an extra gift to show my appreciation - and oh! that £750 investment is now worth over £1,000.

How can it still be called the Royal Mail when it is no longer publicly owned, or has HM bought up most of the shares?

Riverwalk I do understand why in these times of ridiculously low interest rates on savings many people felt they had no option but to try and recoup some money by buying the Royal Mail shares. But the vast majority of the profit made from this under priced offer will go to huge corporations - it's that that I object to. Meanwhile, as others have said, the taxpayer foots the bill for the pension scheme.

It certainly isn't fair either that those who have paid SERPS will not see the benefit. I am already in receipt of my pension and don't know if the SERPS part of it will in the future be adjusted downwards. I had a small company pension with Equitable Life and lost at least half of the value of it. It seems that the average person has lost out - and will continue to lose out - in so many ways.

It was a great institution (and a British invention, like the railways) until successive governments started running it into the ground.

Thank you for reminding us, Riverwalk! It's easy to forget that other people are struggling through.

Is this the same Great British Institution which cannot deliver my mail when there is a small flurry of snow, delivers to the wrong address on numerous occasions and knocks off very early?

Another great British institution goes down the tubes – but not before those who already own it are fooled into paying money to buy it. I wonder if it will end up like the privatised railways whereby the "private" companies that run them are subsidised by the tax payer – the worst of both worlds.

Yes, Maggie the idea that those who've worked the longest are somehow better off than those who didn't contribute!

Back to the Royal Mail ....... who would go back to the days of the GPO having a monopoly on communications?

I'm one of the state pension casualties too, Riverwalk, just coming up to 59. It adds insult to injury that as well as having our retirement plans scuppered, we lose the SERPS we paid for too, doesn't it? And the government's take on that is that only the better off will lose out as they were the ones paying into SERPS. It takes your breath away!

I'm very happy for those who can afford to take the moral high ground here.

Unlike many on Gransnet I'm not in receipt of an index-linked public service pension and, at the age of 59, will not be receiving my government pension for another seven years! Even then it will be 'rounded-down' to a flat rate for everyone, whereas as someone who has worked since the age of 15 I would have received an enhanced pension through SERPS.

If I get the chance to make a small investment, I'll take it.

And the govt( ie us) took on the pension scheme liabilities - ain't capitalism grand? It works SO awfully well!

I believe the Royal Mail had a considerable amount of land - no doubt this will be flogged off in due course.

I echo most posts here in that although tempted by the obvious financial gain that would have been far too easy to make I resisted as I have done on each of the public utility privatations in the past. My principles forbid me to cash in on selling the family silver. Royal Mail like all other services will become foreign owned too except of course for the billions in liabilities of the pension fund - that will still be owned and paid for by the public purse, thats you and me not those sharing out the profit. How much will a letter cost to post to remote Scottish Islands or crofts. I imagine the sensible/most profitable way would be to have central PO boxes where remote communities can go to collect their mail. It will save delivery costs. Postal charges will rise again, they have already risen to an unprecedented level to facilitate privatisation and dangle the carrot of immense profits available at point of sale. Not a good day for the British people or for UK PLC, but a brilliant day for corporate and institutional investors - they must think Christmas has come early again.
I guess the only thing left to sell now is unused land owned by government, County and Parish councils. Then finally selling off all public buildings, parks and green spaces including Whitehall and Trafalger Square then leasing them back from the new owners who will be either Chinese, Russian, Indian or Brazilian. Happy days - not!
I'm getting off my soapbox now, time for lunch.

No problem with mine medic - got them on Friday.

It reminds me of when the public utilities were sold off in the 80s. It was wrong then and it's wrong now.

And mine - even some royal mail workers didn't accept the £2,000, saying they knew it would make no difference but it was a matter of principle to them.

Exactly my thoughts, Jen!!

Didn't apply for any. I do not think it should have been sold off.