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Royal Mail 'failing countless people' in Oxfordshire, MPs say

Royal Mail 'failing countless people' in Oxfordshire, MPs say

BBC News25-06-2025
Royal Mail is missing its targets in Oxfordshire and leaving "countless people in the lurch", a group of the county's Liberal Democrat MPs has said. In a joint statement, Calum Miller, Olly Glover, Layla Moran, Charlie Maynard and Freddie van Mierlo accused the company of "failing people here in Oxfordshire".The latest Royal Mail data found that 67.9% of first-class deliveries in OX postcodes were delivered on time over the past year - below its target of 93%.A spokesperson for Royal Mail said it was "working hard to deliver the standard our customers expect".
The five Lib Dem MPs called for greater accountability on missed targets to help improve parcel delivery and for the industry regulator, Ofcom, to step in and "act on these unacceptable delays".
"These missed targets are shocking and are leaving countless people in the lurch here in Oxfordshire and across the country," they said."This has been going on for far too long and people are understandably fed up of it."Postal workers are working hard to keep pace in an understaffed service – this isn't fair on them, or the individuals and businesses across Oxfordshire who need a well-staffed, reliable postal service they can trust."Royal Mail said: "We acknowledge that our quality of service is not yet where we want it to be, and we're working hard to deliver the standard our customers expect."It said the "vast majority" of first-class letters arrived the next working day across the UK, with 92.3% delivered within two days."It's also important to note that letter volumes have declined significantly in recent years," Royal Mail added."As a result, many households no longer receive post every day, which can understandably cause concern for customers who were used to more frequent deliveries."
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Story of banknotes is full of funny money
Story of banknotes is full of funny money

Times

time34 minutes ago

  • Times

Story of banknotes is full of funny money

If you hold strong views about the design of Britain's banknotes, your moment has come at last. The Bank of England intends to relaunch the £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes, and in a predictable nod to our populist age, it has appealed to the public for suggestions. Very little, it seems, will be off limits, since the Bank's statement suggests that great historical characters could give way to images of 'food, film, television or sport'. So out will go Winston Churchill, Jane Austen and JMW Turner, and in might come, say, Luke Littler, chicken tikka masala and Adolescence. And to think people doubt the idea of progress in history. • Churchill may be dropped from banknotes for diverse designs As Bank officials are surely aware, though, no conceivable combination will please everybody. Indeed, no less a figure than Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has already condemned the 'Bank of Wokeness' for its 'supine kowtowing to the gods of political correctness'.(this, remember, before a single image has been chosen). Yet even though this story seems like a gift to the permanently outraged community, no venerable tradition is in danger of being sullied, since pictures on banknotes are a modish innovation. Until the late Queen Elizabeth made her debut on March 17, 1960, no British shopper had ever seen a face on a pound note, unless you count the image of Britannia. Indeed, if Sir Jacob wants to take a properly conservative position, he might argue that banknotes themselves are a dangerous innovation. There are suggestions that the ancient Carthaginians issued promissory notes on scraps of leather or parchment, but most historians agree that the first proper paper money originated, inevitably, in China. This was a note called a jiaozi, issued by private merchants in the city of Chengdu some time around the year 1000. Printed in black ink on an early version of paper, jiaozi often showed images of merchants. Each had a different value, depending on the buyer's needs. Over time they became standardised, and eventually the imperial government took over production, stamping notes with seals to prevent counterfeiting. But the problem with paper money, as the Chinese emperors soon discovered, is that it is very tempting to keep printing it. Inflation inevitably followed; then came the first of innumerable currency reforms. Paper money, however, never went away. 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Since cash payments now account for barely a tenth of all transactions, most of us will only rarely have to gaze upon the consequences. And if the alternative is to hand over a little portrait of the man who wrote Imagine, the ding of a contactless payment will sound sweeter than ever.

Swinney's high tax boast ‘offensive' to Scots, say Tories
Swinney's high tax boast ‘offensive' to Scots, say Tories

Telegraph

timean hour ago

  • Telegraph

Swinney's high tax boast ‘offensive' to Scots, say Tories

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Hull4Heroes shelves veterans village due to 'spiralling' costs
Hull4Heroes shelves veterans village due to 'spiralling' costs

BBC News

timean hour ago

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Hull4Heroes shelves veterans village due to 'spiralling' costs

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