Dear
Customer,
You may have seen media coverage around the new price of a 2nd Class stamp
which is due to come into effect on March 25 of this year.Due to an error on
our part,our new 2nd Class stamp price of 61p will be 1p above the existing
regulatory price cap for a period of 7 days - from March 25 until April 1.We
are donating the revenue that we expect to collect from the error - around
£60,000 - to the charity Action For Children,which helps disadvantaged
children across the UK. We apologise for this mistake,and we are sorry for any
inconvenience it may cause.Thank you for your continuing custom with Royal Mail.
Stamps purchased before the price rise will still be valid. As I usually post a few Easter cards and we have a number of family birthdays coming up, I need some stamps. I am buying mine this week before the prices go up.
But I am really glad that this great charity will benefit from RM's error. You may recognise it by one of its earlier names [NCH Action or National Children's Homes] It began in 1869, when Methodist Minister Thomas Bowman Stephenson opened a children's home in Waterloo, just two years after Baptist Minister, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, opened his orphanage in Stockwell. It is sad to think that 150 years later, both these charities are still working hard to help disadvantaged children in this country.
There has been criticism, from some quarters, of the Comic Relief Programme on Friday night. Some allege that the presentation of the current state of poverty in Britain was exaggerated. Others were upset by 'rich white British saviours' going to give handouts to 'poor black African children'. Still others were concerned about the promotion of 'single-use-plastic red noses'. I find all that quite distressing. Donations over the weekend were significantly reduced from the previous CR in 2017. I hope that cynicism and 'compassion fatigue' are not going to diminish all the good work being done by CR since 1985.
Oh dear -this post began as a reminder to buy stamps and has ended in a rant about the need to be generous. This should lighten your mood- me ten years ago being the Lady In Red supply teaching at a Leicestershire village school . I rather liked that borrowed scarlet wig["And they tell me that your husband is the minister at the chapel?" said the School Governor who was visiting - clearly unsure about this wild extrovert employed to teach for a day]
I had no idea about the stamps - I will get mine now and a few extra for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI must say I was shocked at the continued use of the plastic single use noses on sale - they could easily be made out of something like the cardboard they use for egg boxes. I can never understand why people just cannot give without having to receive something in return. It is sad that in this day and age there has to be a charity for poverty - there must be another way to address the balance of rich and poor. It is even evident that the gap between North and South gets ever wider in this country. Now I am having a rant!
Love the picture of you as the Scarlet Woman!
Perhaps Donny and Marie Osmond could release a new version of "Paper Noses"
DeleteStamps are on my shopping list - didn't know the price was going up - so thank you
ReplyDeleteGlad to be helpful
DeleteThe cost of our postage went up, earlier this year. But, we have something called "Forever" stamps - one buys them at the postage price that is in effect at the time, but they can be used, without additional postage, no matter what you paid for them and what the current postage in effect at the time of use might be.
ReplyDeleteYes, that is true here in the UK too. Regular letter stamps are marked 1st class or 2nd class, and can be used indefinitely. A kind elderly gentleman at church gave me a sheet last year which he'd found in a drawer - they were about 10 years old. But he said he had no use for them and thought I'd like them.
DeleteAnother little detour from your post’s starting point. You mentioned Charles Spurgeon the Baptist preacher. We live not far from the Fen village of Isleham. It was in the river Lark that Spurgeon was baptised in May 1850, a little way from the village. There is an engraved stone marking the spot. Each May there is an event called the Spurgeon Trundle, a walk from the village to the bank of the Lark followed by a short service. I went along last year with about 25 others and will probably do the same this coming May.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'd forgotten about the walk to the river. My father did it about 25 years ago!
DeleteCould not agree more about continuing to give. So sad to see donations down because of what appears to be politics. I know it's complicated but the urge to do something to help in some way is surely important
ReplyDelete