Royal Mail lost *only* £611 million last year. Throw in the strikes and this will increase. Why should the Royal Mail keep its monopoly? Monopolies are inherently viscious.

The Royal Mail was in profit only a few years ago. Then they pissed money away on hiring loads of managers and consultants, millions on the daft "Consignia" rebranding business, then re-rebranding it back to Royal Mail, etc.

The more I learn about what these managers are doing to provoke a strike, the more it looks to me like the miners' strike all over again. Don't let the bastards get away with it! Solidarity to the posties! I'll bring a donation from our workplace down to the local sorting office tomorrow lunchtime.

correction: the royal mail have *never* made a loss sending letters within the UK
correction: the royal mail only made losses with 'one off' expences and its foriegn adventures.
agreed monopolies are vicious most of the time, with some buissnesses the industry cannot exsist without one company having a monopoly, secondly i ask about the monopolies with super markets (walmart in the US and tesco here). monopolies are an innevitablity in capitalism (the leading company gains more profits to be able to reinvest etc..).

Monopolies aren't inevitable. They are a symptom of the system failing. You can't really say that the UK and US are perfectly functioning capatalist systems. We must work harder to overcome them. Try not buying all food at Wal-Mart or Tesco for a start. There are many independent producers who will be happy to sell.

Anyway, many of the alternative models are more prone to monopolies, but work harder to control them.