LONDON, July 12 (UPI) -- For UPI Hears ...
Folks in Britain face the prospect of paying premium rates to have their bills, junk mail and other post delivered early -- then to fork out extra to have the garbage bags they dump it all in picked up. The Royal Mail is going to charge an extra $22 a week if people want their mail delivered by 9 a.m. Otherwise, they'll have to wait until it pops through the letterbox, around noon or later. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Blair's pet "think tank," the Performance and Innovation Unit, is drawing up proposals for charging an extra $1.50 for each bag of garbage to be hauled away -- an idea that has upset several million citizens who already pay local taxes to the tune of several hundred dollars a year for just that service. The gold-plated postal delivery begins next week in a few select locations, to be expanded nationwide as the money rolls in. The garbage surcharge has been described as the sort of "blue sky" thinking that the government usually turns down with alacrity. Usually. This time the silence is deafening, and cynics fear England's green pastures may soon become inundated with illegally dumped litter.
