Producer Simon Barnes responds to Roy Mayall's Comment Is Free article, in which the postal worker accuses Dispatches of having an 'agenda' to privatise Royal Mail.
Simon Barnes writes:
In his personal comment piece on the Guardian's Comment Is Free (09/02/10) Roy Mayall claimed Channel 4's Dispatches on the Royal Mail was a 'barrage of negativity' that most postmen would recognise elements of. Sadly, this being my third investigation into the state of the Royal Mail in six years, it was something I recognised all too well – and, judging by the response to the programme, our viewers did too.
In fact, appalling industrial relations, lax security, poor training, late mail, mishandling of packages, theft and laziness were evident in all three of the films we have made since we first started this investigation back in 2004. Roy Mayall's issue seems to be that we failed to provide a coherent analysis of why the industry is in crisis. Perhaps he'd gone off to make a cup of tea when we devoted a section to the state of industrial relations within the company as witnessed by our undercover reporters. Or perhaps he just chose to ignore it. Either way – our investigation clearly demonstrated that industrial relations are one of the biggest problems Royal Mail faces. Something both management and the union are responsible for.
Roy Mayall goes on to claim all of our experts have a privatisation agenda.
In fact, all of our contributors commented on the state of Royal Mail not privatisation. We also interviewed Simon Hughes MP, a Liberal Democrat who supports keeping the Royal Mail in public ownership.
Regardless of who does and who does not want privatisation, one thing all of our contributors shared was a desire to see Royal Mail succeed. They need it to succeed. We all need it to succeed.
Roy Mayall also complains about the lack of genuine postal workers' voices in the film. Is he suggesting the employees we featured didn't actually work at Royal Mail? That the hundreds of posties we encountered over the six-years'-worth of investigation somehow weren't real? As for the documentary not representing a 'broad sample of offices in the UK' we clearly stated in the film we didn't choose the delivery offices but were sent to them by the employment agencies we approached for work. In addition, over the course of three films we have worked undercover elsewhere in the country – not just London. And, by its very nature, undercover footage is full of genuine voices, employees talking and behaving uninfluenced by the presence of a camera crew.
Roy Mayall concludes with the damming suggestion that we 'favour' private companies and if we spent time undercover in any company we would come up with similar material.
Here he entirely misses the point. It is precisely because the Royal Mail is not a private company that this investigation is so significant. Royal Mail is tasked with delivering to every one of the 28 million business and home addresses in the country and, because we effectively own it, we have a right to know what is going on inside it. Private companies are a sideshow, this isn't about them, it is about the Royal Mail.
And, by the way Roy, if you have any information regarding these other private companies you think we favour then please feel free to get in touch – Dispatches is always looking for a new story.
