Revelations that unions at the Royal Mail are just as greedy and stupidly short-sighted as its management are causing companies to look elsewhere for the distribution of messages and the delivery of product.

Reportedly the growth of email has resulted in 10 million fewer letters a day being sent, a total drop of 10%, and a national strike would significantly increase the decline. It has been proudly claimed by the Communication Workers Union that the last national strike in 2007 left an estimated 200 million letters and parcels caught in the backlog and that the recent local strikes have held up the delivery of 30 million.

Rumours that the popular children’s character is to be rebranded as Postman Prat should be dismissed as mischievous, if not appropriate.

Swiss food giant Nestle has been shamed into ceasing trading with Robert Mugabe’s wife.

The company had been secretly buying milk from a farm seized from its white owners by Robert Mugabe’s thugs in 2003, with the owner being paid around 10% of its value, and given to Grace Mugabe. The revelations were published in the Sunday Telegraph on September 27, and four days after the bad publicity Nestle announced that it would no longer trade with the Mugabes.

The Swiss giant has a track record for questionable ethics, based on allegations that it improperly promoted its formula milk in the Third World, an aspect that has led to consumer boycotts of its products in the West.

Most UK consumers want to see all food labelled with the country of origin, so that they can choose to buy British if they wish.

This is the result of research carried out by the consumers association Which?. Currently many products dont have to carry the country of origin, particularly processed foods made from imported ingredients. In these cases the “country of origin” is legally the place that the product last underwent a substantial change, not the origin of the main ingredient.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has set up a fake fraudulent website, to warn purchasers of tickets for events about the dangers of fraudulent websites.(Live UK)

Ticket buyers attracted by the deals featured on it, and clicking on “buy”, are directed to a page which tells them it is a fake and gives advice on avoiding becoming a victim. According to the OFT most victims are caught by their desperation to obtain tickets and their excitement at finding them, as well as the legitimate appearance of the fraudulent websites. Around 8% of ticket buyers admit to having been defrauded, 20% of people know someone who has been defrauded and men are twice as likely to be victims as women.

Victims lose an average of £80.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has made a number of interesting adjudications over the last few weeks.

o Complaints were upheld about the truthfulness of Coca-Cola’s ads for its Vitaminwater range of soft drinks, which claimed health benefits that Coca-Cola were unable to substantiate.

o Complaints were upheld about the truthfulness of a claim made by the National Pen Company of Ireland that they supplied “50 pens free” yet required customers to pay a compulsory charge of £17.47 for shipping and VAT.

o Complaints were upheld about a TV ad for loan company QuickQuid that neglected to mention the 2356% interest rate.

o Complaints were upheld about the truthfulness of a reader offer on radiator panels made by the Daily Telegraph which claimed commercial benefits the newspaper was unable to substantiate.

Moves are being made in France to force advertisers to indicate when pictures used have been airbrushed or otherwise enhanced.

The moves, backed by 50 politicians, has been sparked by concerns for the health of young girls for whom the doctored photos become a body role-model, and prompt eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. There is also the issue of advertisers being honest with consumers and advising them that what they are looking at is not a reality.

Valerie Boyer, a member of President Sarkozy’s UMP party told the Daily Telegraph “It is not an attempt to damage creativity of photographers or publicity campaigns, but to advise the public on whether what they are seeing is real or not.”

“Not real” according to the newspaper would have been the picture of Sarkozy with an airbrushed waistline which appeared in Paris Match two years ago and hundreds of airbrushed photos of his wife and former model, Carla Bruni.

Subliminal advertising, currently banned, does actually work, say researchers at University College, London.

In a recent study 50 participants were shown a series of words on a computer screen for a fraction of a second, too short a time to be clocked consciously. The words were either positive (flower, peace or cheerful) neutral (box, ear or kettle) or negative (murder, agony or despair). Recognition was high, particularly for the negative words.

The current ban is due to fears that the process could be used for political ends.

o email to Sir Menzies Campbell, October 12.

Dear Sir Menzies Campbell

I write again with regard to the safety provisions at the Old Course, St Andrews, of which you are a trustee.

You will have read by now about the tragic death of a golfer, Janet Llewellyn, who was hit on the head by a golf ball at the Strathendrick Golf Club, Drymen, Stirlingshire on October 1st. Continue reading →