Quite interesting (that a Conservative should raise this question).
I’ll file this one under “A- bit-bloody-late-to-wake-up–and-smell-the-coffee-isn’t-it?”. We (UKIP) made this a major issue at the time and forced it into the media, on the backs of our researchers, one of the incredibly rare occasions where we scored a media success. The UKIP research and it’s context was sent by me, in a letter to the Bromsgrove Standard, and received a thoroughly predictable pro-EU response from Peter Luff (Con. - Mid Worcs.) and BERR Select committee Chairman. Ann Winterton’s question could almost have been lifted from my letter. A superb illustration as to exactly why the Conservatives must not be trusted with office.
I spoke to my local postie a couple of weeks ago (votes BNP, ex-Labour!). He’s worked for the Royal Mail for 30 years, and when I told him about this pensions nonsense (the £9 billion gap), he said “If that’s true, why the Hell did the Royal Mail take a 17-year pensions holiday?” This Times article, from July 2007, mentions a £5.6 billion shortfall in their pension fund:http://tinyurl.com/ccxc7n. Looks like it has been “spun”; who’d have thought with Mandy at the helm?
This article from 2 weeks ago, for me, proves that this issue has been massively propagandised and exploited http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5796893.ece The brief comment by RG of London is most illuminating.
Cherish your universal rate delivery service. I once heard a discussion about this on Radio 4, and a contributor said that under Royal Mail, a first-class letter posted from London to the Hebrides cost 32 pence (then), but the cheaper private rival was £7.00.
Apart from the uniqueness of the Royal Mail as a public service and cherished institution, I view privatisation with a much less charitable mind these days. Gas, for example; a thoroughly unsatisfactory public monopoly starved of investment that was challenged by new private companies to what we have now. An array of equally unsatisfactory, sometimes even appalling commercial interests, all foreign owned, offering the highest prices in Europe.
Not all privatisation is bad, but it would be disastrous for the Royal mail, I feel.
Keep up the fantastic work!
Steven Morson
Prospective parliamentary candidate
UKIP - Bromsgrove
http://www.ukipbromsgrove.org
(01527) 831586
Just in case you missed this
This is the really, really true reason why the Post Office is in a bit of a to do. Believe me!! (Not) Anne
Q3. [260226] Ann Winterton (Congleton) (Con): Will the deputy Prime Minister confirm that the real reason for part-privatising Royal Mail stems directly from European Union postal legislation, which forced Royal Mail to divest itself of its most profitable business, thereby handing it over lock, stock and barrel to European competitors? What sense is there in that?
Ms Harman: The real reason, and the basis on which we are bringing forward the Postal Services Bill, is the analysis in the Hooper report, which we commissioned as long ago as December 2007. It made it clear that we need to take action to put Royal Mail, which, as the Prime Minister has said, is part of the fabric of our society, on a firm footing for the future. That means that we have to ensure that the pension liabilities are met. We have to ensure that the unfair regulation is tackled. We have to ensure that there is legislative underpinning of universal postal services, and also that we get into the organisation—so that, as well as meeting its pension liabilities, it can also modernise—considerable public capital investment but also private capital investment. When we bring forward that Bill to support the future of Royal Mail, I hope that the hon. Lady and all other hon. Members will support it.
4 Mar 2009 : Column 846
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