At long, long last, the Royal Mail is going to be privatised. Somebody, somewhere has actually grown a pair and is prepared to take on the dinosaur unions, the special interest groups and the stupid that oppose such a move.
There will be cries of outrage (especially on the BBC) where much time will be allocated to all of the above, spliced with people worried that their Post Office will close down and the end of community life as they know it.
It won’t.
The Post Office is a completely separate company so is not affected but don’t let facts get in the way of a good (bad?) story or some pictures of upset pensioners.
But don’t be fooled into thinking that privatising it now means that the taxpayer can say goodbye to any costs associated with an employer of 150,000 people and all that goes with it. Part of the process to get this far entailed the taxpayer picking up pension liabilities of £30Bn – yes, 30 BILLION pounds. Think about it, would you buy a company with that kind of liability hanging over its head?
Don’t forget that Labour got cold feet about the privatisation after saying how good a thing it was going to be. By the way, the CWU, the main union at Royal Mail, has donated £1.8 million to the Labour party since 2010 and threatened to withdraw funding from Labour should they not state publicly that they will re-nationalise it if re-elected.
It is not the purpose of Government to own things, it shouldn’t own anything. This privatisation has been a long time coming and if service improves then excellent, this is what we all wanted. If it doesn’t then it deserves to collapse under its own weight and another provider will take its place – this is the free market, it works.
Bemused from Bermondsey.
(Guest Author)
England's England 