Royal Mail Privatisation
According to BBC News, Lord Mandelson has said that the only way to ‘save’ the Post Office from unprofitability and its huge burden of pension debt is through partial privatisation.
Similarly, Gordon Brown said in a speech in Bristol yesterday that private investment in Royal Mail was imperative in being able to guarantee its £25bn pension fund and maintain a universal postal service.
The strength of feeling on this issue in the Labour party is clearly quite strong. I was in the Lords Gallery on Wednesday when the Labour peer Lord Clarke of Hampstead, who is a former postman, shouted ‘shame on you’ as Lord Mandelson brought the Bill to the House of Lords for a first reading. In the House of Commons well over one hundred Labour MPs have signed an early day motion criticising the Government’s plans to sell a stake in Royal Mail.
Furthermore, in opposition to Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson, Billy Hayes, General Secretary of the Communication Workers Union, told BBC News that the privatisation plan was ‘baffling’ and just didn’t make any sense. He also said to Sky News:
I don’t want to see Mrs Thatcher’s ideas, Conservative ideas, being introduced by a Labour government. Let’s be clear: 25%, 30%, Peter Mandelson has talked about 49% owned by a foreign company.
That’s not what people in the Labour Party want, that’s not what people in the country want – they want to see a modern Royal Mail.
Yet, despite so much anger and bitter opposition from many of their key supporters, the Labour Government has ploughed on regardless with the privatisation of Royal Mail.
There has been much discussion in the media and in political circles about why Mr Brown and Lord Mandelson would risk the ire of the Unions and a backbench rebellion when the Labour party is in a weak position in the opinion polls. Unsurprisingly most of this speculation has been far wide of the mark.
The answer is actually quite obvious to anyone who looks further than the end of their own nose – an act which our perennially blind media and political class seem incapable of doing.
The fact of the matter is that Gordon Brown and his Labour administration have no real choice in the matter. They must privatise Royal Mail, not because of pension problems or the need for increased investment in the universal postal service, but because they are required by force of law to obey the European Union’s 3rd Postal Services Directive.
As I previously highlighted, the European Union’s 3rd Postal Service Directive 2008/6/EC clearly states that our Postal Service must be privatised, saying:
Member States shall bring into force the laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with this Directive by 31 December 2010 at the latest. They shall forthwith inform the Commission thereof.
So, if the likes of those such as CWU Union leader, Billy Hayes, are confused as to why Labour are pushing ahead with Royal Mail privatisation in the face of adversity, then they now should have their answer. It’s an undemocratic decision with which the Unions will have to live – as unfortunately will we all.
