By Tom Miller / @tom_miller85
The government continues to maintain that Royal Mail is not financially viable (despite it now beginning to turn a pretty big profit thanks to reforms which have already taken place). Perversely, this is blamed on the state of the pension fund, which was devastated by the Conservatives...so it is a nasty coincidence that over the past decade Labour have failed to fix it.
In any event, a whole load of methods of reform have been suggested by others such as Compass and the CWU, but these proposals have been roundly ignored. Does the Government propose to raise the money it says makes up a pension shortfall from selling off part of the organisation? If so, how is it so that it can afford to delay its bill, even in the face of a sell-off being an unjusitfiably cheap one? Isn't it ironic that New Labour's response to the Tory efforts to wreck postal pension schemes is to attempt to implement the proceeds of their bankrupt ideology onto the rest of the service?
Alongside that, why is it that a Labour government is so committed to fighting the 'producer interests' (which could also be described as 'the people who make the country run', or indeed 'the people who fund and deliver our leaflets')? The BERR document on Royal Mail privatisation makes it quite clear that part of the rationale for the proposed deal is the reduction of 'industrial disputes'. Presumably this would be done by splitting down units of the company to reduce the power of proposed strikes, a 'gate gourmet' style so-called solution to legitimate self defence. The ban on secondary action would guarantee that the power of postal workers to reduce some of the wilder suggestions of their well monied masters.
This Bill doesn't need delaying. It needs a fundamental rethink.
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We're heading to head-trauma level of crazy here. Like a primal scream clinic for the far right.
For your next trick, why don't you set your hair alight and yell fire?
Otherwise LabourList may be taking rather a risk in publishing it - I'm a little surprised that it got past moderation, TBH.
Being Labour-minded does not mean you are uncritical. It doesn't even mean you will vote for them. I don't see therefore what fantasies or delusions you are talking about.
As for harsh right-wing logic, it is certainly harsh but I don't think that 10% of the population owning over 50% of the wealth is particularly logical. I also don't think it is logical that people in a country with the wealth of Britain should live in poverty whilst the super-rich have more money than they can spend. Please define logic because at present, you look pretty bloody stupid.
2) It should absolutely stay in state hands.
3) The reason there have been financial problems in some years at Royal Mail is because we got rid of the monopoly. How can you compare a company that has a universal service obligation to a company that can cherry-pick the most profitable services.
4) People complain about public sector pay and conditions being better than in the private sector but to be frank that is because of the restrictive trade union legislation we have. Right-wingers can't have their cake and eat it. Either they should stop complaining or they should accept that having the most restrictive trade union laws in western europe increases the inequality in wages between sectors that are hard to organise in and those that aren't.
5) The EU may have started this issue but the fact of the matter is that most EU states have done absolutely nothing to privatise their postal networks and rightly so. Why don't we just do the same?
I don;t think there is any mileage in turning this site into a bearpit where right-wing anti_Labour people are invited to come and vent their spleen
I have never been a postman myself, but i know a few personally and they are as honest as the day is long. I do get fed up with pro-privateers 9not just on here but in other parts of the media) implying that Roytal mail harbours a den of theives. Of course, there will be the occassional rotten apple in the barrel (just like with MPs of all parties) but are you seriously saying that no employee of DHL etc has never been discharged through dishonesty?. It is absurd to suggest that probity only exists in the private sector. I could tell you stories about a certain mobile phone company and their dodgy business practices that would make your hair stand on end (assuming you have hair that is)
Now thats very funny Tom. ROFL....
2/ Hand over all the shares in the company in trust to the staff a la John Lewis/ Tower Colliery etc
3/ Allocate a proportion of the gross revenues to this staff co-op.
4/ The remainder of the gross revenues stay with the government, and part of it can then go to the pension fund.
Any efficiency savings made by the staff they get to keep the same proportion of, and they can split this among themselves as they see fit.
Any capital investment necessary is funded by selling proportional Equity Share units, and dilutes the other stakeholders who get a smaller piece in a bigger pie.
Everyone in such a Royal Mail Partnership is on the same side in what is essentially a cooperative of cooperatives. It doesn't do anything, employ anyone, own anything or contract with anyone. It's simply a framework agreement in a corporate wrapper.
People who assume they can speak for 'Britain' should be suspected!
I think Mandleson has signalled today that even NuLabour will NOT now proceed, though of course he cannot say so in so many words.
I think if the Conservatives include the "part" or full privatisation of RM in their election manifesto it will not go down at all well.
The article started well until it had a dig and blamed the Tories for the pensions problems.
However, the issue is the EU that has deemed that it needs to be privatised. And like the good little country we are, we play to the rules. So it has to be sold off and some European (read non UK) will buy it up make loads of money and the profitable routes and charge the earth for the more remote stuff. Just like what has happened to the power companies, we will be held to ransom. Our companies can't buy in to European utilities because the home governments block it with illegal legislation and they don't play by the rules like the UK does. I used to see it all the time at my old company, some new noise/emission legislation would come in, which would make our product almost unviable and we'd ask our European (Int company) offices how they were coping and they'd say, we haven't bothered to comply with the legislation.
Back to RM, so the remit is, to get it profitable so that it can be flogged off. Well, that means cuts, over worked and demotivated posties, late deliveries and a lot of temporary staff who have no loyalty (that's where your nicked fags go). Posties have never been paid that well, but the one perk that kept them in the job, was an early start/early finish so that they could have the afternoon to themselves and even that has gone. We used to have a postal service that worked, get post before you left for work, a local postie that you would have for years and a very cheap service for a nextday delivery virtually anywhere in the UK and used to make a profit (back in the '90s) before they started fiddling with it.
The simple solution is to keep it in public hands, tell the EU to stick it. It works, it can bring a profit in and we can have a good next day service to the whole country, not some pay by the mile service where they're only interested in the porfitable routes e.g. city to city.
BTW, if you see TNT printed on a letter you've recieved, TNT have had no hand in delivering it, it's just paid for advertising. Just there to soften you up to the idea that they've been delivering your mail for some years already.
Things of mine have been nicked, and when you call them up they get shirty with you for suggesting that things have gone "missing".
It's a disgraceful service, almost on a par with my refuse collection: a building of 100+ flats, two refuse areas, one emptied each fortnight. It stinks, it brings pests into the building, and not even me spending £150 a month on council tax will make it happen quicker.
Perhaps if they spent less money translating every bin bag, and every leaflet, into TWELVE LANGUAGES, they might have a bit more cash.
Labour are the enemy of the British, and they will truly understand that come the next election.
Let's see how real life treats him after privatisation.