All too often since 2010, the left has found itself on the back foot: protesting after fees for English students got trebled (thanks Nick!), protesting after the bedroom tax was introduced, and protesting after the most vulnerable got handed over to the unmerciful ATOS. None of the Coalition’s assaults on the poor and the public services they rely upon have yet been overturned this way, important though protest is.
The occasional win, on the other hand, like the 38 Degrees-led campaign against forestry privatisation in England, came because people took action beforehand. Half a million signatures, some useful polling, and some very vocal pressure on MPs did the job.
With that in mind, surely Royal Mail privatisation must be the next target?
Who, outside this neoliberal coalition, thinks Royal Mail would be better off in private hands? It’s a profitable business, which either reduces taxes/borrowing or allows Ministers to spend more, depending on taste. The competition to which it’s exposed would be ramped up, jeopardising the universal service.
We should be bringing key public assets (starting with the rail network) back into public ownership, not repeating the mistakes of the 1980s and 1990s. As John Harris says, at a Westminster level “we are largely being ruled by people who seem to think that modern government should amount to a school play about the Thatcher years”.
So what kind of action can be taken? The CWU have set up a campaign called Save Our Royal Mail, and I would advise you to sign the petition here. I don’t want to hear about how this will be fine if only we vote Yes in 2014: by then the damage would be done.
But petitions are unlikely to be enough. The CWU will also ballot for industrial action at the end of this month (Green motion in support of that ballot), and everyone who cares about the future of public services in this country, whatever its borders, should support strike action if their members back it. The unions will have a key role to play in defending their workplace and our vital service.
What else can be done? Personally I like the idea of using any Freepost addresses for the Tory Party or their hypocritical Lib Dem sidekicks. Notable Tory blogger Iain Dale supported a Labour campaign that made First Capital Connect pay to be complained about in this way, back in 2008. Roads protesters used to send the companies destroying their environment breeze blocks at their expense. Wouldn’t it be entirely appropriate if Tory or Lib Dem MPs got sent weighty but unthreatening objects to their Freepost addresses, along with mock P45 letters they will have paid to receive, letters which explain why they should think again on this?
#1 by Iain Menzies on July 10, 2013 - 3:41 pm
Ten years ago the post got delivered to the house i curreently stay in by 8am….now were lucky if it gets here by lunchtime.
When i lived in stirling if i got a card saying i had to pick up a package or a letter for whatever reason i was a 20 min bus and 10 min walk to an industrial estate.
These days the postman (they all seem to be men round this way) dont even knock before putting in a cardto say that they ‘called’.
The was a while there in March where packages that i was expecting (twas coming up on my birthday dont yer know) werent appearing…was lucky in so far as on of the family bumped into the guy that runs the local post office who told us that it was sitting in there, and had been for a few days. No card, they didnt have any apparently.
I dont buy into the idea that privatisation makes things worse, but even if i did i dont see how it could BE much worse. Especially considering that any of the RM’s compatitors that ive had to deal with (other than argos delivery) are miles better.
#2 by Craig on July 10, 2013 - 8:19 pm
“It’s a profitable business, which either reduces taxes/borrowing or allows Ministers to spend more, depending on taste.”
That is the type of thinking by successive governments that almost destroyed the business. Dividends pale into comparison with insidious negative External Financial Limits levied in the past. Cash was taken by the Government of the Day when the business urgently needed it to invest in modernisation or even simply put aside for a rainy day (such as the pension fund falling below the 105% assets/liability limit). It is profit-making now because it is finally able to modernise in a way that should have been completed years ago, and because the government has accepted responsibility for screwing the business over with regards to the pension fund (not for the first time either).
Royal Mail is already subject to full competition and has been since 2006 when EU directives harmonising the Single Market were implemented. So far competition has had a negligible effect on Royal Mail and privatisation is highly unlikely to change that. Royal Mail will continue to have a Universal Service condition in its licence. They’re highly unlikely to abandon that as universal service providers receive certain privileges (VAT in particular).
The real issue is the declining mail volumes – we’re sending fewer letters year-on-year. The rise in the fulfilment sector (i.e. online shopping parcels) hasn’t been sufficient to offset the overall decline and in any event has different market dynamics.
If Royal Mail is to maintain the universal service in the long run, it needs to find new sources of income to support it. Doing nothing is simply not an option The only realistic choices lie overseas. Alongside La Poste, Deutsche Post and PostNL, Royal Mail is well positioned to establish itself as one of the major mercantile Post businesses. The business has a narrow window of opportunity to build upon its European General Logistics Systems arm, which is rightly considered the jewel in the crown, to develop an international business that funds the universal service at home.
But to achieve this, Royal Mail needs further investment – something that it will not receive as long as it remains under the thumb of the Treasury. It needs the commercial freedom to make decisions about how to invest for the benefit of the business. Not interfering politicians putting their personal vote before any thought of the country, let alone the needs of Royal Mail. Not parochial idiots who demand GLS be sold off for short term domestic gain. Not fools who put political ideology ahead of all else, not least the facts of a given situation. (this applies as much to the likes of 38 Degrees as any right wing think tank)
Incidentally, Royal Mail and the Post Office are separate businesses now. The latter will remain in public hands, for the moment unfortunately (if Royal Mail was slapped about, the Post Office was battered with an iron by other two-faced Government departments). At least, the rounds of network reinvention and on-going transformation will finally deliver a counters business fit for the future.
As for the whining about hypocritical Lib Dems – it has been their party policy to privatise Royal Mail since 2005. The real hypocrites are those residents (of all and no party) who came out of the woodwork to protest against their local subpostmaster taking up POL’s closure scheme when those same communities could barely bring themselves to buy as much as one stamp all day.
#3 by Douglas McLellan on July 10, 2013 - 8:43 pm
I am with Iain. It is a profitable business so I suppose the question is where in the economy you want those profits to go. It is also worth noting that those profits from from TNT and UKMAIL business operations that pay Royal Mail for the last mile delivery. Who is to say that a Royal Mail given more freedom and incentive cannot offer the same service but cheaper? After all, another profitable section of the company is its european parcel delivery arm. No monopoly protection there.
And as the service has become more profitable in state hands its service levels have declined considerably.
I would wonder if, instead of just opposing privatisation proposing a different model other than the mantra of public ownership is best. Why not propose something like a co-operative?