Labour must move quickly to stop Royal Mail's hasty sell-off to fast-buck foreign investor

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... p-33275999

The new government has only been in power for five minutes but they need to urgently halt the sale of our 500-year-old institution for £3.5bn to Czech tycoon who made his billions flogging Russian gas


OPINION By Paul RoutledgeColumnist

Where is Postman Paul, our reliable mailman?

He’s always here in his shorts, rain or shine, winter and summer, lugging his heavy bag round Cross Hills village. But he’s been missing for a week, and I worry. Has he followed the example of The Missing Postman film, jumping on his bike to escape bullying Royal Mail bosses?

There’s been no delivery, either, and the Keighley sorting office number is out of action. Royal Mail in London said Paul is “temporarily reassigned” and there is no outstanding mail. This is untrue. Important stuff sent up to 12 days ago, and Mrs R’s birthday cards, are stuck in the post.

I hear that local managers have imposed a new computerised system of the ‘walks’ and chaos reigns. This must be the tip of a very nasty iceberg. Royal Mail is being gutted for delivery to Daniel Kretinsky, the multi-billionaire Czech tycoon bidding £3.6bn to buy this great British institution, privatised by the Tories.

He already owns 27% and wants to buy the lot. The bosses are up for it, and shareholders will decide in September, presumably at great profit to themselves. What about us? It doesn’t have to be this way. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds can ‘call in’ the deal under laws giving ministers the power to scrutinise or even block such takeovers.

Royal Mail was founded by Henry VIII 500 years ago. Labour has only been in power for five minutes, but they should move quickly to stop this hasty sell-off to a fast-buck foreign investor who made his billions flogging Russian gas. Posties privately voice their suspicions that Royal Mail would like to get rid of letters altogether, and concentrate on the lucrative parcels business.

That makes a kind of sense. Nonsense.

[Barnacle]

[Poppyellie69]

Ain't gonna happen,like it or not the iceman cometh,time to get into those igloos!!

[Geordiepapa]

Sorry to disagree but i'm looking forward to finally getting rid of my shares and not at a loss. I've watched them being devalued and quite frankly enough is enough. Oh and i think people are forgetting that Royal Mail is a privately owned company. The only thing the Government should do is take away the Royal Mail title and then let be called whatever the new owner chooses.

[Barnacle]

Sorry to disagree but i'm looking forward to finally getting rid of my shares and not at a loss. I've watched them being devalued and quite frankly enough is enough. Oh and i think people are forgetting that Royal Mail is a privately owned company. The only thing the Government should do is take away the Royal Mail title and then let be called whatever the new owner chooses.

Only King Chazza can take away the right of Royal Mail to be called ‘Royal’ Mail and allow the use of his cipher. If his household no longer uses RM it will lose the Royal tag and become worthless overnight. Another company would be awarded the right to use ‘Royal’ and it would be an utter humiliation for whoever owned RM.

[Wullie10]

Those that think Labour will ride to the rescue think again. Royal Mail have ex minister Chuka Umunna on their side doing all the dirty work for them for a hefty fee. The turncoat has a lot of mates in government. Wink wink nudge nudge.

[robking]

Sir Keir Starmer has spent a lot of time convincing the City that the Labour Party is now the party of business.
He's got rid of Corbyn and many of his cronies and has started to build a reputation that the party has changed for good, so they are not going to ruin all that hard work by blocking the first major takeover deal that turns up.
They will call this in, the takeover timetable will be suspended and they will no doubt ask Kretinsky for all sorts of guarantees and assurances and they may issue new regulations but if Kretinsky can live with that, they will allow this deal through.
At the the end of the day it's just a different shareholder, whether it's one foreign billionaire or multiple British investors on the London Stock Exchange they all want the same thing, consistent and growing dividends.

[Alfietherat]

If this takeover which I think it will. The union video last week was saying(Walsh) late January. It really is game over with only guarantees of terms and conditions for 5 years. After that who’s to sale an Amazon buys Royal Mail. The Labour Party are not fit for purpose. The Union accepting the sale are just as bad. My working life is coming to an end next few years. Good Luck everyone we will need some.