Post is a service

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Published Date: 03 March 2009

Thatcherism is alive and well under the auspices of new Labour and its lookalike, Cameron Conservatism.
The latest evidence from this post-Thatcherite duo is to be seen in the intention of the government to privatise and sell off to TNT, a foreign multinational, almost a third of our postal services (your report, 26 February).

Lord Mandelson, who is incubating the scheme, speaks of the Royal Mail as "the company" which "needs foreign investment to compete", denouncing as "a dangerous liability" the obligation to pay postal staff pensions.

The Royal Mail is not a commercial enterprise and is not in the business of competing; it is a public service like the armed forces, NHS and fire brigade.

The move is part and parcel of the globalising deregulation which has brought upon us the financial collapse of profiteering international finance.

ALASTAIR HARPER

House of Gask

Lathalmond, Fife

Lord Mandelson gives plausible reasons for privatising Britain's postal service, arguing that competition will help improve efficiency, reduce costs, etc.

Understandably, Royal Mail workers are disturbed at the probable loss of 50,000 jobs and the erosion of long- established pension schemes.

The government gives the impression that this proposal is the result of careful planning, a British solution to a British problem. None of the major parties tells us the truth; these proposed solutions have been forced on us by the European Union. The Postal Services Directive, 2002/39/EC will, in fact, ensure we lose our national identity, with Dutch firms, for example, cherrypicking the profitable portions of our postal service, ruining forever our ability to solve our own problems.

MICHAEL CONN

Braid Mount

Edinburgh