Alba Party claim Royal Mail should be nationalised following Scexit despite potential GBP2.6bn cost

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/ ... l-28836689

Former SNP justice secretary Kenny MacAskill said that an independent Scotland should bring the postal service back into public hands but announced no concrete plans on how to do this.

The Alba Party has announced that they want to bring Royal Mail back into public hands in the event of Scexit despite the predicted £2.6billion cost of doing so.

Deputy leader Kenny MacAskill made the calls following months of industrial action by postmen and women which has brought postal services to a near standstill.

But despite an independent Scotland almost certain to face a funding shortfall due to getting no more money from the UK Government, the former SNP justice secretary believes they would have the cash to be able to do this.

Back in 2019, when Labour announced that they wanted to renationalise a number of public services, such as Royal Mail, the water and energy companies and BT, it was predicted that it would cost £2.6bn for the Royal Mail.

Three years on, with inflation at an almost record-high, this would likely to be the kind of money it would take to nationalise the postal service north of the Border.

Since Royal Mail is a publicly limited company, in order to take it back into public hands, all of the shareholders will need to be bought off with a significant cash offer.

But it is one of the services which would need to be negotiated about by both Scotland and the rest of the UK in the event of Scexit so it's future north of the border would be in jeopardy.

A series of strikes by postal staff has wreaked havoc in the run-up to Christmas with many parcels being delayed by weeks due to no one being able to deliver or process them.

There are about 11,000 Scottish postal workers with the majority of them taking prolonged industrial action during the end of the year to protect their pay and condition.

The Royal Mail was privatised more than 10 years ago when the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition passed an act which saw 90 per cent of it being sold off.

Then, in 2013 shares in the company were floated on the London Stock Exchange, with the last of these being sold off in 2015. Shareholders receive dividends depending on how well the business is doing.

Mr MacAskill said that the Alba Party supported the strikes and that they have “stood in solidarity with members of the CWU and striking postmen and women.”

He added: “The economic impacts of privatisation have exposed the Tories for putting their ideology above the interests of a good public mail service.

“Since the UK Government made the decision to privatise Royal Mail we have seen a company stacked with executives that are more concerned with increasing profits than delivering services. There has been a damaging impact on Scotland where the Royal Mail was the lifeblood of rural communities but these communities are now regularly let down.

“Royal Mail was a national asset that the Tories set out to asset strip. This has led to an unprecedented attack on its workforce and a service that Scotland’s postal workers themselves are unhappy with.

“With independence, Scotland should take Royal Mail back into public ownership. This would be an early sign that independence isn’t just about changing the flag at the top of the castle but changing the people of Scotland’s lives for the better.”

But his plans did not go down too well with some people on social media who queried whether the Alba Party had even costed, or came up with a plan to do this.

Robert Muir said: "Can you link me to how much this would cost and how it would be paid for. Everything is owned by a UK company with shareholders who have rights I expect this is just another grand ill thought out gesture."

[Barnacle]

Alba or the SNP or the Greens et al, will literally say and promise anything to persuade the masses to vote yes. It’s like promising unicorn herds will be returned to the Highlands, right after they have brought back the woolly mammoth.

And then after people were to vote yes, suddenly it would be ‘under review’ or ‘unaffordable’. Yawwnnnzzzzz..

[Woody Guthrie]

Alba or the SNP or the Greens et al, will literally say and promise anything to persuade the masses to vote...

That's kind of how politics works mate.
£350 million on the side of a bus etc...
Have the unionists produced what they promised when they convinced people to vote No in 2014?

Apparently the way to protect Scotland’s place in Europe was to vote No...
How did that work out?

[Barnacle]

Alba or the SNP or the Greens et al, will literally say and promise anything to persuade the masses to vote...

That's kind of how politics works mate.
£350 million on the side of a bus etc...
Have the unionists produced what they promised when they convinced people to vote No in 2014?

Apparently the way to protect Scotland’s place in Europe was to vote No...
How did that work out?

Did they ‘convince people to vote No’? Or did people just vote the way they did because they wanted to remain part of the UK and nothing more complicated than that?

I pretty much always know how I am going to vote and ads on buses or nonsense White Paper’s don’t move me.

[Woody Guthrie]

Alba or the SNP or the Greens et al, will literally say and promise anything to persuade the masses to vote...

That's kind of how politics works mate.
£350 million on the side of a bus etc...
Have the unionists produced what they promised when they convinced people to vote No in 2014?

Apparently the way to protect Scotland’s place in Europe was to vote No...
How did that work out?

Did they ‘convince people to vote No’? Or did people just vote the way they did because they wanted to remain part of the UK and nothing more complicated than that?

I pretty much always know how I am going to vote and ads on buses or nonsense White Paper’s don’t move me.

Who knows but if you believe that it kind of makes your first post redundant.

Both sides of the debate will say anything to try to influence the outcome. Whether it works or not is subjective but mostly irrelevant.
Calling either side out on promises alone no matter how pie in the sky is hypocrisy and pointless.

The only thing we know is that the unionists have failed to produce what they promised in 2014 and the independence "group" obviously haven't had an opportunity to fail to produce theirs.

By the way bold facing your comments doesn't really add to their veracity. It just makes you seem a bit shouty, like CAPS LOCK.

[Barnacle]

God you’re unpleasant. See ya.

[Tman]

You (Barnacle) ought to have realised by now that Mr Guthrie takes any criticism of the SNP personally no matter how ludicrous or pie-in-the-sky their proposals (if you could even term them as such) are to the rest of us.

[Woody Guthrie]

Not like you to play the man rather than the ball Tman.

[Barnacle]

Tman > Lesson learned. Or rather LESSON LEARNED
Guther’s prefers me to write it like that

[thefox]

Still 2 guys in our office not speaking to this day who fell out over their views of the referendum, the yes voter would not accept anyone having a different view from him and would shout over the top of you when trying to debate about it or tell you to f**k off to England if you dont want independence it was 1 of my best days in r.mail when i walked into the office on the morning of the result and saw him all sheepish at his frame absolutely gutted he was

[Barnacle]

Still 2 guys in our office not speaking to this day who fell out over their views of the referendum, the yes voter would not accept anyone having a different view from him and would shout over the top of you when trying to debate about it or tell you to f**k off to England if you dont want independence it was 1 of my best days in r.mail when i walked into the office on the morning of the result and saw him all sheepish at his frame absolutely gutted he was

The TV coverage had you believing Yes were going to walk it

[thefox]

There did seem to be a lot of yes posters in windows where i was working got talking to a guy who was voting no and he said he wouldn't put a no poster up for fear of getting his window smashed in,it was really divisive up here and a really bad atmosphere at times saw 2 guys having a punch up in middle of main st in my town because 1 guy had ripped down a vote no sign the other guy was further down street and seen him

[Barnacle]

Yes, there was absolutely no way I was going to be public about intending to vote No because I was scared of what might happen in the way of vandalism to my car, house windows etc.