Royal Mail sell off to go ahead after recession

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... ssion.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The part-privatisation of the Royal Mail will go ahead once the economy picks up despite opposition from Labour MPs, Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, has said.

Appearing before the Commons Business Committee, Lord Mandelson insisted that plans to sell off part of the business, which were put on hold earlier this month, had been temporarily shelved only because of difficult market conditions.

He denied wide-spread reports that the part-privatisation had been put aside because of a threatened mass rebellion by Labour MPs.

Admitting that he was "disappointed" at the delay, the Business Secretary insisted that the Government was determined to press on with the plans, adding: "We remain entirely committed to these proposals and would like to see them implemented when market conditions allow.

"They would have to be the right partners, with the right offer, to bring about the transformation of Royal Mail, offering the right degree of value for money to the taxpayer. At the moment those conditions don't exist.

"There is a crying need for modernisation of this business. Both management and union say they are up for this - I just wish they would get on and do it.''

Lord Mandelson also attacked the Communication Workers Union, claiming it was ``boycotting'' agreed procedures for implementing changes.

He added: "I realise that is a very serious charge to make, but looking at the facts, any other conclusion is impossible to arrive at.''

The minister said that the major ``casualty'' was the Royal Mail pension fund, which is billions of pounds in deficit, and should not be ``bailed out'' by the taxpayer.

He said that the public could not be expected to provide more funds to bail out the scheme if Royal Mail remained unmodernised.

[DGP1]

Mandy can just f*** off back to his fascist friends in Europe. :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

[axeman]

So it'll happen in ten years time then .......... all things being equal

[DGP1]

I'm going to do my Mystic Meg act........................................RM will be sold off in the next 5 years (by the Tories) and then brought back into public ownership within 10 years because there's no money in it for private enterprise (I don't know why but I have a song going round my head about the National Express ).

[shadow]

I beleive if you were to ask the public who would they rather bail out the banks or RM that they would chose RM. It's great how all these other companies are getting bailed out but stuff us. At least everybody in the country benefits from our service.

[Night Tonic]

Really? Banks surely. Without a bailout millions would have lost their savings. They're hardly going to worry about RM.

[BELIAL]

I agree ,shut down RM right away ,the govt would only lose a few billion in taxed income and have to pay out a bit more in dole . The public could all switch to emails ,text and mobiles they'd hardly notice.
Don't know what the banks and businesses would do though Still it would put an end to this charade

[mailman337]

I'm going to do my Mystic Meg act........................................RM will be sold off in the next 5 years (by the Tories) and then brought back into public ownership within 10 years because there's no money in it for private enterprise (I don't know why but I have a song going round my head about the National Express ).

You mean its all a bit of a DIVINE COMEDY!!!............ They did the "Father Ted" theme tune as well actually..... DRINK!! GOBSHITE!! GIRLS!! FECK ORFF!!!!!

:mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

[DGP1]

I'm going to do my Mystic Meg act........................................RM will be sold off in the next 5 years (by the Tories) and then brought back into public ownership within 10 years because there's no money in it for private enterprise (I don't know why but I have a song going round my head about the National Express ).

You mean its all a bit of a DIVINE COMEDY!!!............ They did the "Father Ted" theme tune as well actually..... DRINK!! GOBSHITE!! GIRLS!! FECK ORFF!!!!!

:mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

Feck that's just like my office

Jack: THAT WOULD BE AN ECUMENICAL MATTER!

[mailman337]

Who knows, the recession could drag on for years !! :mfo :lfo :cfo


Tea fathers ??.... oh go on go on go on go on go on go on GO ON!!!!!!

[shadow]

Really? Banks surely. Without a bailout millions would have lost their savings. They're hardly going to worry about RM.

Yes but the government would have covered each customer up to £50,000 for each bank they had savings in. If you were lucky enough to have that sort of money the best idea would have been to spread it around.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Really? Banks surely. Without a bailout millions would have lost their savings. They're hardly going to worry about RM.

Perhaps you subscribe to the Free Market Economy ideals that the Chairs and Share Holders did, until of course it affected them personally.

IMHO I see nothing wrong in nationalising banks if it helps everyone but this half way house we have at the moment is the worst of all worlds. We either have a Free Market Economy companies where its the survival of the fittest and any company that can't survive goes to the wall, in this case the Chairs, CEOs and shareholders get a big slice of the pie but they also carry the can when it all comes crashing down. Or we have Nationalised companies that have wage caps for the boardroom, have more of a Public service Ethos and where possible a Social commitment written into their contracts.

The millions who would have lost their savings would then have a choice of where to put their savings a high return/high risk account or institution, or a low return low risk account with a Nationalised company.