Here we go yet again

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No matter which government has been in power over the last 20 or 30 years, they have all eventually turned their piggy little eyes on privatising the Royal Mail and they have all ended up getting a slap in the face for their pains.

The Major government tried it on, as did the Blair and Brown administrations, all with an equal lack of success. In fact, the only comparatively recent government not to attempt it was the Thatcher mob and that was only because they had more sense than to try.

And now it's the turn of the Con-Dem coalition. Grabbing hold of an updated version of the Hooper report, the coalition is going to take its turn at betraying postal workers and flogging off one of the last of the crown jewels.

This report was originally ordered by the Labour government, but was dropped like a hot brick after Peter Mandelson discovered the level of opposition that it generated in Labour ranks.

It still does in the ranks of the public, according to a very recent YouGov poll which found last month that a majority of voters of every party oppose privatising Royal Mail with support at only 15 per cent.

But Business Secretary Vince Cable hasn't let that put him off. Well, he wouldn't, would he? His record of public service so far shows that he doesn't give a damn what the public thinks.

The arguments put forward to justify this ideologically motivated and needless privatisation are well known. They ought to be, they're the same ones that have been put forward ad nauseam every time the sell-off has been attempted.

And they're even weaker now than they were the previous times. Mr Cable lists them as "falling mail volumes, low investment, not enough efficiency and a dire pension position."

Not good enough, Mr Cable, not good enough by a very long way.

As the CWU points out, "Royal Mail is a market leader and the company's profits rose by 26 per cent to £404 million in 2010." It has put in place a fully funded modernisation programme agreed by both management and unions.

And as for the old saw about the pensions black hole, allegedly around £10 billion, that just doesn't hold water and, as a banker, Mr Cable should know better than to try it on.

It relies on projections that don't stand up, made during a depressed market and based on some very dubious assumptions indeed.

The truth is that any business with assets totalling around £26 billion, an income in the year to March 31 2010 of £6,947 million and outgoings of just £1,213 million is in pretty good shape.

In fact, the only thing that might make Mr Cable believe the pension scheme could bomb is that he doesn't believe in the efficacy of the Con-Dem coalition's measures to restore the economy and is expecting a slump that will devalue the £26 billion of assets rather than restore a rising investment market.

And if that's the case, he shouldn't be backing the Tories in hacking back the economy and should resign forthwith, taking his malodorous coalition with him.

When Edward Leigh, a Tory former minister who had himself failed in his attempts to privatise Royal Mail in the 1980s, talked of new Labour business minister Pat McFadden's efforts to advocate this privatisation during the last administration, he welcomed Mr McFadden to the "Thatcherite wing of new Labour."

So we can only extend the same courtesy. Welcome to the ranks of Thatcherism, Mr Cable, but don't forget that even she didn't dare attempt this one.

The unions will fight it to a standstill and they have succeeded in the past. Given the support of the whole trade union and labour movement, they will again.

Candidates for the Labour Party leadership who are due to speak at their hustings at TUC on Monday, please take note.