Labour conference agrees to re-nationalise Royal Mail

[fishtank]

not to mention where to get the £3billion+ needed to actually do it.

From the £3billion+ they get from selling it?
To be honest it's loose change.

As of Q1 2013 the national debt amounted to £1,377.4 billion, or 90.7% of total GDP. The annual cost of servicing the public debt amounts to around £43bn in interest, or roughly 3% of GDP. This is roughly the same size as the British defence budget. It is forecast to rise to 95.6% of total GDP in 2013, further rising to 98.7% of GDP in 2014.
Due to the Government's significant budget deficit, the national debt is increasing by approximately £121 billion per annum, or around £2.3 billion each week.

So it's about a week's worth of debt.

[Pinky 1]

Oh dear ............

Labour leadership rejects Royal Mail renationalisation calls
http://www.royalmailchat.co.uk/communit ... 38&t=55786" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[freelunch]

by the time labour get into government RM will be a very different kind of beast, unrecognisable from pre-privatisation, multi-national with whole different methods of working plus loaded with debt.
how would they go about getting some of the massive property portfolio back from private equity concerns for example? i don't see Blackstone et al handing back their investments at par, so unless this country follows Venezuela they will find it impossible.

[Danelectro]

You are a depressing bunch.

possibly but no half as depressing as the totally undemocratic Labour leadership

[Tman]

From the £3billion+ they get from selling it?
To be honest it's loose change.

Indeed it is, but that money won't be sitting in a coffee jar somewhere ready and waiting to be used on the renationalisation, it will have been long spent, and so if/when that times comes the money will have to be found from somewhere.
Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells won't take kindly to his local A&E being cut back and the money wasted instead (as he sees it) on the pointless renationalising of RM.
Also, after a few years of asset-stripping disguised as stream-lining ( couple of hundred nice quaint village DOs up for grabs, maybe?) with the inherent reduction of an ever-worsening service, would the political will even be there to take on the head-ache?