Nationalisation: What does it mean?

[heapsy]

Pre privatisation RM bosses took a 17 year hiatus on pension

It was Government owned. And most of the Governments over the last 40 years have been Conservative.

As soon as the competition turned up (albeit with an unfair market advantage)

Could you expand on that point please ?

Privatisation isn't great but being renationalised would not recreate a Utopia that failed to exist in the first place

I don't think those that wish to see Royal Mail renationalised are daft TBH. Rather, we wish to see an industry that is a natural monopoly and an essential part of the communications infrastructure of the nation be owned by the people for the people.

Lets see what you say when the commitment to the USO expires in a few years time

If I'm not mistaken, isn't that 2021?

[heapsy]

I've been reading some of the comments with interest. If we continue with the current race to the bottom mantra, I truly believe the business will all but vanish. The government were desperate to privatise RM at all costs. I may be wrong, but they were in talks to sell RM off to a private buyer, but the talks collapsed. It wouldn't surprise me if that buyer was TNT. Hence the reason they appeared on our streets, as direct competition. I don't believe competition has actually made us more efficient. Machinery has. Machinery that could have been bought when we were still under government ownership. Capitalism is a way of life. I cannot understand why people are so against it. I do however, believe it is not perfect. Earnings of those at the bottom of an organisation should be better. Curbs should be applied to limit the earnings and or bonuses of those at the top. It wouldn't be too difficult to achieve. The socialist ideal does not work. In Venezuela, the economy has been completely ruined. The socialist government has not invested in infrastructure. Oil is plenty, petrol is cheaper than water. How can THAT be a good thing?
For those that seem to detest the capitalist model, think again. Eventually the socialist model runs in to trouble. USSR, Romania, Poland, E. Germany, N. Korea, I could go on. Even China has begun a mass overhaul of its economy. It now finds itself being under cut by cheaper economies. Bangladesh springs to mind. If it wasn't for capitalism, you wouldn't have a pension to live on in old age. They are amassed through investing in the likes of Shell, Vodafone, BT, BEA Systems, Tesco, and a whole host of other profit driven entities. A colleague of mine recently expressed his opinion that pensions should not be based on the stock market. What else is there? I do believe that as a nation, we should be investing in property. The Norwegians have created a sovereign wealth fund, based on their vast, but gradually depleting oil and gas reserves. We could do the same, by having a mass building program of affordable housing. With some being sold off, profits reinvested in the scheme, and some properties being rented out, with the profits going back into the scheme. Making it pension and ISA friendly would boost investment. Buy to let property would all but vanish.Sadly that is not going to happen, as not just the tories, but labour also don't seem to be interested in the idea.

[k979aaa]

It's not just the bonuses at the top all managers get bonuses but they get more as their pay grade goes up but these bonuses are at our expense more work and a poorer service to the customer by the saying just cull packets!