Royal Mail Sold Out

The Tory and Liberal Democrates have voted to sell off Royal Mail, with only the House of Lords being able to stop the destruction of this much loved public service. Although Labour were against privatisation this time, we need to remember that Labour sought to part-privatise this 350 year old service.

In private hands Royal Mail will transform from a daily universal UK delivery into a post code lottery, where those in cities will be cherry picked and those in rural areas will eventually see the daily delivery of post eroded and eventually wiped out.

A privately owned Royal Mail will no longer be willing to offer a 'one price goes anywhere'. The logic of cost will compel any capitalist company to exert the maximum profit and posting a letter from Lands End to John O'Groats does not fit into this business model.

Separating Post Office Counters from Royal Mail will signal the end of the Post Office, as the two companies will quickly go their separate ways and the interwoven link will fray. As Royal Mail loses a third of it's income from the Post Office both will become more fragile.

Not only have Royal Mail been sold out by the coalition, the British public will be worse off as this public service will be lost forever. Margaret Thatcher sold off our gas, electricity, water and railways, Labour opened the door for privatisation of Royal Mail, education and our health service. It is of no surprise then that Cameron and Clegg want to get their greedy hands on our remaining public services and sell them to their business friends.

We need to continue to oppose the sale of Royal Mail and call for the investment into the Post Office, as communities and businesses rely on this publicly run service. What next - will we see the BBC sold to the likes of Rupert Murdoch? Privatisation of Royal Mail was defeated before (on it's final reading) as Michael Heseltine was forced into retreat because of the public outcry. A Socialist government would make sure the postal service remained 100% in public hands and used for the benefit of all, not for the greed of the few.