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Royal Mail: this privatisation is driven by a dogma whose time has gone
Unlike Prime Minister Brown, King Henry knew how to unwed himself from inconvenient obstacles and in the process to despatch an outmoded dogma; although Business Secretary Peter Mandelson would be far more deserving of such a fate than Sir Thomas More and the unfortunate wives.
The bill will pass, against the majority view in the Labour Party, even up to ministerial level, because it has the support of the 'opposition', enraptured by the prospect of another privatisation. Of course. It was Britain's Conservative governments of the 1980s and early-to-mid 1990s, of which a less noble Clarke, the right honourable Kenneth Clarke, now the Tory shadow Business Secretary, is a surviving dinosaur- that led the world in privatising and de-regulating, elevating profit and market competition over public service.
Those Tory governments ended the post WW2 social-democratic consensus which had brought industries into state control, repressed financial speculation, allowed scope for trade union power, narrowed the gap between rich and poor, and thus moderated the conditions which caused the devastating crises which had previously rocked free-market capitalism and thrown millions of people into unemployment and desperate poverty.
And subsequently, to gain sufficient support from the media and 'middle England' to become electable and to stay in office, Blair and Brown vowed to continue the Tory programme, though moderating its destructive effects on public welfare through the minimum wage, working tax credit, and public spending on health and education.
The justification offered for the Royal Mail part-privatisation is not only the need to raise money in order to modernise the service and fill the several-billion pound black hole in the postal workers' pension fund, but the idea that private ownership will introduce a special ingredient, the entrepreneurial skills and attitudes which the state cannot provide.
Meanwhile, the British government, on behalf of the public, has spent hundreds of billions so far on its rescue of the banking sector from the outcomes of the decisions of its private sector bosses, who had been liberated by Thatcher, Major, Blair and Brown from the oppressive restrictions of state regulation.
Now is hardly a seller's market, and only one bidder has emerged, the Dutch transnational corporation TNT. Under EU legislation backed by the UK government, TNT and other private companies have already been allowed to cherry-pick the most profitable sectors of the British postal sector, the corporate collection and mail sorting services. The Royal Mail, according to its Charter, is obligated to provide a six-day postal delivery at a universal flat-rate price to all locations in Britain. This is something which unifies us as a nation, allowing businesses and jobs to survive and communities to flourish, from Lands End to John O'Groats- but which is only commercially viable because of the cross-subsidisation from the Royal Mail's profitable activities to its loss-making delivery service.
Despite the cherry-picking by the private firms, the Royal Mail turned in an increased profit of £255 million in 2008, whereas TNT has announced that it is shedding 1,000 jobs worldwide as a result of tumbling profits during the last twelve months.
The internet has not proved to be the death of the postal service- rather, it has cut two ways. On one hand, email and text messages have reduced personal postal traffic; on the other hand, the products bought by internet shoppers have to be delivered; and the Royal Mail's Parcelforce division dominates the UK delivery market.
There is no such thing as a free lunch from the private sector. Any buyer, TNT or otherwise, will have to borrow the money to make the purchase. Their financiers and shareholders will expect a profit from the deal; profits which otherwise would go to the UK taxpayer.
Mandelson is attempting to use the pension scheme shortfall to blackmail the workforce into accepting privatisation. But privatisation will make it more difficult for the government to fulfil its obligations to retired postal workers, by depriving the state of revenues from which the pensions will have to be paid.
The government argues that the service needs modernisation. This is true. However, the necessary investments in new technology for the postal service would be far cheaper if made directly by the state, out of taxation or by borrowing which the government can undertake at a much lower rate than the private sector.
None of the arguments for the part-privatisation- which will inevitably become full-privatisation under a future Conservative government- have any basis in practical need or public support. As we are witnessing and suffering in this worsening global crisis, the unchained capitalist market has become such a monster that is it defeating itself economically. Yet almost incredibly, the privatisation project still rolls on.
But opposition is mounting, and the possibility is opening up for the first significant struggles on economic and social policy since the miners' strike of 1984. On one side the Conservative Party and its New Labour allies, and against it the majority in the Labour Party, the whole of the trade union movement, and most of the population- this is the new political divide in Britain. And not before time.