Wednesday 1 May 2013

Our ministers must keep an eye on Royal Mail

After 1997, Labour allowed Post Offices and Royal Mail to wither under public ownership. The Conservatives were obviously intent on allowing both to be asset-stripped, so there was hope when the coalition was founded that there would be a progressive solution for what are still essential services. Regrettably, the decision was taken to have a full-scale sell-off of Royal Mail albeit with 10% of the shares being offered to staff.

There is a FT report behind its paywall:
 http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/efe7c606-b0d5-11e2-9f24-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2S2oo0o23  which has been confirmed by a short para in other papers yesterday. The involvement of at least two high-powered banking advisors, with no doubt consequential high fees, concerns me. I still think a co-ownership solution could have been found and there is no shortage of expertise in this field.


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