Pete Wishart: Privatisation is now in the post

Mar 27 2009 by Our Correspondent, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

ONCE again our mail service is under threat.

The Westminster Government, with Conservative Party support, are determined to part-privatise the Royal Mail, leading to real fears that unprofitable sectors will be abandoned.

Despite a manifesto commitment to keep the service in public hands, the Westminster Government now wants to sell 30 per cent of Royal Mail with Peter Mandelson leading the charge in the face of opposition from mail workers and consumers.

The threat is, of course, much more pronounced in rural areas, where the daily service and the universal service obligation could well go in a 'mail for profit' service.

In an area like Highland Perthshire, the provision of an effective and comprehensive mail service is vital to attracting rural business and maintaining a stable level of population.

For most people, the constant erosion of services that Royal Mail provides, is simply unacceptable.

By allowing competition from private companies in the most lucrative parts of the market, Royal Mail has been made to suffer.

Royal Mail has no choice but to provide a high quality service to all parts of the country, unlike the private companies who are quite happy stealing the profitable business in city centres.

It is therefore apparent, that as a public service, the Royal Mail is not easy to get a profit from.

Whether a profit is necessary, depends on your viewpoint of whether Royal Mail is meant to be a money-making arm of Government, or whether it is there to support postal communication to households the length and breadth of the UK for a set postal price.

It is the universal service obligation that is the backbone of our mail service ensuring that everyone can send mail from anywhere in the UK to anywhere else under a universal pricing system.

Any move to part-privatise the Royal Mail is a step on the road to undermining that service.

Royal Mail employees and customers are very clear that the Royal Mail is a national asset and, as such, should be protected.

There is huge opposition in Westminster, with a large and growing number of Labour backbenchers horrified by the prospect of opening the door to privatisation of a great public institution.

Those notable by their absence in this opposition are the Conservatives who seem to be content to see an erosion of our mail service and the threat to Perthshire's rural service.

I, though, will be campaigning with postal workers and post office consumers to do all I can to ensure that Royal Mail stays in public hands.