13 February 2009 - Sarah Sharpe - © Hellmail Postal News

An early day motion rejecting calls by Lord Mandelson to part-privatise the Royal Mail, now stands at 139 signatures and the count has been increasing almost on a daily basis.

The EDM calls for a new approach based on agreement with the Communication Workers Union retaining a wholly publicly owned Royal Mail and not to introduce a minority stakeholder.

Despite the growing rebellion and a threat by the Communication Workers Union to cease funding the Labour Party, Lord Mandelson says he is determined to push through reforms which could see 30% or more of Royal Mail sold to a rival postal operator

Steve Lawson, editor for Hellmail the postal industry news site said:

"Privatising or part-privatising Royal Mail has been tried in the past but the electorate have a very strong attachment with the Royal Mail. Essentially they regard it as theirs and we're now in a climate where privatisation is increasingly no longer seen as the cure-all. The banking sector, the heart of the entire financial sector is already being bailed out with many being taken over by the state to prevent complete collapse.

"At the heart of this, is the argument on whether the Royal Mail is a service or a business. For clarity on that, one has only to look at the EU postal liberalisation plan as a whole - it is clearly business-driven.

"The cost and the way in which the Universal Service is provided has been raised many times by just about all member states, but it looks likely that for many countries, that cost will fall to the tax payer whilst these larger postal operators fight amongst themselves for business across borders and negotiate buy-outs.

"At the moment the EU is struggling on with what has been a series of shifting timetables whilst some countries continue to drag their heels on liberalisation. It is this disparity that is seeing so much unfairness in the concept, and why we have a situation here in the UK where rivals can poach business from Royal Mali but Royal Mail are unable to do the same in other countries because of protected postal markets. If we all moved together, it might be different but this juxtaposition of timetabling and differences in regulation in the EU is allowing some operators a huge head start over other countries.

I don't believe that the CWU and Royal Mail management will ever get to a position where they can work as one, any more than it could in France or many other European countries. The conflict of interest is far too great as has been proved. However, the disparity in the postal liberalisation timetable is just as much a problem and all member states have to keep their eye on the ball here or all could be left with the debt whilst commercial entities pocket the profits - unless of course that is the ultimate thinking behind liberalisation.

"I don't believe it was, but the vagueness that has surrounded the future of the USO is creating real problems and as it forms a large part of what state postal operators do, it is not something that we can just push aside and hope it will sort itself out." he said.

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