SILENCE FROM THE RED CORNER

The news that the Westminster government's remaining 30% stake in the Royal Mail is to be sold and some £3 billion pounds are to be cut from government spending this year won’t surprise many people. 

The last remaining UK Government stake in the Royal Mail currently valued at £1.5 billion is to be used to pay down the national debt. Another£3 billion pounds of cuts are pending, they will be announced in July. Back in July 2013 the news that the Post Office profit rose from £ 152 million pounds to £ 403 million pounds (in the 12 months up until the end of March 2013) would once have been warmly welcomed. 

The increase in Post Office profits actually made little difference; the Lib Dems (notorious locally for campaign to keep open local Post Offices that were not under threat of closure) with their Conservative collation partners decided to privatise the Post Office. The Party formerly known as Labour (in Westminster) were understandably silent over the matter of Post Office privatisation, understandably as they had spent years crying crocodile tears, as they tried and failed (under Peter Mandelson) to privatise the Post Office themselves during what is increasingly been seen as their largely wasted 13 years in government.

Now don't get me wrong, I had absolutely no problem with the publically owned Post Office exercising the maximum amount of commercial freedom to go out and diversify and to make money (as happens in the Netherlands and in other countries) but happen to firmly believe that the privatisation of the Post Office was entirely ideologically driven and unnecessary. I still have major concerns about the longevity of the unprofitable rural postal operations – how long will it be before they are dropped because they don’t make enough profit? 

The Post Office, rather than be simply sold off to a private company was floated on the stock market, and its shares were sold off. The business has been valued at something between £ 2 billion and £ 3 billion pounds with up to 10% of shares being set aside for postal workers. Not surprisingly, probably along with most people, the members of the Communication Workers Union were understandably firmly opposed to the privatisation of the Post Office – unlike the Labour Party.

There are still potentially big and as yet unanswered questions as to how will the government go about selling it off? Will Westminster’s friends in the City - big institutional city investors - get some sort of preferential opportunity to buy shares? Perhaps the Conservatives will go for a big share sale to the public or drip feed shares into the market, as has happened with the Lloyds Bank shares?" Whatever happens expect near complete silence form the Party formerly known as Labour…

SHORT SIGHTED EUROSTAR SELL OFF

The news that the UK Government plans to sell its stake in Eurostar should not surprise anyone. The records of various Westminster Governments since 1979 when it comes to selling off of state assets leave a great deal to be desired. A few year ago Royal Mail was privatised on the cheap and the public have been left short-changed. It has to be unacceptable that state assets, particularly those which are so vital to infrastructure are being auctioned by a Westminster government that is simply ideologically opposed to state ownership.

This proposal reflects the lop-sided nature of UK economic policy. Increasingly desperate attempts by Westminster governments to balance the books have been based on painful austerity rather than investment and growth. Now they are desperately attempting to fill the hole in public finances by selling-off important assets. This is a short-sighted attempt to make a fast buck at the expense of the future of the UK’s infrastructure and economic prospects.

This process may well end with ‘external nationalisation’ where former UK state assets are owned by foreign governments who pursue their own interests, at our expense leaving UK citizens powerless. There has to be a wider discussion on this particular proposal with the devolved bodies in Wales and Scotland. The Eurostar is an international link, particularly important to our joint participation in the EU and the single market. Businesses here in Wales will be affected in the long-term by the decision to sell-off and there will undoubtedly be an impact on our economy in Wales.

SAVING OUR POST OFFICE

The current Con Dem Westminster government’s plan to privatise the Post Office will affect every community in Wales, but, our rural and urban communities may end up suffering a reduction in services and postal deliveries. This unnecessary ideologically driven privatisation, may take place at a time when the Post Office has actuallymade a profit, could out postal services in rural areas such as Monmouth constituency at risk.

Privatisation of the Post Office - simply a bad idea...

A six day a week postal collection service is an important part of local life in rural and urban areas and the threat to that valuable service should be deeply worrying to most people. In my opinion it is simply not worth placing ourl postal delivery service in jeopardy merely to divert any profits into the hands of shareholders.

Many of our rural areas and valley communities already suffer from poor communications and slow, unreliable broadband access, something that hinders the development of rural businesses. The last thing that our small businesses need is to face another blow with threats to the postal service which are an important means of communication. This unnecessary privatisation could undermine, or worse abandon, the universal service obligation which is so valuable to so many people.

It is worth remembering that this desire to privatise the Post Office goes back to the last Labour Government which thought that part-privatisation was a good idea. The Lib Dems (now junior coalition partners) have locally (in Newport and no doubt elsewhere) previously been fast to leap to the defence of local post offices that were threatened with closure (even when they were not threatened with closure) are now helping to privatise the Post Office itself .

Plaid has rightly fought hard to defend Royal Mail in the House of Commons and continues to do so having recognised the huge importance of the universal service and has repeated its call for the Government to make concrete, long-term plans to protect it. Putting profit before the principle of good service will pretty much always undermine quality; hence the necessity of opposing the Con Dem Coalition Governments privatisation plans.

SIMPLY A BAD IDEA...

Even the news that the Post Office profit rose from £ 152 million pounds to £ 403 million pounds (in the 12 months up until the end of March) made little difference; the Lib Dems (notorious locally for campaign to keep open local Post Offices that were not under threat of closure) have with their Conservative collation partners decided to privatise the Post Office. Labour in Westminster has been busy crying crocodile tears, as they tried and failed (under Peter Mandelson) to privatise the Post Office themselves during their largely wasted 13 years in government.

Privatisation of the Post Office - simply a bad idea...

Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely no problem with the Post Office being given the maximum amount of commercial freedom to go out and diversify and to make money (as happens in the Netherlands) but firmly believe that this is an ideologically driven and unnecessary privatisation  A major concern should be about the longevity of the unprofitable rural postal operations – how long will it be before they are dropped because they don’t make enough profit?

The Post Office, rather than be simply sold off to a private company will be floated on the stock market, with shares being sold off. The business has been valued at something between £ 2 billion and £ 3 billion pounds with up to 10% of shares being set aside for postal workers. Not surprisingly, probably along with most people, the members of the Communication Workers Union are understandably firmly opposed to the privatisation of the Post Office.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson on Royal Mail, Jonathan Edwards MP, said:

“Plaid Cymru is wholly opposed to the privatisation of Royal Mail. 

"When the last Labour Government thought that part-privatisation was a good idea, Plaid Cymru fought to defend Royal Mail in the House of Commons, and will do so again against this Tory – Lib Dem decision.

“Plaid Cymru is very concerned about the Government’s decision to press ahead with privatisation of the postal service that threatens to put jobs and services at risk.

“The reasons for keeping Royal Mail in public ownership are numerous, and the Government has not been able to give sufficient reasons for privatising it.

“In May this year, it was announced that Royal Mail had posted a profit of over £400 million in the preceding year and lays to waste the Coalition Government’s claim that it must be sold off to survive.”

USK POST OFFICE

The news from the Royal Mail that it intends to close the Usk sorting office next year will not only mean a relocation of the workforce to Pontypool as of January 2011, but also shows that particularly if the manner of the announcement is repeated across Wales over the next few years that there is little or no concern for our local communities. It's apparent that the Royal Mail has already made its mind up and I concerned that whatever coherent case is made against closure the Royal Mail will merely pay lip service to it, go through the motions and then merrily press on.

Monmouthshire is a relatively large county and the closure of the office in Usk will lead to a poorer service for the public, especially in rural areas. The Royal Mail has said the closure was a commercial decision yet it has refused to say how much money would be saved by this move to Pontypool. So much for transparency - as far as I can recall (despite the desires of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government) the Royal Mail is still publicly owned so should come clean with the details of any savings that are being made.