This piece, by CPO co-founder Neil Clark,appears on the Guardian’s Comment is Free website.
Keep standing up for the state – a leaked memo shows the coalition fears public reaction to outsourcing of public services.
"A return to the 1990s with whole-scale outsourcing to the private sector – this would be unpalatable to the present administration" Tuesday's leaked memo of a meeting between business chiefs and Francis Maude, the minister for the Cabinet Office – which reveals how the coalition is having second thoughts about the scale of its ambitious and ideologically driven programme of ending the "state's monopoly" of the provision of public services – is undoubtedly welcome.
But supporters of public ownership shouldn't be popping the champagne corks just yet.
The whole article can be read here.
Showing posts with label save the Royal Mail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label save the Royal Mail. Show all posts
Friday, May 6, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Think our post is bad? Here's how it could soon get worse
This article by CPO co-founder Neil Clark, on The Netherlands’ unhappy experience with postal privatisation, appears in the Mail on Sunday.
Hundreds of campaigners recently marched through David Cameron's Oxfordshire constituency to protest against Government plans to sell off the Royal Mail.
'The planned privatisation is an unnecessary ideological move which will damage postal services for ever,' said Billy Hayes, leader of the Communication Workers Union.
While Hayes believes the sell-off of Royal Mail - in State hands since its inception in 1516 - would mean an increase in prices, a decrease in services and mass Post Office closures, Business Secretary Vince Cable claims the move will 'secure the services that consumers and businesses rely on'.
Of course, they can't both be right. To find out what a privatised postal service really would be like, we only have to look across the North Sea to the Netherlands. And Holland's unhappy experience should give us all grounds for concern over what is about to happen in Britain.
You can read the whole of the article here.
Hundreds of campaigners recently marched through David Cameron's Oxfordshire constituency to protest against Government plans to sell off the Royal Mail.
'The planned privatisation is an unnecessary ideological move which will damage postal services for ever,' said Billy Hayes, leader of the Communication Workers Union.
While Hayes believes the sell-off of Royal Mail - in State hands since its inception in 1516 - would mean an increase in prices, a decrease in services and mass Post Office closures, Business Secretary Vince Cable claims the move will 'secure the services that consumers and businesses rely on'.
Of course, they can't both be right. To find out what a privatised postal service really would be like, we only have to look across the North Sea to the Netherlands. And Holland's unhappy experience should give us all grounds for concern over what is about to happen in Britain.
You can read the whole of the article here.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Neil Clark: Margaret Thatcher's extremism has already been outdone by this coalition
This piece by CPO co-founder Neil Clark, on the coalition government's free-market extremism, appears on the Guardian Comment is Free website.
Ask any genuine socialist or progressive which was the most extremist British government since the war and it's long odds-on that they'd say one of the three administrations of Margaret Thatcher. But I believe that is now an outdated judgment. For when it comes to political extremism the present government has already outdone Thatcher.
The coalition, which its supporters ludicrously claims occupies the centre ground, seems hellbent on privatising the entire British state.
Everything must go: our publicly owned forests, our postal service, our state-owned bookmaker, our air traffic control. And though the government denies that its health bill represents the privatisation of the NHS, there can be little doubt that its real aim is to open the door for profit-hungry private companies to take over surgeries and hospitals.
You can read the whole of the article here.
Ask any genuine socialist or progressive which was the most extremist British government since the war and it's long odds-on that they'd say one of the three administrations of Margaret Thatcher. But I believe that is now an outdated judgment. For when it comes to political extremism the present government has already outdone Thatcher.
The coalition, which its supporters ludicrously claims occupies the centre ground, seems hellbent on privatising the entire British state.
Everything must go: our publicly owned forests, our postal service, our state-owned bookmaker, our air traffic control. And though the government denies that its health bill represents the privatisation of the NHS, there can be little doubt that its real aim is to open the door for profit-hungry private companies to take over surgeries and hospitals.
You can read the whole of the article here.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
More than one in three Post Offices could close if the Royal Mail is privatised
The Daily Mail reports:
More than one in three post offices could be closed under Government privatisation plans for the Royal Mail, it is feared.
The official customer body, Consumer Focus, believes that the country may be left with only a skeleton post office network.
It says safeguards are needed to ensure key parts of the Post Office role, such as the collection of parcels, are not hived off to supermarkets or other retailers.
Andy Burrows, postal services expert at Consumer Focus, said: ‘It’s entirely conceivable, though it seems an odd thing to suggest, that several years down the line you could have a post office network where you cannot undertake mail transactions
More than one in three post offices could be closed under Government privatisation plans for the Royal Mail, it is feared.
The official customer body, Consumer Focus, believes that the country may be left with only a skeleton post office network.
It says safeguards are needed to ensure key parts of the Post Office role, such as the collection of parcels, are not hived off to supermarkets or other retailers.
Andy Burrows, postal services expert at Consumer Focus, said: ‘It’s entirely conceivable, though it seems an odd thing to suggest, that several years down the line you could have a post office network where you cannot undertake mail transactions
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Royal Mail, not for sale!
The Morning Star reports:
Angry postal workers took police by surprise and blocked a major street near Parliament today in a mass protest at Con-Dem plans to sell off the Royal Mail.
Waving union banners and placards, hundreds of communication workers union CWU activists staged the demo just yards from the scene of last week's police battles with students.
For half an hour nothing moved along Victoria Street as the protesters spread right across the road outside the office of Business Secretary Vince Cable, chanting: "Royal Mail, not for sale."
You can read the whole of the report on today's anti-privatisation demonstration here.
Angry postal workers took police by surprise and blocked a major street near Parliament today in a mass protest at Con-Dem plans to sell off the Royal Mail.
Waving union banners and placards, hundreds of communication workers union CWU activists staged the demo just yards from the scene of last week's police battles with students.
For half an hour nothing moved along Victoria Street as the protesters spread right across the road outside the office of Business Secretary Vince Cable, chanting: "Royal Mail, not for sale."
You can read the whole of the report on today's anti-privatisation demonstration here.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
The Campaign For Public Ownership's Press Release on the new Coalition Government's Privatisation Plans
Thursday 20th May 2010.
The Campaign for Public Ownership strongly opposes the new coalition government’s plans to part-privatise Royal Mail, its plans to allow private business to run state schools and its policy of granting profiteering train companies longer franchises.
Thirty years on from the Thatcher government’s first privatisations, public opposition with privatisation has reached an all-time high. Over 70% of the British public would like to see our railways renationalised, yet our new coalition government, putting the interests of capital before the people, proposes even longer franchises for the profiteering train companies, who receive over four times more subsidy from the taxpayers than British Rail did.
The idea that privatisation will improve the Royal Mail and state schools is naive to say the least: has privatisation improved Britain’s railways- or brought lower prices and better service to gas, electricity and water consumers? The opposite occurred and if we do privatise Royal Mail we will get a worse, not better service- with cutbacks in deliveries and hiked prices.
Every country in Europe that has been foolish enough to privatise parts of its postal service has experienced this.
It’s time to call an end to the Great Privatisation Rip-Off and for all concerned citizens to fight against the coalition’s plans for further privatisations.
The Campaign for Public Ownership strongly opposes the new coalition government’s plans to part-privatise Royal Mail, its plans to allow private business to run state schools and its policy of granting profiteering train companies longer franchises.
Thirty years on from the Thatcher government’s first privatisations, public opposition with privatisation has reached an all-time high. Over 70% of the British public would like to see our railways renationalised, yet our new coalition government, putting the interests of capital before the people, proposes even longer franchises for the profiteering train companies, who receive over four times more subsidy from the taxpayers than British Rail did.
The idea that privatisation will improve the Royal Mail and state schools is naive to say the least: has privatisation improved Britain’s railways- or brought lower prices and better service to gas, electricity and water consumers? The opposite occurred and if we do privatise Royal Mail we will get a worse, not better service- with cutbacks in deliveries and hiked prices.
Every country in Europe that has been foolish enough to privatise parts of its postal service has experienced this.
It’s time to call an end to the Great Privatisation Rip-Off and for all concerned citizens to fight against the coalition’s plans for further privatisations.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tories to sell-off entire Royal Mail if they win power
The Daily Mail reports:
A Conservative government would press ahead with plans to privatise Royal Mail and the party believes there would be more bidders if the striking Communication Workers Union is defeated.
The Tories are keen to sell off the entire service, rather than just the 30 per cent stake that Business Secretary Lord Mandelson wants to off-load.
It has emerged that Ken Clarke, the shadow Tory business secretary, had met potential bidders for Royal Mail and is said to be ready to include plans for full privatisation in the first Queen's Speech after a Tory general election victory.
The Tories are also looking to introduce measures that would ban strike action that was not supported by a majority of all workers being called out on strike.
A Conservative government would press ahead with plans to privatise Royal Mail and the party believes there would be more bidders if the striking Communication Workers Union is defeated.
The Tories are keen to sell off the entire service, rather than just the 30 per cent stake that Business Secretary Lord Mandelson wants to off-load.
It has emerged that Ken Clarke, the shadow Tory business secretary, had met potential bidders for Royal Mail and is said to be ready to include plans for full privatisation in the first Queen's Speech after a Tory general election victory.
The Tories are also looking to introduce measures that would ban strike action that was not supported by a majority of all workers being called out on strike.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
The Pillage of the Post Office
Martin Kelly writes:
News Corporation (prop. K. R. Murdoch, OA, KCSG, PORNO) has thrown down the gauntlet and issued an ultimatum that the Royal Mail must 'modernise or privatise'. The British economy has been thoroughly modernised and privatised over the past 30 years - they've sure modernised and privatised the hell out of us. Let's see where we are.
One would have thought that the areas in which private economic activity is highest is reflected in the madcap freneticism of advertising. If this contention holds true for the modern United Kingdom, then the only things we are doing all day long are buying car insurance and calling telephone directory enquiry services. If I see another smug, self-satisfied mouthbreathing bastard vacantly chanting about the wonderful deal they got through http://www.carinsurancetartsbehavelikesheep.com/, their tongues almost lolling in ecstasy, or another Slavonic sock puppet of a type that who wouldn't have been funny if it had been put beside Basil Brush or Charlie Cairoli on children's TV circa 1978, the controls might go through the TV.
The real scandal of the Royal Mail is how nobody, absolutely nobody, seems to be focussing on how its pension deficit is the result of a botched Tory law which enabled its management to take a 'contribution holiday', in other words to unilaterally exempt itself from its contractual obligations to its staff, between 1990 and 2003. The 'contribution holiday' was one of those business-friendly botched Tory mechanisms for ensuring that those and such as those do not have to feel that 'we're all in it together'. Whilst encouraging, the Labour conference's motion that the public purse should bail out the deficit is unlikely to make much headway, not if the recent history of the Labour Party is anything to go by. Too many bankers' pensions to pay.
News Corporation (prop. K. R. Murdoch, OA, KCSG, PORNO) has thrown down the gauntlet and issued an ultimatum that the Royal Mail must 'modernise or privatise'. The British economy has been thoroughly modernised and privatised over the past 30 years - they've sure modernised and privatised the hell out of us. Let's see where we are.
One would have thought that the areas in which private economic activity is highest is reflected in the madcap freneticism of advertising. If this contention holds true for the modern United Kingdom, then the only things we are doing all day long are buying car insurance and calling telephone directory enquiry services. If I see another smug, self-satisfied mouthbreathing bastard vacantly chanting about the wonderful deal they got through http://www.carinsurancetartsbehavelikesheep.com/, their tongues almost lolling in ecstasy, or another Slavonic sock puppet of a type that who wouldn't have been funny if it had been put beside Basil Brush or Charlie Cairoli on children's TV circa 1978, the controls might go through the TV.
The real scandal of the Royal Mail is how nobody, absolutely nobody, seems to be focussing on how its pension deficit is the result of a botched Tory law which enabled its management to take a 'contribution holiday', in other words to unilaterally exempt itself from its contractual obligations to its staff, between 1990 and 2003. The 'contribution holiday' was one of those business-friendly botched Tory mechanisms for ensuring that those and such as those do not have to feel that 'we're all in it together'. Whilst encouraging, the Labour conference's motion that the public purse should bail out the deficit is unlikely to make much headway, not if the recent history of the Labour Party is anything to go by. Too many bankers' pensions to pay.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The Deliberate Destruction of the Royal Mail
By Martin Meenagh, co-founder of the CPO. The article also appears on his blog.
You don't need conspiracies in England. Things just happen.
So, for instance, a government decides that the Royal Mail needs to be privatised. It's about to leave office, those champagne and guacamole parties have to be paid for, and the economy has been ruined. Things would look better from the seat of a privatised company board after the defeat, and it would serve the country to sell off that postal pension fund and pretend the outcome is revenue too.
It goes without saying that your opponents agree with you, since we all have the same economic ideas, and anyway, we're in a crisis, and, well, you can't treat the taxpayers as though they were bankers and subsidise them. That would suggest that they were, well important. Foolish idea.
But, oh, those foolish lobby fodder in the commons for once represent the views of the people and don't go along with you, so what can you do? Provoke industrial action? Replace large numbers of trained and dedicated staff with new people on shorter contracts and encourage them to lie? Run down the service from an efficient, morning-delivery one to some rubbish parody (which, admittedly, you were doing for ages anyway), and then charge people for a fraction of the old standard? Provoke a strike that wrecks small businesses and damages those stone age people who still pay bills by cheque? Trash major deals?
Yes, that'd work. You wouldn't even have to plot it. Motivated by depression, in some bizarre and counter intuitive way--because they didn't get the sense of satisfaction that comes with trousering other people's money and undermining staff that motivates many British managers when your privatisation bill was withdrawn--the administration of the service will do it automatically.
Then people would be so sick of the Royal Mail no-one would oppose a sale. Champagne all round, I think.
Why do people keep falling for it?
You don't need conspiracies in England. Things just happen.
So, for instance, a government decides that the Royal Mail needs to be privatised. It's about to leave office, those champagne and guacamole parties have to be paid for, and the economy has been ruined. Things would look better from the seat of a privatised company board after the defeat, and it would serve the country to sell off that postal pension fund and pretend the outcome is revenue too.
It goes without saying that your opponents agree with you, since we all have the same economic ideas, and anyway, we're in a crisis, and, well, you can't treat the taxpayers as though they were bankers and subsidise them. That would suggest that they were, well important. Foolish idea.
But, oh, those foolish lobby fodder in the commons for once represent the views of the people and don't go along with you, so what can you do? Provoke industrial action? Replace large numbers of trained and dedicated staff with new people on shorter contracts and encourage them to lie? Run down the service from an efficient, morning-delivery one to some rubbish parody (which, admittedly, you were doing for ages anyway), and then charge people for a fraction of the old standard? Provoke a strike that wrecks small businesses and damages those stone age people who still pay bills by cheque? Trash major deals?
Yes, that'd work. You wouldn't even have to plot it. Motivated by depression, in some bizarre and counter intuitive way--because they didn't get the sense of satisfaction that comes with trousering other people's money and undermining staff that motivates many British managers when your privatisation bill was withdrawn--the administration of the service will do it automatically.
Then people would be so sick of the Royal Mail no-one would oppose a sale. Champagne all round, I think.
Why do people keep falling for it?
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Press Release on the Planned Part-Privatisation of Royal Mail
The Campaign for Public Ownership strongly opposes the government’s plans to part-privatise Royal Mail, which were announced yesterday.
The idea that selling off part of the Royal Mail to foreign owned companies, such as the Dutch firm TNT, will improve our postal service, simply ‘beggars belief‘, to use the words of Jim McGovern MP, who has resigned from the government on this issue.
The current problems at Royal Mail are to do with the government not investing enough in the service over the years; instead of spending the money on our postal service, they have preferred to spend money on unnecessary wars and other costly projects, such as the Millenium Dome.
The idea that privatisation will improve matters is naive to say the least: has privatisation improved Britain’s railways- or brought lower prices and better service to gas, electricity and water consumers? The reality is that the opposite has occurred and if we do privatise Royal Mail we will get a worse, not better service- with cutbacks in deliveries and hiked prices.
Every country in Europe that has been foolish enough to privatise parts of its postal service has experienced this.
It’s time to call an end to the Great Privatisation Rip-Off and for all concerned citizens to fight to keep the Royal Mail in full public ownership.
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