Wednesday, 17 December 2008

Splits over Royal Mail options

So it looks as though the Royal Mail debate is going to cause a split on the government's backbenches.

This morning,Jim McGovern has resigned as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Pat McFadden, Minister responsible for the Post Office, over the government's plans for the Royal Mail.

He was reported as saying that it

"beggars belief" that Dutch company TNT could be brought in to advise Royal Mail on its operations.


He is not the only backbench MP to attack the plans which recommends the organisation should enter into a strategic partnership with one or more private sector partners.

As this morning's Guardian editorial says

it is the part-sale of the Royal Mail that is the most disturbing aspect of this policy. It flies in the face of Labour's commitment at the last election not to privatise the service. As for Lord Mandelson's proud claim to have already lined up a buyer, that just flies in the face of common sense. TNT, the company that did such a good job last year with official computer disks? However good the Dutch firm may be at covering a limited run of business contracts, there are bound to be doubts about its ability to provide a national service.

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