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THE fate of Royal Mail, as with other privatised British public services, has been to fall into private hands, in this case those of the Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky and his Vesa Equity Investment fund.
Our government has made no objection, as his equity stake has steadily increased to give him control of Royal Mail, and now he sees no future in letter delivery in today’s digital age of computers and smartphones, so wishes to be out of that loss-making aspect and to increase his profits by disposing of its 6000 jobs.
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Every one of the privatisations we have suffered was always going to be expensive, as it incorporates a layer of unproductive shareholders demanding dividends, and it was always going to make our state infrastructure vulnerable to external ownership and price hike, energy being the most unfortunate example today. Britain never owned its North Sea oil, and now it doesn’t own the wind turbines on which we depend so heavily. Selling the family silver has never been much of an economic policy.
Malcolm Parkin
Kinnesswood, Kinross
