The Fabric of The Nation

James Bloodworth writes:

Two thirds of the public are opposed to the government’s sell off of Royal Mail, with over a third ‘strongly opposed’, according to a new YouGov poll. Interestingly, opposition to privatisation does now break down predictably across party lines. While a majority of Tory voters oppose the sell off, far larger majorities of Labour, Lib Dem and UKIP voters believe the Royal Mail should not be privatised.

A rejoinder to the view that UKIP voters are merely disillusioned Tories (or even Thatcherites) is perhaps contained in the fact that far more UKIP than Tory supporters are opposed to the sell off . This also highlights the schism between traditional and liberal conservatism – UKIP supporters tend to be worried about things like tradition whereas Tories of a more Thatcherite bent tend to view everything through the lens of monetary value.

According to YouGov: 

Labour, Lib Dem and UKIP supporters oppose the sell-off by majorities of 78 per cent-11 per cent, 72 per cent-17 per cent and 76 per cent-18 per cent, respectively. Conservative voters are less opposed, but still tend to oppose the plans by 48 per cent-40 per cent. Additionally, while only 8 per cent of Conservative voters “strongly support” the sell-off, 20 per cent “strongly oppose” it; among Labour, those who “strongly oppose” outnumber those who “stongly support” it by a ratio of almost 25 to 1. 

Yesterday Left Foot Forward gave five reasons why we believe the Royal Mail should remain in public ownership:

1. Royal Mail is a profitable business. Far better, then, to keep the Royal Mail public and plow the profits back into the service rather than allow them to be siphoned off to shareholders. The company made £440 million last year. The fact that the Tories still want to privatise what is an increasingly successful business smacks of public bad/private good fanaticism. 

2. The cost-cutting that will likely follow a sell-off will place a huge question mark over the universal service. This isn’t left-wing propaganda as some on the right will undoubtedly claim. The Bow Group, the oldest conservative think-tank in Britain, has warned that privatisation could see the price of a stamp increase and Post Offices in rural areas close. 

3. Privatisation doesn’t solve all problems. It ought to cause alarm that this point even has to be made, but such is the view of public services in the conservative mind.

Privatisation has been disastrous for our railways and has resulted in even higher subsidies for the rail operator than under public ownership. In 2010/11 Network Rail was subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of £3.96 billion. This compares with an average of £1.4billion over the 10 years leading up to privatisation. 

4. Stamp prices could hit £1. The price regulation of stamps has been scrapped to increase the attractiveness of Royal Mail to investors. This brings with it the possibility that stamp prices could hit £1 shortly after privatisation. A private business exists to maximise profits for its shareholders, after all.

Again it’s worth looking at train fares. Since privatisation ten years of above-inflation rail price increases mean that some in the south-east of England now spend 15 per cent of their salary on rail travel. 

5. The Royal Mail is part of the fabric of the nation. This probably sounds a bit wet, but institutions do matter. There are certain things which have come to be associated with Britain. The NHS, cricket, red phone boxes and yes, the Royal Mail.

It is hard to overstate the respect the British public has for posties. The sight of a postie on his or her rounds early (or not so early these days) in the morning is a fundamental part of British culture (yes it does exist), and not everything can simply be reduced to its monetary value.