If British Airways or any other business cannot survive without State Aid, such as the British State is once again free to pay after Brexit, then that business is monetarily worthless.
If it is nevertheless of some social, cultural or political importance, then the State should take it over for nothing. Or, in the case of BA, take it back for nothing. The State created BA, and it still enjoys all sorts of little perks that sit ill with being a private company.
At the very least, the State should take at no cost a large enough stake to ensure board level representation, for the exercise of which the First Lord of the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer should be accountable to the House of Commons. Any eventual dividend should be divided equally among the holders of all National Insurance numbers.
Such an arrangement would answer the claim that the Royal Mail had a very wide shareholder base. The "Royal" now refers to that major shareholder, the Emir of Kuwait. And today's decision to scrap Saturday deliveries has nothing to do with the protection of workers, who have not been consulted.
Rather, it is the beginning of the end of the Universal Service Obligation. There was a reason why, as with coal and the railways, Margaret Thatcher ruled out the privatisation of the Royal Mail. No, it was not that she just never got round to them. She explicitly ruled out each of them, on grounds that still stand up to scrutiny.
Well, the railways are starting to be brought back, and now this. The EU banned the renationalisation of the rail service, and it required the privatisation of the postal service. But we have left the EU. Keir Starmer is not the Prime Minister, and he never will be. Instead, the Budget of March 2020 has ended the era that began with the Budget of December 1976. The Centre is the think tank for this new era. Please give generously.
Rather, it is the beginning of the end of the Universal Service Obligation. There was a reason why, as with coal and the railways, Margaret Thatcher ruled out the privatisation of the Royal Mail. No, it was not that she just never got round to them. She explicitly ruled out each of them, on grounds that still stand up to scrutiny.
Well, the railways are starting to be brought back, and now this. The EU banned the renationalisation of the rail service, and it required the privatisation of the postal service. But we have left the EU. Keir Starmer is not the Prime Minister, and he never will be. Instead, the Budget of March 2020 has ended the era that began with the Budget of December 1976. The Centre is the think tank for this new era. Please give generously.
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