It was announced around 10.00pm this evening that Stephen Byers, Continue reading
Tag Archives: Lord Mandelson
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Enterprise Minister Jim Mather challenges Alan Reid MP to say where he stands on part-privatisation of the Post Office
Argyll’s MSP and Enterprise Minister, Jim Mather has fired a range-finding shot at Alan Reid MP, Argyll’s representative at Westminster. He has effectively challenged Mr Reid to come out and say exactly where he stands on the issue of the UK Government’s determination to part privatise the Post Office.
For Argyll has already reported on a significant contradiction in Mr Reid’s behaviour. He has been active in making supportive statements of Post Offices in the fastness of Argyll from where news of his words is unlikely to get back to Westminster. He has not, however, yet signed the Early Day Motion lodged at Westminster by Labour MP Geraldine Smith, opposing the planned privatisation.
Mr Mather now says: ‘I am surprised at the lack of public response from Labour and LibDem sources in Argyll & Bute to what is a genuine threat of privatisation to a vital public utility.
‘Some weeks ago there was a great deal of furore raised about legislative proposals to lease a part of the Forest Estate to private operators and the unions and political opponents were quick to suggest that this was some form of privatisation. We are in the process of arranging a local public meeting that will enable the very newly appointed Minister for the Environment, Roseanna Cunningham, MSP, to elaborate on what is proposed, to rebut misrepresentations and to explain how the consultation process will contribute to the debate.
‘In the case of the Westminster Government’s plans for the privatisation of part of the Royal Mail business no such debate is envisaged and there could be no mistaking the intentions of Lord Mandelson of Foy when he introduced the proposals in the House of Lords.
‘Far from any scrutiny from the elected chamber of the House of Commons far less a local public meeting, the stark facts were spelled out. The effect that this will have on rural mail services and the preservation of the Universal Service Obligation can all too easily be projected. We can be confident that the private operators will be much more interested in delivering mail to Derby than to Dervaig and to Colchester rather than Colonsay’.
Mather takes Mandelson to task for holding Thursday’s debate on the part-privatisation of the Post Office in the House of Lords
Argyll’s MSP and Enterprise Minister, Jim Mather has taken issue with Lord Mandelson for lack of courage in choosing the House of Lords as the venue for the debate on the highly controversial proposal to part-privatise the Post Office.
By this afternoon it was known that 125 Labour MPs have signed a paper objecting to the proposal and the debate normally taking place in the Commons would have been a heated affair. The Lords has often shown that it can be a doughty defender of rights but it’s demeanour in so doing is of a gentler order than is the case in the Commons.
It is virtually certain that Gordon Brown will need support from the Conservatives to get this proposal through the vote in the Commons.
Labour MP, Kate Hoey, the former Sports Minister, has said publicly that the Government has got reform of the Post Office consistently wrong. Her point is that private sector businesses were allowed to compete with the Post Office in the delivery of selected services. She sees this as having left the profitable services to be cherry picked and the core Post Office with little but massive obligations and no real earning capacity.
Post Office CEO, Adam Crozier, told MPs that the Post Office does not have the money to invest in development and is crushed by a huge pension burden.
Union Leaders are making the valid point that the UK Government has been willing to commit the taxpayer to £1.5 trillion of debt to bail out the banks and that it is hard to see why it cannot find the will to finance the development of the Post Office.
Jim Mather condemns the UK Government’s decision: ‘to hive off a proportion of it (the Post Office), reportedly as much as 30% of its core and doubtless most profitable business, to competitors who have in recent years been encouraged to compete on unequal terms with Royal Mail.
‘What is at stake here for Royal Mail customers in Scotland and in rural areas across the land is the fear that this will mean the end of the universal service obligation if the company is privatised. Suggestions that competition will improve services cut little ice when the delivery of mail to small and isolated communities is on the agenda and yet these are the very customers who most rely on the principle of the service obligation.
‘Privatisation of Royal Mail makes little sense and can only lead on to the continued diminution of the overall service.
‘Strong concern too is expressed at the choice of the House of Lords to launch this dubious exercise. Such a matter of importance should come under the immediate scrutiny of the elected chamber rather than in the rarefied atmosphere of the unelected Lords. It is all too clear that the government are trying to avoid confrontation at this stage of the legislation but the master of New Labour spin must be accountable to the Commons in this matter.
‘I am interested in the attitude of the LibDems on this particular issue. The local MP has been vocal in his support for the retention and protection of the Royal Mail but it would appear that some of his colleagues down south are enthusiastic supporters of the concept of privatisation’.
Mr Mather’s colleague in Argyll, Mike Mackenzie, looking beyond the purely functional, has an almost poetic view of the role of the Post Office, reminding us not to take our eyes off the bigger picture. He says: ‘The Post Office was one of the fundamental planks of a modern democracy, binding us together and connecting us through one of the few truly benign agencies of Government. Little wonder that this great institution is so close to peoples hearts, especially in rural areas like Argyll and Bute, where distances and geography are still challenges’.
The photograph above, of a Post Office Post Box, is reproduced here under the GNU Free Documentation licence.
Proposal for Post Offices to offer banking services
As part of a political move to buy off suporters of an internal Labour Party rebellion against the proposed privatisation of the Royal Mail, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson wants to see the network of 12,000 Posst Office branches become a sort of national ‘Peoples’ Bank’.
This role is seen as plugging a gap in servives left by the banking collapses and would offer people an alternative to the so-called High Street Banks.
The proposal is seen as helping to secure the long term future of Post Offices. These already offer some limited banking services in association with the Bank of Ireland – like Credit Cards, mortgages and personal loans. The extended system would see Post Offices offer what are described as: ‘the full range of services associated with banks’.
Given the activities that are now indeed associated with banks, we can only hope that this was a carelessly chosen phrase.