Business Minister Michael Fallon said on the R4 Today programme (1.55in) that "there is a ten year agreement between the Royal Mail and the Post Office" and by implication that local rural post offices were safe. He said ten years twice.
As we know, a week is a long time in politics and therefore ten years is an eternity. I mean, there will be at least two general elections in the ten years. So Michael Fallon feels safe. Who knows, he may retired by then.
But for the 'Capital Markets' (which the minister mentioned several times in the interview) ten years is really not that long. Businesses (unlike governments) plan for the long term. If I was an investor, I would be thinking OK, so I have ten years to wait but then I can clean up! All those pesky arrangements with two bit shops in the middle of nowhere can be abandoned in ten years time and the Royal Mail will then become even more slick, profitable and valuable... Indeed all the while up to this ten year limit, I will be able to sell and resell credit swaps and all the usual clever gambles on my investment to make a proverbial killing!
What do you think?
Have the privatised industries so impressed you that we should be running headlong into another? Would you mind that the rural areas of the UK will gradually receive less of a service... Who knows what will happen if you live in the depths of Wales, Scotland or Yorkshire...
In my view, this is yet another example of where ideology could be about to destroy another feature of the British way of life. Do you want that happen?
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