Are you a voting rep? I need your help!

I like a challenge..........I also like a conference where we debate the really meaty issues, that we are not "dumbed down" to save anyone getting their noses pushed out of joint. Now, as those of you who know me know, I am not one to shirk difficult issues. So, I am hoping to submit an emergency motion on Royal Mail tomorrow. But I need your support. If you agree with the text below, want to give Brown a bloody nose and also happen to be a voting rep for conference - please email me (linda_a_jack@yahoo.co.uk) with your membership number and local party. If you don't agree, no probs. Still look forward to seeing you at conference!

Royal Mail

Conference regrets that:

Gordon Brown has been able to find in the region of £1.3 trillion to bail out the private sector banks but is apparently unable to find the £1.5 billion necessary to invest in public sector Royal Mail.
The government is happy to subsidise private companies providing public services such as the rail companies, but unwilling to do the same for Royal Mail.

Conference notes that:

Almost 90% of the public oppose the privatisation of Royal Mail.
That other public services such as the police and social services are not expected to “break even” and are funded almost exclusively from the public purse.

Conference is concerned that:

· Even part privatisation will create a situation in which the private sector takes the profitable part of the operation and leaves the tax payer to take care of the rest
· The result of privatisation will be to create postal service black holes as the private sector cuts services to remote and areas that are difficult to access

Conference calls for:

The government to recognise the vital public service role of the Royal Mail and to invest at a level to enable it to operate effectively.
To ensure that there is a level playing field for Royal Mail and that legislation is reviewed in order to enable them to compete in a fair market, without one hand tied behind their back.

Let's hear it for Billy Hayes!

This piece on the BBC website says it all. Gordon Brown, a LABOUR Prime Minister, crying crocodile tears over the predicament of Royal Mail and begging philanthropic venture capitalists to bail him out. SORRY?????????? When he can find BILLIONS for the PRIVATE SECTOR BANKS - he can't find the investment necessary to ensure a modern, responsive and competitive Royal Mail? He chats about losing 7-8% a year, doesn't he see the irony against the losses of RBS, to name but one? He chats about losing 7-8% a year, with no notion of the public service nature of the Royal Mail. ER.............last time I looked the police service were losing 100% per year. Social Services...........100% per year. Education...........100% per year. What percentage does the subsidy to the rail companies amount to? How much are they "losing"?

There is an acceptance in this country that if you want a universal service, be that postal, transport or in the past telephone............you HAVE to subsidise it.

So, in my view Billy Hayes had it spot on "The Royal Bank of Scotland is on the verge of being nationalised and we've got the situation where they are suggesting Royal Mail should be privatised and flogged to a foreign multinational".

Peter Mandleson, he of frequent financial scandals, may fool some of the people some of the time, but on this he is certainly not going to fool all of the people all of the time. Let's hope this finally proves his undoing.

Peter.........Billy? I know who I think has this country's best interests at heart.

Will the Royal Mail debate damage Cameron and Clegg?

Two interesting articles today one in the Indy and one on Mike Smithson's Political Betting. The Indy points out that this is an issue splitting all the parties. Cameron has a dilemma, the best chance yet to see a Brown defeat and yet he is backing the idea that was an idea too far even for his great hero Margaret Thatcher. There is something totemic about "Royal" Mail in the psyche of our nation. Posties are universally loved (my brother is one so I understand why!), the idea of a universal service, that you can post a letter from anywhere to anywhere in the UK for the same price. But of course the danger with privatisation has to be that we will lose that, or alternatively see huge rises in the cost of the service.

The reason I was so vociferous in our own debate about this issue is very simple. Private companies are not altruistic charitable outfits. They really don't give a fig if Mrs Jack in the Outer Hebrides ends up paying through the nose for their service. In reality she won't have a choice. And secondly, private companies are there to make a profit. At the moment Royal Mail are in debt. So any private company interested in taking on this loss making business will have to include plans to massively hike costs. If you have to find the money just to clear debts that is one thing, but to make a profit too, is quite another.

In all this debate we seem to have lost sight of the fact that this is a public service - in the same vain as other public services that we subsidise through tax. For example, if the Police Service were subject to the same constraints as Royal Mail whatever mess would that be in now?

Nick Clegg has a similar dilemma to Cameron. Our current policy would make it difficult for him not to support Brown and I expect him to, but, as Mike Smithson observes concerning Cameron, it may turn out to be a mistake.