Something needs to be done about the future of Royal Mail. This is not about the future of Post Offices, although the need for Royal Mail to make savings cannot be separated from the costs of running the offices. As the report that Lord Mandy has received states the RM has very poor relations with its Unions and the fact is that even this week there is likely to be industrial action. But also, the simple fact is that the Royal Mail does not do its job at all well. My post is often late or even lost and I have no certainty that things I post get there on time, if at all.

But equally the Royal Mail should have been innovating. Royal Mail used to ( many years ago) run communications. The modern British Telecom came out of the Post Office service. When the internet came along the RM should have been at the forefront of developing an high quality internet service as it was the traditional post that would have been the biggest loser with the rise of email.

However, it now seems that the Labour party are looking to part-privatise the Royal Mail. Putting aside the divisions this is going to cause in the Labour party  - how ironic that it is the hated Lord Mandy is proposing this - I just wonder whether it might be too late.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Labour MP quits government post:

Labour MP Jim McGovern has resigned from the government in protest at plans to part-privatise Royal Mail. Mr McGovern, MP for Dundee West, had been parliamentary private secretary to business minister Pat McFadden, whose department is overseeing the changes.

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