What's Happened To Your Royal Mail?

The  book, Dear Granny Smith, is written by a working postie and describes the job of a postal worker 30 years ago, and compares this with the job today, as you can imagine it is highly critical of the current set up at RM. The author writes under the pseudonym Roy Mayall and has a blog here and at the London Review of Books. Roy is especially critical of the current Labour government's demand the post office must operate in a 'free market' He points out such a demand is dishonest as no such free market in postal services currently exists in the UK, and to claim it does is a total sham and little more than a propaganda tool used by those whose aim is to make big bucks by privatising the postal services. 


The Royal Mail is a clear example of a societal service at its best, it is an important part of the nations infrastructure and the British way of life. To suggest private enterprise can manage such services better than the State has been proved to be nonsense. I doubt many would regard the privatised railways an improvement on British Rail, nor the privatisation of water, care homes or the countless back door privatizations the NHS has endured under New Labour.


The fact is some essential services are far to important to be left to the market, that is why they were nationalised in the first place. It became obvious in the immediate post WW2 period that essential services like health providers, coal, railways, water, tube lines, power and others, are so vital to the well being of the population, they cannot be left to the vagaries of the 'market,' but must be treasured and nurtured by the nation as a whole. Not seen as a means for some capitalist asset stripper to squeeze a big buck from whilst throwing a loyal workforce onto the scrap heap. 


Besides, why should the tax payer subsidise the profit of privateers, which is undoubtedly what has happened with the UK railway system. In the process it has turned into a total shambles which has become a standing joke throughout the western world and there is absolutely no evidence Royal Mail would not go a similar way were it to be privatised.


There is Petition, here which is well worth signing if like me you support the workers at royal mail and the service they provide.