BILLY HAYES SPEECH TO THE ELLESMERE PORT & NESTON CLP

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WHITBY SPORTS & SOCIAL CLUB,
DUNKIRK LANE, WHITBY, ELLESMERE PORT CH65 6QF

ON FRIDAY, 26 JUNE 2009 AT 7.00 PM

SPEECH TO THE SEMINAR
REBIRTH OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR


In the 2005 General Election Manifesto we read:

‘We have given the Royal Mail greater commercial freedom and have no plans to privatise it. Our ambition is to see a publicly owned Royal Mail fully restored to good health, providing customers with an excellent service and its employees with rewarding employment.

So the Government made a promise to the electorate to keep Royal Mail as a public service.

In the National Policy Forum at Warwick in July last year the Government accepted the following into the NPF documents:

‘We have set out a vision of a wholly publicly owned, integrated Royal Mail Group in good health, providing customers with an excellent service and its employees with rewarding employment’.

This policy was endorsed by last year’s Labour Party Conference.

Yet, last December, when Richard Hooper published his report on Royal Mail proposing privatisation, the Government immediately embraced the proposal.

There was no public debate on the Hooper Report, there was no debate in the PLP, or in the bodies of the Labour movement. Instead, there was an immediate endorsement of the Report which looks shakier by the hour.


The Government proposes to sell off up to 50% of Royal Mail. At the moment the second reading of the Bill in Parliament has not been timetabled. The rationale behind the privatisation is that only the private sector can supply the expertise, and the capital to transform the industry.

Now, Royal Mail has suffered from under-investment by successive Governments.

At the start of the 1990s, successive Governments have hoped to privatise the industry. As a consequence, money was taken out rather than reinvested. The Labour Government has supported greater investment, particularly since 2004, but the industry has not received the most up to date machinery.

Government supported full liberalisation of the sector, well in advance of other EU countries. This has not been successful.

Royal Mail have lost high earnings bulk mailings. But Royal Mail continues to deliver 99.8% of previously reserved mail.

So competition has been unbalanced with Royal Mail’s network actually subsidising the competitors.

Now, the proposal is to hand over Royal Mail to one of its competitors. The partner would be able to appoint the Chief Executive Officer, and in practice run the day to day operations of Royal Mail.

The Government is however losing the argument here. The annual accounts for 2008/09 saw Royal Mail double its profits. Meanwhile the main rivals fared badly – TNT saw its profits drop by 58% - Deutsche Post lost nearly 2 billion Euros on the year.

The Union has campaigned for Royal Mail to be modernised in the public sector.

We supported the pamphlet that Compass has published “Modernisation by Consent.” This shows that there are other models in the public sector, such as the BBC, Network Rail, and Welsh Water.

None of these models would be a perfect fit for Royal Mail. But the idea is that Royal Mail profits should be reinvested in new services, new machinery and rewarding the workforce.

Government structure could be remodelled taking into account the communities represented, mail users, and the workforce.

However, before this we have a serious battle to win.

There is a major split in both the PLP and the Cabinet on this policy. To date 149 Labour MPs have signed EDM 428 which proposes to modernise Royal Mail in the public sector.

The Government’s proposals have been rejected by the cross party House of Commons Business and Enterprise Committee. All public opinion polls show huge majorities against the proposal.

The Union has organised events up and down the country.

At the moment we are running a series of weeks of action in every region of the country. The response has been very positive.

We are on a fight which we can win – and with your support we will.

Posted by Billy Hayes | @ Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:27:16 +0100

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Billy talks again.