Ian Lavery MP column: 'The Royal Mail Horror Show Must End'

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.northumberlandgazette.co.uk ... nd-5602834

The BBC headline news reporting the massive problems within the Royal Mail postal delivery service will come as no surprise to those living in the Blyth and Ashington constituency.

Constituents have been reporting serious problems regarding postal deliveries to my office for ages.

Following discussions with union representatives who provided first-hand accounts of the unacceptable backlogs in our local delivery offices, I raised the issue in a question to the Government in the House of Commons last month.

Not only are people not receiving extremely important letters in time, postal workers are experiencing unacceptable pressures – both direct consequences of the commercial priorities of its billionaire owner.

The more profitable parcel delivery side is being allocated resources at the expense of letters that can be left undelivered for weeks.

The Royal Mail was privatised by the Coalition Government in 2013 despite the warnings that this would lead to the end of the universal postal delivery service. Those warnings were ignored and we are living with the predictable consequences.

The Royal Mail may be in private hands, but it still operates under statutes which stipulate the levels of postal service it must provide.

The Czech billionaire who bought it in 2025 pledged to abide by those rules. It has not taken very long for us to find out that his assurances were hollow.

The Government and Ofcom the Postal Regulator must demand that Royal Mail provides the level of service set out in the relevant regulations or face serious consequences.

Despite the widespread use of email, many still rely on letters for important aspects of their lives. Late deliveries cause delays in medical treatments, unpaid bills and unnecessary stress. The well-being of our people is vastly more important than corporate profits.

As in the cases of rail, water and energy, the Royal Mail is another example of the damage done by the privatisation of essential services since the Thatcher years.

The Labour Government is rightly taking rail back into public control, but why leave it there? One by one, it should do the same with all essential utilities.

Residents in the Blyth and Ashington constituency can contact my office by calling 01670 852494 or emailing ian.lavery.mp@parliament.uk and there are also regular updates that are posted on my Facebook page (Ian Lavery MP).

[neviboss]

This is the same Ian Lavery that was sat on the commitee that gave Thompson, Ricky and the rest of the gang a slap on the wrist! And that was it!

[Mr Rush]

The Labour Government is rightly taking rail back into public control, but why leave it there? One by one, it should do the same with all essential utilities.

If I recall correctly, the railways were renationalised peacemeal as each franchise elapsed or collapsed. Waiting until a utility provider collapses is not a good, or cheap, starting point. Preferrably they would be taken over whilst reasonably operational, even if disfunctional enough to warrant nationalisation. Of course, the government isn't going to expropriate them because it doesn't want to become a pariah state, so it's going to need to buy them.

There is no budget surplus so it would require even more borrowing. This clashes with the idea of regaining sovereignty over these utilities because dependency on international finance to implement policy aims, as the state is unwilling and/or unable to independently raise funds through taxation, means the levers of power are placed further away from democratic accountability.

The demand for increased public expenditure whilst also decreasing taxation is eventually going to provoke a national crisis.

[tramssirhc]

The Labour Government is rightly taking rail back into public control, but why leave it there? One by one, it should do the same with all essential utilities.

If I recall correctly, the railways were renationalised peacemeal as each franchise elapsed or collapsed. Waiting until a utility provider collapses is not a good, or cheap, starting point. Preferrably they would be taken over whilst reasonably operational, even if disfunctional enough to warrant nationalisation. Of course, the government isn't going to expropriate them because it doesn't want to become a pariah state, so it's going to need to buy them.

There is no budget surplus so it would require even more borrowing. This clashes with the idea of regaining sovereignty over these utilities because dependency on international finance to implement policy aims, as the state is unwilling and/or unable to independently raise funds through taxation, means the levers of power are placed further away from democratic accountability.

The demand for increased public expenditure whilst also decreasing taxation is eventually going to provoke a national crisis.

The reality in the railway industry is that COVID collapsed the privatisation structure. We had already taken over a number of franchises after the owners begged the government to bail them out. The infrastructure was ours already because Railtrack collapsed and the government took it over as Network Rail.

What the government are able to do is takeover the USO and the necessary infrastructure to facilitate it.