Outrage over Ministers' £47m bill for private post

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Labour was accused of undermining the Royal Mail last night after it was revealed that Government departments have spent more than £45million on private postal and delivery firms in the past seven years.

Last week, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson faced criticism from Labour MPs, trade unions and small business leaders after he announced plans to sell off around 30 per cent of the Royal Mail.

Critics warned of post office closures and thousands of job losses.

But now it has been disclosed that Government departments, including Lord Mandelson’s Business and Enterprise Ministry, are snubbing the Royal Mail by employing private companies to deliver letters, documents and parcels.

Whitehall and Government agencies have paid commercial postal delivery companies £47million since 2002, a move critics say has undermined state-owned Royal Mail’s ability to survive.

Lord Mandelson’s department has contracts with DHL and international couriers Lewis Day, although no figures have been released about their value.

Between January 2005 and November 2007, HM Revenue & Customs paid TNT, the British subsidiary of the privatised Dutch postal operator, nearly £25million. Two years ago, the Department for Work and Pensions awarded a £12million contract to UK Mail, while the Foreign Office has spent nearly £10million with private delivery firms.

Shadow Business Minister Jonathan Djanogly said: ‘This sort of careless attitude is typical of a Government that has brought Royal Mail to its knees after 12 years of shameful neglect.

‘Labour Ministers allowed Royal Mail’s service to its customers, the taxpaying public, to deteriorate but were happy enough to use other companies for their own letters. It’s another example of the utter hypocrisy of this Government.’

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union, which has threatened to withdraw financial support from Labour if the privatisation goes ahead, said: ‘It makes no sense for Government departments to use private mail companies when they are the owners of Royal Mail.

‘This is a spectacular example of non-joined-up government. How can the Government expect Royal Mail to be successful if even they don’t take advantage of their services?’

Gordon Brown was booed by postal workers as he arrived in Bristol yesterday, where he told Labour’s policy forum that the Post Office’s huge pension deficit made outside investment imperative.

[resperin]

i think we already knew that when were delivering NHS letters for example for TNT but tis a good thing, thats it finally being brought up a bit more. even before being a postman i wondered why it diddnt have the RM stamp on the government related letters

[pocky20]

why cant we get a pic of brown on this site so i can slap him we have the rest of the gob shites pm can we get one as he is part of all this to . :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

[POSTMAN]

why cant we get a pic of brown on this site so i can slap him we have the rest of the gob shites pm can we get one as he is part of all this to . :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

[DGP1]

why cant we get a pic of brown on this site so i can slap him we have the rest of the gob shites pm can we get one as he is part of all this to . :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

[pocky20]

lol whats that mean lol :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

[k979aaa]

Can we have brown with his "we have ended the cycle of boom and bust" speech

[pocky20]

lol yeah i need his pic up to vent some of my rage cos it geting worse every day what i would do do these guys if i ever seen them on the street or in the asda .i would say oi brown mandy leave royalmail alone you clowns and brown get that chin fixed for god sake man you look like a turky :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

[pocky20]

lol see thats rage rite there they just bring it out of me lol :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

[PrestwickPostie]

why cant we get a pic of brown on this site so i can slap him we have the rest of the gob shites pm can we get one as he is part of all this to . :mfo :mfo :mfo :mfo

remember Brown was chancellor of the exchequer when labour raided our pension fund to help pay for his f*cked up policies

TNT stated a couple of years ago that they could not deliver mail at current royal mail pricing .... so we all know what that means joe publics mail will shoot up in price and rural communities ... a rural mail tax .. as they will end up facing larger postage costs than the rest of us and possibly recieve fewer deliveries ... we will probably end up with a 3 - 5 price tier postal service ... dependent in what part of the country you live in .... and we will be the guys that get it in the neck when our customers demand to know why the mail has shot up in price .... mark my words this is what is coming under Neu Liebour and Tnt


vote Neu Labour you end up getting The Neu Tory Party

[UNION JACK]

[size=150] VOTE- BNP you know it makes sense, its the only way forward for this country, they can drag us out of this god forsaken mess our country is in.[/size]

[Big Daz]

If your trying to say the main three political parties are of no use to man or beastie and we need to look at the many smaller political parties then I would agree, but BNP would not be my choice of smaller party.