Why should ordinary businesspeople have to pay for the mess

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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UNDER the weight of Pre-Budget Report analysis and the brouhaha over bonuses, one question went largely unanswered: has Labour become anti-business?

When the party was restored to power in 1997 after 18 years of self-harm and looney left rhetoric, it stormed into Downing Street eager to embrace the City and the emerging entrepreneurs around the country who it hoped would help build a new Britain.

During those early years of plenty when the boom seemed destined to last longer than a childhood summer, the party encouraged light touch regulation and sponsored ideas and creativity. Significantly, it fostered a laissez-faire relationship with the new wealth in London's East End that was allowed to flourish unfettered by old-style Labour restrictions.

Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling were not exactly hewn from the Red Robbo school of Labour's left wing so it was no surprise that they cherished their new friends in the City. But party traditionalists warned that it wouldn't last and have seen those friends in high places let them down. So what do they do next?

Last week's PBR is probably an unjust measure of Labour's current attitude to business as it was more of an acceptance speech by a condemned man than a manifesto for recovery. Even so, anyone in business was left in no doubt that when the going gets tough the Labour party can always rely on it to provide a source of tax receipts.

The People's Flag may no longer fly so high over Labour HQ, but the banking crisis and the widespread outrage at greed and incompetence has given the party its last chance at redemption among its core supporters. Hence, the imposition of a higher tax for the top earners, a promise to clamp down on the bonus culture and a series of inquiries and recommendations by City grandees, instigated by the Treasury, in an attempt to bring the guilty men to justice.

But does it wash and is it targeted at the right people? Well, it is not just those in lofty positions in the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf who have been targeted. In fact, they're almost certain to get away with their misdemeanours, courtesy of their teams of lawyers and accountants able to find sufficient loopholes in Labour's tax plans to make sure they do.

In the final analysis, Darling and his Treasury chums realise they can't penalise the City too much as they'll be left with no economy at all. He avoided the really tough decisions on capital gains tax and presented only a half-hearted attempt to tackle the bonus issue. Thankfully, he avoided the temptation to get tough immediately. Deferring the pain until the agony of the recession is over was the right thing to do.

But keeping the City sweet is one thing. Our analysis today on page 5 indicates that it is ordinary businessmen facing a national insurance hike and a lack of incentives for growth who'll really be paying for the mess we're in.

Radical plans needed for Royal Mail

HOW much longer can Royal Mail withstand the pressures of privatisation? Or, to put it another way, how long can any government let it continue without realising the value in the business? Figures published last week showed a 4 per cent rise in half-year operating profits, but only on the back of a £2 billion modernisation programme which was hailed as a positive result but in reality was another way of saying that deep cuts were behind the upturn.

Modernisation may have been long overdue and desirable but disguised the fact that revenue and volumes fell. What's more, they will continue to fall as more transactions take place electronically, cheques are phased out by the banks and more people make contact through mobiles, social networking sites and so on.

Chief executive Adam Crozier is also looking at a £10bn hole in the pension fund, a sharp rise on the £3.4bn deficit just three years ago.

With £434m slipping out of the kitty to help pay for 5,000 redundancies and other costs, the business is paying heavily for its change-or-die programme.

Royal Mail has long been a candidate for privatisation but it remains a business trying to move with the times while shackled to a workforce that seems intent on self-destruction.

It needs to be released from such chains in order to raise capital on the markets.

Given the parlous state of the public finances, its reliance on government funding cannot last much longer.

The key for Royal Mail management is taking the postal workers with them as they pursue more radical plans for the future.

[dvbuk55]

"Royal Mail has long been a candidate for privatisation but it remains a business trying to move with the times while shackled to a workforce that seems intent on self-destruction."

The odd thing is you never hear our side of the story, the years of 800million+ profits, lack of investment, 13 year pension contribution holiday, moving with the times when asked, even though we have had hardly a pay rise in the last 3 years - it is true to say the victims are not the ones who write the history.

[DirtyHarry]

It'll take more than capping the bonuses of Britain's incompetent bankers, to win back Labour's core support. I don't know anyone who will vote labour at the next general election, they, and I, will be voting for the greens and others.
Why?
Because Labour have done everything, but tell us to sling our hook, we're not wanted anymore.

[DGP1]

The key for Royal Mail management is taking the postal workers with them as they pursue more radical plans for the future.

That would not be what they do now, they should be doing a 'Hearts and Minds' programme and not grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow

[dvbuk55]

The key for Royal Mail management is taking the postal workers with them as they pursue more radical plans for the future.

That would not be what they do now, they should be doing a 'Hearts and Minds' programme and not grab them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow

Well that could be an interesting proposition, for example, just imagine Royal Mail as Heidi Klum and before you know it your head over heels.

[mailman71]

It'll take more than capping the bonuses of Britain's incompetent bankers, to win back Labour's core support. I don't know anyone who will vote labour at the next general election, they, and I, will be voting for the greens and others.
Why?
Because Labour have done everything, but tell us to sling our hook, we're not wanted anymore.

dont want to worry you but having worked under tory goverments in the 70',80' and 90's they make the present labour goverment look like pussies,cameron and co if they get in will smash the unions including us for ever.
some of the younger guys might think i'm being pessimistic but the truth is that the tories hate the working class with a vengance.

[bexhil palace]

It'll take more than capping the bonuses of Britain's incompetent bankers, to win back Labour's core support. I don't know anyone who will vote labour at the next general election, they, and I, will be voting for the greens and others.
Why?
Because Labour have done everything, but tell us to sling our hook, we're not wanted anymore.

dont want to worry you but having worked under tory goverments in the 70',80' and 90's they make the present labour goverment look like pussies,cameron and co if they get in will smash the unions including us for ever.
some of the younger guys might think i'm being pessimistic but the truth is that the tories hate the working class with a vengance.

Sadly mate so do NEW LABOUR.

[Tman]

dont want to worry you but having worked under tory goverments in the 70',80' and 90's they make the present labour goverment look like pussies,cameron and co if they get in will smash the unions including us for ever.
some of the younger guys might think i'm being pessimistic but the truth is that the tories hate the working class with a vengance.

True though it is, you can't go around saying things like that. You should be spouting the "Vote Green" or "South Ruislip Popular SWP" or Scottish Nationalist or some other such vote-wasting bunch of no-hopers.

Good ol' Gordy will be seen as a benevolent Father Christmas when Dave and the Boys are back in town. Even more so when he/they respond to the drip-drip-drip negativity that Something Must Be Done About RM....

[baldrick]

But at least the Union leaders might put up a bit more of a fight against
a Conservative Government, instead of rolling over and accepting everything
New Labour inflicts on us.

[Big Daz]

But at least the Union leaders might put up a bit more of a fight against
a Conservative Government, instead of rolling over and accepting everything
New Labour inflicts on us.

That sums it up perfectley. It's because union leaders are so scared of a Conservative Government that New Labour have got away with their crap for so long.

[Tman]

But at least the Union leaders might put up a bit more of a fight against
a Conservative Government, instead of rolling over and accepting everything
New Labour inflicts on us.

Problem there is that the unions no longer have the will or even the power to put up much of a fight, and Dave's boys will see it as their necessary duty to do everything in thier power to weaken the unions' power even further. I think you're in fantasy land if you believe that suddenly all these union leaders will put up "more of a fight".

That sums it up perfectley. It's because union leaders are so scared of a Conservative Government that New Labour have got away with their crap for so long

.

New Labour have been in since 1997, and for most of that time the Conservatives looked like the unelectable no-hopers they were. Are you really saying union leaders during this period were so scared of this bunch of marginalised wannabes they were prepared to go along with anything New Labour proposed? Hmm, right.....

[ziko]

Vote Labour if you want to keep your job. Conservative and Lib Dem both will Privatise RM in a flash - you will be left standing outside jobcentre.

[Big Daz]

Vote Labour if you want to keep your job. Conservative and Lib Dem both will Privatise RM in a flash - you will be left standing outside jobcentre.

Remind me again of the offical policy of the New Labour government?

[ExSG]

Exactly, Big Daz, supported and exalted by Mandy and Alan Johnson

Who'd have thought it?

[DirtyHarry]

dont want to worry you but having worked under tory goverments in the 70',80' and 90's they make the present labour goverment look like pussies,cameron and co if they get in will smash the unions including us for ever.
some of the younger guys might think i'm being pessimistic but the truth is that the tories hate the working class with a vengance.

I've no doubt you're right about Cameron and his gang of hooray-Henrys, but New Liebour have been a right pain in the arse to postal workers, and have no doubt whatsoever, kissed goodbye to what should have been nailed-on votes.
I was a Labour voter all my life, but in all conscience, I cannot see a difference between them and the Tories as regards their obvious contempt for workers, so cannot give them my vote.