Royal Mail set for share flotation

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

Excellent; like Thatcher never croaked.
Very generous to give the mere workers 10% of the shares, tar very much...

Ministers are expected to announce further details of the privatisation of Royal Mail later.
The government is expected to press ahead with its plan for a share flotation, possibly by the autumn.
The sale is likely to value the business at £2bn-£3bn, and at least 10% of shares will be set aside for postal workers.
Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are overwhelmingly opposed to the privatisation.
Ministers are expected to say that selling shares on the stock market has been chosen over selling off the business to a private operator.
Companies such as TNT and DHL had been suggested as possible buyers.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Business Minister Michael Fallon said the time was now right to "free up" Royal Mail and give it access to private capital that would allow it to grow.
"It's been turned round in the last two or three years, and it's ready now to be a successful commercial business," he said.

(BBC News- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23249466)

[Brutus]

Shit. My hate for the Tory party has grown so deep that it would be an under-exaggeration to compare it to an abyss of hate.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Business Minister Michael Fallon said the time was now right to "free up" Royal Mail and give it access to private capital that would allow it to grow.
"It's been turned round in the last two or three years, and it's ready now to be a successful commercial business," he said.Speaking on BBC Radio 4 today as Neoliberalism personified.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

what's so annoying is that its completely illogical even by their neoliberal standards. the whole austerity programme has been based on the deficit myth, even if they sold the royal mail for £billion, the deficit would hardly even change in real figures.

we know its all a lie and the whole point of these economics is to sell off public services to private companies. capitalism has never been as audacious as it is currently, marx would die all over again if he could see it.

[Ceallach_the_Witch]

What really worries me is how brazenly they're announcing plans to cut and privatise respected, much-used public institutions these days - and moreover, in face of overwhelming opposition from the people the government apparently represent.

[RebelDog]

Business Minister Michael Fallon said the time was now right to "free up" Royal Mail and give it access to private capital that would allow it to grow.

We 'free up' things in Britain my transferring their ownership and control to undemocratic private institutions.

[Dennis the 'Bloody Peasant']

We 'free up' things in Britain my transferring their ownership and control to undemocratic private institutions.

Well, of course, that's the definition of 'free' (freedom = private ownership). How can we expect to live in a nation of freedom and liberty if every resource and service isn't in the hands of private interests? We'd all be speaking German / Russian / Chinese if it wasn't for private enterprise! Long live freedom, long live Farage!

*vomits blood*

:(
Anyways, not looking forward to TNT or their ilk handling my post.

[Brutus]

There was a show on about TNT couriers- anyone could nick the bike or the mail ( what was in a bag which had been left open, attached to the bike).

Feck off my mail, you greedy capitalist fucks!

[rednordman]

This is actually a rather sad day to be British really, in fact even a few from the opposite side of the scale will probably see the sadness in it too. That's because it really is more obvious than ever that the Tories cannot comprehend the notion of a public service at all.

Even if the royal mail made shit loads of profit, they would still make it there lives mission to sell it off. But more seriously, we simply are not allowed as a people/nation to do anything at all for the common good, or to benefit everyone. A postal service is just that. Is it really all that necessary to have shit loads of different companies all trying to rip us off discreetly? Is it totally paramount that we have a hurricane of choice...for just a postal service?..so this is where we have ended up:-/

[Brutus]

This is actually a rather sad day to be British really

That's every day.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

More smash-and-grab bullshit from the braying herd of sociopathic kleptocrats that call themselves our political and business elite.

Fucking shit!

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I like how they gloat about the fact that they are privatizing it right after it's been made into an efficient body. If it's inefficient, privatize it to make it efficient. If it's efficient, privatize it to make it profitable.



we know its all a lie and the whole point of these economics is to sell off public services to private companies. capitalism has never been as audacious as it is currently, marx would die all over again if he could see it.

Or Marx would see it as a compelling reason to write Vols. IV-VI

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

I like how they gloat about the fact that they are privatizing it right after it's been made into an efficient body. If it's inefficient, privatize it to make it efficient. If it's efficient, privatize it to make it profitable.


A classic method. When the Japanese state railways were unprofitable, a number of calls were made for it to be privatised. Surely a private company would make everything great, right? So, in order to do this, by 1982 the corrupt nutjob Nakasone government set out to begin the preparations for the future privatisation, by cutting unprofitable services hither thither and frighting the strong and often radical Kokutetsu union; eventually, by 1984, the railways were overall profitable. This assured, the privatisation process sped up, and in 1987 the state railways was split into regional private companies owned by the state. This created some issues, as the newly created fragmented bodies were not on the whole profitable.

During the first official stage of the privatisation, almost all the debt of the state railways accumulated during the expansion projects (new high-speed lines and quadrupling of many suburban commuter routes in the 1960's and 70's, which were all very costly due to land acquisition costs in particular) and yearly net losses was transferred to a separate company.

The three primary companies serving the highly populated metropolitan areas in central and eastern Honshu became profitable enough to allow a floating of their shares in the early 2000's. The remaining 3 regional companies and the goods service company created by the privatisation remain unprofitable and have thus remained in state ownership. Service cuts and route closures are continuing across the board to increase profitability.

In the late 2000's, the company that kept the debt (which essentially assured the profitability of any company) was liquidated and the debt it had simply converted into the national state debt. To assure the success of the privatisation model, in other words, Kokutetsu was privatised once it attained profitability, and to make sure that not all the new companies became unprofitable, the state bailed them out generously. This is a common method.