Royal Mail

Lord Fowler Excerpts

Wednesday 10th July 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Fowler]

My Lords, my noble friend referred to this as being the biggest employee share scheme following privatisation for almost 30 years. The last one was that of the National Freight Corporation, which I handled myself. Perhaps I may remind my noble friend that the reaction on the Labour Benches and of the unions was exactly the same on the NFC as it is today to the Post Office, although I do not think that anyone would now remotely argue against the NFC.

Although I congratulate the Government on this decision, does my noble friend not feel that it is a great pity that it was not taken 25 or 30 years ago? Does he realise that if it had been, at this point, Royal Mail might have been leading in the international carriage of parcels rather than leaving it to the German post office to take that advantage? It is an enormous lesson for us, so perhaps I urge my noble friend that privatisation should come back on to the Government’s agenda. A number of other companies could be privatised—here I am thinking in particular of BBC Worldwide. That would be to the benefit of the public and of the people who are working for it.