Royal Mail, another turn

I did not write this but a kindly fellow over at ConHome did. It needs to reiterated again and again and again...

Other companies DO compete with Royal Mail - that's what the EU's "liberalisation", Directives 97/67/EC and 2002/39/EC, is about:

http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l24166.htm

"The development and improvement of the quality of Community postal services"

There are now 25 licensed postal operators in the UK:

http://www.psc.gov.uk/licensed-postal-operators.html

and guess how many of them have the obligation to provide a universal service?

That's right: just one postal operator, Royal Mail, has that written into the terms of its licence.

And guess how many of them have their prices fixed by an external regulator?

That's right: just one again, Royal Mail.

And guess how many of them are required to sort and deliver mail on behalf of competitors, for a charge which barely covers the cost, or is below cost?

That's right: just one again, Royal Mail.

So if we're going to have free competition, shouldn't that also be fair competition?

That is, with all 25 of the licensed postal operators having the same terms in their licences.

Rather than having 24 operators who can adjust their own prices, while the 25th can't; and who are free from a costly social obligation which is imposed solely on the 25th; and who are even allowed to parasitise the (publicly owned) facilities of the 25th for their (private) profit.

And if the EU doesn't like this, tell them to push off and stop interfering with every last thing in our country:

But they'll only be happy when they've wrecked all the national postal services across the EU and replaced them with a Federal European Post Office - which like as not will be owned by the state, ie by the EU state.

Which is, of course, why a eurofanatic Business Secretary, and a eurofanatic Shadow Business Secretary, both want to see an end to Royal Mail.