No to Royal Mail privatisation – Rob McArdle speaks out

Rob McArdle with Dave Nellist

The following letter was published in the Coventry Telegraph – it was written by Socialist campaigner Rob McArdle

Selling off Royal Mail might bring short term gains for shareholders and the government, but it is customers who will lose out in the long term.

We have seen the same happen with energy and rail price hikes following privatisation.

More and more people now
think that the rail and energy companies should be brought back into public ownership, with the bosses being held to account.

In the coming years Royal Mail will tell us how it can no longer afford the daily delivery to 29 million homes and businesses. Jobs will be cut and services withdrawn, while shareholders and institutions enjoy siphoning off the profits in the form of dividends.

I have always been proud to work for the public Royal Mail, because we provide a valuable service. How long before our postal service becomes foreign owned? How many years before you have to collect your mail from a box far your home? No wonder the government rushed through the sell-off, they know 70 per cent of the public opposed Royal Mail privatisation.

Robert McArdle,

(Postal worker),

Binley Road, Coventry.