The damage done to the British postal service by EU rules gets worse. The Government report warning that our "universal postal service" is at risk because, under EU postal services directives, Royal Mail has lost the most lucrative part of its business to 19 private companies, turning its hefty profits into a £279 million loss.
.
Now we learn that 3,000 more post offices may have to close, if the £1 billion-a-year contract to handle pensions and benefits payments goes to a rival company under EU procurement directives that require such public contracts to be put out to tender.
Now we learn that 3,000 more post offices may have to close, if the £1 billion-a-year contract to handle pensions and benefits payments goes to a rival company under EU procurement directives that require such public contracts to be put out to tender.
.
Under the same rules, the Post Office has already lost contracts worth £168 million a year for handling television and driving licences, which is why it now needs £150 million a year from the taxpayer to survive. Even this much state support had to be pleaded for in Brussels by the Government, as we can see from a European Commission letter of last November, graciously permitting it to pay this subsidy under EU "state aid" rules
Under the same rules, the Post Office has already lost contracts worth £168 million a year for handling television and driving licences, which is why it now needs £150 million a year from the taxpayer to survive. Even this much state support had to be pleaded for in Brussels by the Government, as we can see from a European Commission letter of last November, graciously permitting it to pay this subsidy under EU "state aid" rules
.
First the EU orders us to sell off all the bits of our postal service that make a profit. Then we have to go to Brussels on bended knee for permission to subsidise the resulting losses. It is hardly surprising that our postal regulator, Postcomm, was last week proposing that Royal Mail should be partly privatised, as the only way to get round these "state aid" rules. But who would want to buy shares in a business that the EU is doing its utmost to ensure can only be run at a loss?
First the EU orders us to sell off all the bits of our postal service that make a profit. Then we have to go to Brussels on bended knee for permission to subsidise the resulting losses. It is hardly surprising that our postal regulator, Postcomm, was last week proposing that Royal Mail should be partly privatised, as the only way to get round these "state aid" rules. But who would want to buy shares in a business that the EU is doing its utmost to ensure can only be run at a loss?
3 comments:
Are you really sure that you aren't a 51st state? not of the USA but of Europe. The reason that I ask is because you are now getting involved in the bassackward type of red tape bureaucracy that exists in the US with about as much effectiveness also. Pretty soon it will be easier for me to visit the UK becasue the pound to dollar ratio will be in my favour. Not that I want the UK to change or anything but it is fast being taken over by europe so that possibility doesn't seem that far off.
How nice to see your comments back again on this Very British of Blogs. Ware and have been a Member Sate of the European Union for some time. Very few of Her Majesty's loyal Subjects have any idea of how we are now goverend, not as manny assume from Westminster but by the EU.
By the way Kelly does that offer of lecturing at your Univ still stand? I will be State side shortly. Please let me know, I have lost your email address.
yeah you could lecture them on how to be a complete waster, like yourself.
Post a Comment