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For a reminder of what life used to be like in Britain under the nationalised industries, it is necessary only to study the working methods of the Royal Mail. Never mind the brief flirtation with the name ‘Consignia’ and the affectation ‘Post Office Ltd’ — the Royal Mail is a state-owned monolith through and through. It is ‘limited’ only in the sense that it operates with limited efficiency and limited common sense. The abolition of the second post was not proposed by businessmen, or even by management consultants, but by Labour party drudges in the Prime Minister’s ‘Policy and Innovation Unit’ back in 1999. It is just as it was in the days when civil servants in Whitehall decided when and how often rail passengers should travel from Aberdeen to Inverness, and when a government appointee determined that what British motorists needed was an Austin Allegro with a square steering wheel.
In some ways, a poor postal service matters less now than it did in the 1970s. In many cases, businesses and private individuals are able to resort to email rather than the postal service; the fact that the Royal Mail website was not available as we went to press gives an indication of what life on the Internet would be like if the postmen had a monopoly on electronic communications as well as paper ones. But it is not good enough to say that we don’t need the post as much as we once did. For legal purposes, a letter is often still required. Mail order companies need to get their catalogues and goods to their customers. Romantics still need to smudge the ink on their lovers’ letters with salty tears. That the Post Office continues to enjoy a monopoly on the delivery of letters costing less than £1 is absurd. At present in Britain you can legally make money from distributing sadomasochistic porn, yet charge 99p to courier a letter half a mile across the City of London and you face being hauled before the courts.
Fortunately, this situation will not last much longer. On 1 April 2007 postal services will be entirely deregulated. No more shall grannies longing for their birthday cards be left gazing in envy at the Fed-Ex van as it buzzes past on its way to deliver a piece of business post; in future it, and not the slovenly postman, might be bringing our post. More to the point, if we get fed up with Fed-Ex, there will be half a dozen other postal services from which to choose.
Praise for the European Union does not often emanate from this page, but it is only fair that credit be granted to the composers of EU directive number 97/67 EC on the liberalisation of community postal services. That it has taken the EU rather than our own politicians to end the postal monopoly is a sad reflection on the misplaced respect still shown towards the unions by our leaders.
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