Public Ownership Of Royal Mail

EDM number 364 in 2008-09, proposed by Dai Davies on 18/12/2008.
Categorised under the topic of Postal services.

That this House believes that Royal Mail is an integral part of the postal network and a service that must remain in public ownership; considers that, at a time when the Government has spent huge amounts of public money nationalising certain banks, it is inconceivable that Ministers are now considering selling off another part of the British industrial `Crown Jewels'; notes the poor track record of foreign companies taking over former public services including some rail, water and power production and distribution companies; further notes with alacrity the very damaging recent failures of the private American company ETS in the shambles it made of the marking of SATS test examinations; further notes that when the hon. Member for Dundee West resigned his post as parliamentary private secretary to the Minister for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs on 17 December 2008, following the Ministerial Statements made to Parliament on the part-privatisation of the postal service, he asserted it `beggars belief' that the private Dutch company TNT could be brought in to advise Royal Mail on its operations; further believes that there is a need to reform the postal service but that this should start at the top and not at the sharp end; agrees with the comment by the Communications Workers' Union General Secretary, Billy Hayes, that `the majority of decent politicians and the general public are fed up with privatisation'; and calls on the Government to reverse its decision to implement the privatisation proposals of the Hooper Review of postal services.

This motion has been signed by a total of 32 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.