Letters: Bonus for private sector as coalition delivers up Royal Mail

Ha-Joon Chang (The new fat cats, 10 July) notes the negative aspects of outsourcing in what he calls the age of irresponsibility. An additional issue is that there is a marginal cost to the economy that is not factored in when outsourcing public services, namely the diversion of finance and human effort from the more difficult but necessary business of developing products and services to sell overseas. It is easy money for the corporate businesses, with no competition and long contracts. The real competition, the public servants, are removed from “the market”, ensuring a never-ending cash flow for services that do not need to be in the private sector. A Labour government should ensure that the private sector has to make its money in the real world of international trade.
Bob Nicholson
Frodsham, Cheshire

• Why on earth is our government so timid about its central conviction? Why stop at the NHS and Royal Mail? The market is, according to current creed, the best provider of services and can even make a profit out of them. Why not the armed forces? The number of botched contracts mismanaged by the MoD are too numerous to mention. Selling off the army, navy and RAF might raise a few eyebrows, but look at the benefits. Instead of sitting around bored and doing nothing most of the time, they could be hired out for profit. It could be made mandatory for the new company to properly compensate members of their workforce when they do get injured while employed. There are now about 20 armed conflicts in progress in various parts of the world. Why not a Union Jack (Ltd) flying over all the front lines?
Bruce Kent
London

• 10 July will go down as another day to bury bad news: the details of the sell-off of Royal Mail (Report, 10 July), amid the furore over Labour’s links to the unions. And the next trap for Ed Miliband is will Labour support the CWU if they take industrial action? Postal workers are being offered shares which they can’t sell for three years, by which time they may be worth nothing. And to further sweeten the workforce they have been offered a substantial pay rise, again over three years. How many jobs will have been lost by then?
Dr Graham Ullathorne
Chesterfield, Derbyshire

• Aided and abetted by the Lib Dems, the Tories continue their destruction of our national institutions. This time the City sharks await the sale of the Royal Mail, while the taxpayer picks up the tab for the pension deficit and the workers are bribed by the windfall of £2,000. After privatisation, will the Queen’s head remain on the stamps?
Jake Fagg
Bristol

• Post workers pay, conditions and pensions will be targeted and who will benefit? Just a few of the elite at the top. Services to rural areas will be curtailed. In the longer term, this will increase the need for benefits as more …read more