Ritual killing by post

The postmen might well have voted to inflict a blow on the Royal Mail from which it could well never recover and the media have been quick to point the finger at the posties.

But there is an unwritten rule in industrial relations that when you have appalling management you will create unreasonable behaviour by trade unions. It is cause and effect, action and reaction.

The management of Royal Mail have been working towards a New Labour agenda to flog the profitable parts off to private enterprise, most likely German or Dutch, at a song. That would have provided plenty of handsomely paid jobs for ex-ministers, senior civil servants and Royal Mail top dogs and at the same time ensured the taxpayer was left funding the non-profitable and loss making parts of the postal service.

Why there was any need to break the monopoly of the postal service in the first place was a mystery to me. Most countries see the post as an essential service but then again service is not something New Labour is good at.

When the greed bubble burst and the banks went belly up and the few members of the proper Labour party left on the New Labour benches threatened a revolt, the Royal Mail part privatisation - i.e. sell the bits that make any money to chums in Europe or the city - did not seem so rosy.

The postmen have suffered years of cuts, savings, efficiencies, threats of sell offs and have seen a total disregard for customers by those in charge - hands up anyone who asked for one delivery a day sometime after lunch or for parcels that don't get delivered because management won't sanction vans.

The postmen have had enough. We might all suffer as a result and the Royal Mail could suffer the most. But stop and ask why they have become the most belligerent union in the country? The answer is probably nearer Royal Mail HQ and Downing Street than your local sorting office.