I discussed the potential sale of the Royal Mail to a Czech billionaire here, recently.
Now the Guardian has reported that Labour's Jonathan Reynolds - who might be business secretary in a Starmer government - has opined, reporting that:
Jonathan Reynolds, the shadow business secretary, who met Křetínský at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, has turned his back on union calls for renationalisation.
Reynolds said the Czech's assurances that Royal Mail would “retain its British identity and safeguard its workforce” were welcome, indicating he is minded to wave through the takeover should Labour win the election.
What more should we expect from Labour? That they were always going to be willing to sell out to the highest bidder, whatever the issue, has been clear from the way they have managed themselves in Opposition. We can only expect the same from them in government.
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Thank you and well said, Richard.
Another stage on the sell out was when Labour made a song and dance about attending Davos and criticised Sunak for not going.
Jonathan Reynolds hasn’t explicitly stated that Labour would give the takeover the green light if they form the next government. He said that Křetínský’ comments on safeguarding Royal Mail’s workforce and retaining its identity were welcomed. I can’t imagine he really believes that Křetínský won’t be looking to make ‘efficiency’ savings, if he is allowed to buy it. Let’s wait and see…
Probably B.Liar and Mandelson giving a helping hand, asset stripping, and a husk left. That is what the future offers.
In previous posts I have suggested that LINO is not patriotic. However, looking back over 40 years, there is a clear case, against both tory and LINO that they are traitors, in the literal meaning of the word. They have, knowlngly, betrayed their country and the well being of its inhabitants. Furthermore, it is clear, Streeting & now Reynolds will continue with this line of action. Traitors all of them.
Not Great Britain but Great Baksheesh! The people are stupid for putting up with it for so long!
Westminster is awash with money as a search of the Westminster Accounts shows. We hear of the donations to political parties, to MPs or to their office, but what’s overlooked are the donations to the All Party Parliamentary Groups. How all of these donations are used is opaque to say the least.
In the Parliament just finished Reynolds declared gifts, payments and other benefits which amount to the equivalent of approximately £68,650. The value of his declarations puts him in the top 25 per cent of all MPs.
Reynolds is a member 11 APPGs which has to report donations above £1,500. Four of the APPGs received no donations, the other seven Reynolds is or has been a member or an officer of, have collectively taken in the equivalent of £580,800. I find the Westminster Accounts a useful way to keep up with what MPs and the Westminster set are up to.
https://news.sky.com/story/westminster-accounts-search-for-your-mp-or-enter-your-full-postcode-12771627
And as you suggest, if you look closely the timing of policy change announcements, the it all starts to look very grubby.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/labour-party-google-youtube-digital-services-tax-keir-starmer-jonathan-reynolds/
Politics USA-style is well and truly here, and the power basically lies with the corporate interests to which both parties have clearly sold out.
But what is the solution? We can analyse this to heck but analysis does not change things (but here comes a bit more).
In a previous reply to a post a little while ago, I suggested that what’s needed is a strong Left/Centre-Left individual to take up the cudgel and start making the right noises. A Thatcher figure was my analogy. I think I was wrong. The most influential politician of the past 20-30 years or so, as suggested by Max Hastings in Prospect a few issues ago, is – begging your pardon – Nigel Farage. What’s needed is someone like him on the Left to make noises and generate the required anger about this situation – corporate influence over Politics via funding (and cushy jobs post-Parliament), NHS privatisation, Covid PPE scandals, privatised utilities ripping us off and filling our watercourses with p*ss and sh*t that they can’t be bothered to treat properly,… The list could go on a long time. The process would be seriously hampered by the very Right-wing press that we have in this country.
Where is that person? I don’t see them anywhere.
One additional problem, of course, is that the Labour left has been purged. When Farage started making noise, he had, ready and waiting, a very Right-wing faction in the Tory party to take up the issue in Parliament. No such thing on the Left any more. Grrrr……
HI Nigel,
I don’t think it is Farage himself, that is the power, but rather, as was pointed out on another entry, Murdoch, BBC and the rest of the media being behind him. A left wing version would get no air time except for ad hominin attacks and denigration (see Corbyn).
The solution is to deal with the seat of power, the media, first. Corbyn had a way which was the large rallies to bypass the filtering. I fail to see why the Greens are not doing this, as Corbyn was never a great speaker, but his message was. All Corbyn lacked was support from others, prepared to speak out.
Regards
If you published a policy from Labour or a comment without indicating which party it came from, I suspect many people would attribute it to the Conservatives. They are pretty well identical today in policy terms. The danger is that with authoritarian instincts and a large majority, Labour will think it has a divine right to do as it wishes.
Agreed
Can we stop calling it donations? Surely it would be more accurate to call it sponsorship?
Donations are made to charity and you do not expect anything back. Sponsorship on the other hand……..