Your privatisation’s in the post

It may have taken 77 years for a Brit to put the Wimbledon Men’s Singles title voodoo to bed, but it’s taken considerably longer for another much-loved British institution – The Royal Mail – to start the journey from public to private ownership.

Image taken from The Daily Telegraph

This week the coalition Government (which still seems an odd thing to write, let alone be ‘governed’ by) announced plans to privatise Royal Mail with a Stock Market flotation. The general concensus seems to be that the privatisation of monolithic, monopolistic, state-owned industries has been positive, transforming stodgy, unfit behemoths into lean, agile and competitive players.

You only need to travel on a train to appreciate how much that industry has changed – mostly for the good. Sure, it’s still pretty expensive but at least the trains run on time and are fit for transporting humans. That certainly wasn’t the case under ‘good old British Rail’. Have you noticed that when people put ‘good old’ in front of something, it’s usually in a disparaging, mocking way? Like the good old north circular, or the good old BBC. Not the good old NHS – yet.

Now it’s the good old Royal Mail’s turn.

Marketing-wise, this is a tricky one.

Traditionalists (and royalists) will point to the word ‘Royal’ and decry the dismantling of another of our cherished institutions. These are the same savvy consumers who bemoaned the collapse of Woolworths, before admitting they hadn’t shopped there since they were 10 and went to Poundland instead.

The Royal Mail, sad to say, has run out of road. The accountants and efficiency bods have no doubt done their best, chopping jobs and pruning costs. Cut any further and they’ll be into the bone.

The privatisation cause is not helped by right wing think tankers (such as the one on Radio 4’s Today this week) who promote the aggressive inevitability of market forces. His line was: “People who live in the country shouldn’t expect to get a daily postal delivery or collection service. And they should expect to pay more for the service they do get. It’s the price they pay for having lovely views.” That last bit is actually what he said, unbelievably.

Come to think of it – PRing a right wing think tank: now that’s a challenge.