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Lav_ t1_ixc7fe5 wrote

Here's why I support the public funding of services like royal mail: imagine £682m into the treasury.

And if they didn't want to make a profit, imagine the savings for end users OR better wages for employees.

But nah, privately owned, the users and tax payers don't see any benefit, it's all for the shareholders.

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HeyItsMedz t1_ixdmwg2 wrote

>imagine £682m into the treasury.

Considering the government spent about a trillion last year, it wouldn't even be noticeable (were talking about 0.07% of annual expenditure)

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daviEnnis t1_ixegl8x wrote

That's still significant for something with such a broad scope as the government, every reasonable sum looks like nothing when compared against their total. Hand it to a specific department or venture though..

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PleaseDontMindMeSir t1_ixcpq1u wrote

> Here's why I support the public funding of services like royal mail: imagine £682m into the treasury. > > And if they didn't want to make a profit, imagine the savings for end users OR better wages for employees. > > But nah, privately owned, the users and tax payers don't see any benefit, it's all for the shareholders.

the treasury got £3.3bn from the sale of the shares and the initial offering of shares were sold to UK residents as a preference, and then UK pension funds for most of the rest, with 10% of the company given to employees for free.

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MagicPeacockSpider t1_ixe8z7n wrote

3.3bn on a company that nets 0.7bn a year was a huge rip off.

Most of the shares initially went to Goldman Sachs and other merchant banks and sold onto pension funds at a profit.

The treasury would have been off better holding on to it, we'd be better off buying back.

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bsnimunf t1_ixelz0c wrote

The royal mail has huge pensions liabilities and huge risks going forward. With electronic communication It's no longer an essential public service. I'm generally against privatisation but the government were right to privatise the royal mail it can't be the company it was 30 years ago.

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rlamacraft t1_ixeb4o6 wrote

So we should nationalise all profitable businesses?

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