Summary
LORD MANDELSON'S admission that the Government may delay plans to part-privatise Royal Mail is a foretaste of the Prime Minister's coming difficulties. The legislation had been timetabled for next month but with only a few weeks left before Parliament recesses and fierce backbench opposition to the plans, it seems ministers may have lost their nerve. That does not bode well for the new direction which the Gordon Brown will today attempt to set for the Government's approach to public services.
The privatisation of Royal Mail should be a relatively minor issue but it has assumed a much greater political importance. Royal Mail is in a mess, its pension obligations overwhelming and its ability to modernise severely limited. Privatised or not, though, it is hardly a make-or-break election issue. The danger for Mr Brown, in the wake of a catastrophic few months, was that a Commons vote would turn into a chance for disgruntled backbenchers to flex their muscles, thereby precipitating yet more wobbles over his leadership. He now appears to have decided that it is better to be accused of a U-turn now than face another full-blown crisis as he heads into the dog days of summer.See the full content of this document
Extract
Gordon Brown's new promises are empty
Instead, the PM today launches his plans for the NHS, and implicitly p...
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