Privatising national services is no monkey's business, it calls for much insight and brain storming as any decision pertaining to this will affect citizens at large especially the less financially able citizens and even The middle class due to spiralling cost of living. Another factor to be considered is what's the goal of privatisation and how it will improve services especially it's delivery system.
I must say that in most cases, national service is best left to the government. One may look into the steps taken by the then prime minister Dr.Mahathir Mohamad when he decided to privatise national services in Malaysia. It can be transformed into semi-government controlled instead of fully privatising it. This subject matter calls for indepth planning and foresight as this will affect the country as a whole, hence the ultimate result at the ballot box!
The UK's Labour government's move to place this subject matter on 'hold' is a good move for now before they embark on an indepth research and strategy. A decision such as this made overnight, can be very fatal!
Robert Peston of the BBC writes,
It looks to me, from the manifesto, as if Labour has completely dropped its commitment to privatise Royal Mail in whole or part.
Royal Mail would stay in the public sector under Labour. The CWU union, big donors to Labour, have won that battle.
Update 1220: Labour's policy on the privatisation of Northern Rock will be seen by many as facing in two contradictory directions.
On the one hand, Labour would encourage "as one option" a so-called "mutual solution", or turning the reconstructed Rock back into a building society owned by members.
One the other hand, it wants the deal to generate "maximum value-for-money for the taxpayer".
These two ambitions are - on the face of it - completely incompatible.
Mutualising the Rock would involve giving it to the banks' current savers and borrowers.
Even if some way could be found for the Rock's customers to pay something for the Rock, it stretches credulity to breaking point that this would raise as much as a sale to another bank or even a stock-market flotation.
Many will say that Labour can't have it both ways - that it must choose between maximising the return for tax-payers or mutualising the Rock.
By, Robert Peston of BBC.
The BBC's business editor.
