The Scottish Greens set out plans for the next Scottish Parliament to protect Royal Mail in Scotland from the privatisation planned by UK Ministers.
Greens will seek to open negotiations with UK Ministers with the objective of retaining the Royal Mail's Scottish operations in public hands. The sell-off is expected to price Royal Mail at £4bn, and although no separate valuation has been made of the organisation's Scottish operations, the party estimates a figure around £400m might be a reasonable expectation. The Greens would seek to spread the final cost over a number of years.
The party also plans to support the post office network by making them into "one stop shops" for access to a wider range of public services and agencies, and to help social enterprises to take over post offices threatened with closure using a similar approach to the Third Sector Enterprise Fund, a £12m fund Green MSPs secured from Scottish Ministers in 2008. These moves would help protect and enhance postal services in Scotland from the Coalition's privatisation agenda.
The policy was launched yesterday outside the recently-closed Crosshill Post Office in Glasgow by Patrick Harvie, the party's co-convenor and top candidate in Glasgow, and Veronika Tudhope, Green candidate for the Central Scotland region and herself a postal worker.
Patrick Harvie said:
"Labour, the Tories and the Lib Dems all stand outside threatened post offices, pledging their undying support for local communities, but all three have backed this obscene privatisation. Attempting to sell off the Royal Mail is a mistake of historic proportions by the Westminster government and their predecessors, and one that most people remain unaware of.
"The next Scottish Parliament must not let the Royal Mail's Scottish operation be sold off to the private sector without a whimper. After the election, Scottish Ministers should urgently open talks with their UK counterparts to ensure Scottish services are retained in public hands.
"Make no mistake, this will not be simple, nor will it be cheap, but the alternative is a Scotland where yet another vital public service is gutted for short-term profit and where access to public services through post offices continues to decline. The universal service itself will also be threatened. UK Ministers must be put under pressure to change course - and if Scotland doesn't ask it certainly won't get.
"This continued ideological obsession with privatisation by the UK Government threatens the universal and affordable provision of postal services across Scotland, and we will not stand by and watch that happen. Green MSPs will also support social enterprises who want to take over threatened post offices, helping to build viable businesses with 'one-stop' access to a wider range of public services and agencies. That's where the long term future lies for our postal network."
Veronika Tudhope said:
"Tory and Lib Dem Ministers believe the Royal Mail is nothing but a commercial operation, and they misunderstand the crucial social role that postal services have in society. The public were never asked if they wanted the postal network to be treated as a business like any other rather than as the public service it really is. Even those Ministers driving this privatisation must know how unpopular it is.
"Keeping small post offices open and helping them thrive will ensure that people living in rural communities have the same rights of access to public services that people expect in our biggest cities. They support local regeneration and local enterprise, and keep people coming into their local high streets. They're relied upon by the most vulnerable in Scottish society, carers, people with disabilities and those on low incomes. It's not just about selling stamps. The network must be retained in public hands, and it must be cherished."
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The Scottish Greens yesterday also pledged an additional £950m for public transport over the next session of the Scottish Parliament. An extra £650m will be allocated to public transport infrastructure, including new and reopened railway stations, further rail electrification, park & ride facilities, and active travel like walking and cycling. The party also proposes spending £300m to keep rail and bus fares down across Scotland, and Greens will support plans to develop a non-profit body capable of bidding for the Scotrail franchise in 2014. Prior to vaunching the party's public transport manifesto will be launched today by Mark Ruskell, the party's top candidate for Mid Scotland and Fife, said: "The car is king for every other party at Holyrood, but Greens will work to turn Parliament's priorities around and invest £650m in a modern public transport network fit for the twenty-first century. For too long, public transport projects have languished on the shelf while public money is squandered on an endless series of vanity motorway projects. It's time to reopen old stations at places like Newburgh and Blackford, to back the modernisation and extension of Glasgow's Subway network, to get on and build Crossrail projects in Glasgow and Aberdeen, and to reopen Edinburgh's South Suburban Line. "By the end of the next Parliament, at least ten percent of the Scottish transport budget should also be supporting cycling and walking. These are very affordable projects that can be delivered quickly, and they don't just help our environment, they support a healthier and happier Scotland too.Related posts: