Two thirds of the public are opposed to the government's sell off of Royal Mail, with over a third 'strongly opposed', according to a new YouGov poll.
Two thirds of the public are opposed to the government’s sell off of Royal Mail, with over a third ‘strongly opposed’, according to a new YouGov poll.
Interestingly, opposition to privatisation does now break down predictably across party lines.
While a majority of Tory voters oppose the sell off, far larger majorities of Labour, Lib Dem and UKIP voters believe the Royal Mail should not be privatised.
A rejoinder to the view that UKIP voters are merely disillusioned Tories (or even Thatcherites) is perhaps contained in the fact that far more UKIP than Tory supporters are opposed to the sell off .
This also highlights the schism between traditional and liberal conservatism – UKIP supporters tend to be worried about things like tradition whereas Tories of a more Thatcherite bent tend to view everything through the lens of monetary value.
According to YouGov:
Labour, Lib Dem and UKIP supporters oppose the sell-off by majorities of 78 per cent-11 per cent, 72 per cent-17 per cent and 76 per cent-18 per cent, respectively. Conservative voters are less opposed, but still tend to oppose the plans by 48 per cent-40 per cent. Additionally, while only 8 per cent of Conservative voters “strongly support” the sell-off, 20 per cent “strongly oppose” it; among Labour, those who “strongly oppose” outnumber those who “stongly support” it by a ratio of almost 25 to 1.
Yesterday Left Foot Forward gave five reasons why we believe the Royal Mail should remain in public ownership
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8 Responses to “Two thirds of public opposed to Royal Mail sell off, including majority of UKIP supporters”
Redshift1
Why is it most EU states have state-run postal services then?
riverbank
I can’t believe you are so naive, our Government control
very little, if you look close enough to our politicians you will be able to
see the strings the EU pull.
The EU banned our Government from subsidising our Royal Mail,
like it would subsidise services such as schools and hospitals. It was an EU
directive, this was done in the name of competition, and this allows foreign companies to trade in Britain taking 20% of Royal Mail business, although they did nothave to provide the 6 day service RM did.
Although the EU and the Government have been clever enough
to keep any evidence from the public the process follows the usual pattern. TheEU tells the Government what is to happen. The Government then holds an enquiry which then produces a report proposing matching EU laws and hiding the factthat it is an EU project.
Redshift1
You’re conflating two different things now. I didn’t say the EU hadn’t had a negative impact on our state-run postal service, undermining the monopoly.
I said, that it’s rubbish that the EU is forcing us to privatise. If the government had the political will it could keep it 100% state-owned. And the fact that this is the set-up in most EU member-states makes this irrefutable. It is no use blaming the EU on this point.