COMMENT: Why bail-out banks and not the Mail? (From Worcester News)

COMMENT: Why bail-out banks and not the Mail?

7:10am Friday 27th February 2009 in Local

THE utter recklessness that has brought the banking industry and the economies of the world to their knees was brought into sharp focus by the Royal Bank of Scotland’s eye-watering losses.

RBS, already part-nationalised, may end up being almost entirely owned by the taxpayer after it revealed a 2008 loss of £24.1 billion – the biggest loss in corporate history.

The scale of the loss will dumbfound ordinary people who have investments or mortgage accounts with the bank.

RBS has already taken £20 billion in public funds. Now there are plans for a further £25.5 billion investment from the taxpayer.

The huge amount of public money being used to bail out RBS and other banks is bad enough. But hard-working families are paying a second high price in job losses and home repossessions as a direct result of the greedy, reckless behaviour of those who have run the banks and the lack of effective regulation from government. The Government’s strategy with regard to the banking industry – effectively a nationalisation programme – appears to be directly at odds to its proposals for the Royal Mail. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson yesterday unveiled the much-heralded plans to part-privatise the Royal Mail.

Quite why public money can shore up the banks but not the postal service is difficult to fathom.

The Royal Mail plan is hugely controversial and threatens a full-scale revolt against the Government by its own MPs, despite some of the pledges made yesterday.

The bail-out of the banks and the sell-off of the Royal Mail add more weight to the crises that are slowly dragging this Government under and making it increasingly unelectable.