Mandy in ermine, obsessed with postmen - leader of New Labour, as he might look in Opposition

‘Lord’ Peter Mandelson, former EU Trade Commissioner, now UK Business Secretary and architect of the ‘plan,’ has made little headway in winning them over. He appears oblivious to the damage he is doing by fighting a divisive and largely irrelevant battle for a relatively small amount of privatisation loot in the context of the deep recession and the looming certainty of heavy defeat in the EU elections followed by a General Election. Until recently, Mandelson was pushing hard for an uncontested sale to TNT, part of the former Dutch Post Office KPN Group, but allegations in the UK satirical magazine Private Eye and the Telegraph that TNT executives fraudulently avoided paying a tax bill of at least GBP 150 million to the UK Inland Revenue at the time of the Dutch takeover was the subject of a tabled Parliamentary Question. TNT also attempted to have Royal Mail censured a couple of years back for what it claimed were ‘illegal’ state subsidies. This appears ill-advised in hindsight, given that Royal Mail planned to offload its GBP 8 billion pension liability into the public sector in order to give the illusion of profitability to the postal services division and sweeten the TNT deal. More recently TNT complained to the EU that Germany’s minimum wage laws constituted a barrier to competition against Deutsche Post in the German market – campaigning to abolish the UK minimum wage would guarantee a strike which would cripple, not destroy, what remains of Royal Mail. Holland liberalised postal services on April 9, which explains why the Royal Mail deal was so attractive to TNT, but it will be interesting to see how it fares without a captive home market. There are few other candidates to take on the politically-poisoned chalice of Royal Mail. Deutsche Post, which owns DHL, recently announced losses of EUR 1.69 billion compared to a profit of EUR 1.38 in 2007.

147 Labour MPs have signed a Commons motion condemning plans to sell the Royal Mail minority stake. A rebellion on that scale would leave Brown in the humiliating position of relying on Conservative votes to push the part-privatisation into law. Research by the (left-leaning) think-tank Compass suggests the amount of money the Treasury would raise from the sale has almost halved since last year, claiming a price of £1bn is realistic in the recession but said a minority stake would have fetched an estimated £1.9bn if it had been sold a year ago. Mandelson responded acidly to the Compass claims, clearly still committed to a course of action which, at this price could only benefit one party – TNT – two, if you include the Tories – the government discomfiture would be another gift. Royal Mail, meanwhile, which has been run unremarkably (apart from his vast salary) since 2003 by the Blair-appointed ‘dream team’ of former FA CEO and advertising man Adam Crozier and part time Chairman Alan Leighton, argues that it could be run profitably without need for overseas ‘investment’ if the pension liability was cleared off its balance sheet. Delivering letters is not rocket science. Realists argue that the traditional letter post delivery is on a steep and terminal decline and that it should stay as a public service until such time as the public no longer need or are prepared to pay for it. Adding costs in the form of profits for a private sector partner will only increase costs to the consumer and forestall the inevitable.

Mandelson’s Post Office crusade defies rational analysis. If he proceeds with the sale, he stands a good chance of terminally wounding New Labour and losing a government vote for little or no gain. He is either motivated by arrogance, an inexplicable love of Dutch postmen or he is determined to undermine Gordon Brown and entertains notions of running for leadership after the inevitable trouncing in the next election. Alternatively, he could just be plain bonkers. My guess is all of the above.

John J Kelly

Media censorship has a habit of rebounding. For example, even friendly media would struggle to describe the actions of Hamas, (whom I’ve already described in several posts as a bunch of criminal sociopaths originally sponsored by Mossad), but who have been morally strengthened by what can only politely be described as Israel’s ill-advised use of disproportionate force. It is entirely likely that they have been firing rockets out of heavily-populated positions  - Gaza is one of the world’s most densely-populated areas, so it’s hard to see how they could avoid doing so. Thus, they must be aware that in doing so they put the lives of civilians at risk. However, this equally means that the invading Israeli forces must have knowledge that in bombing buildings (and UN compounds) they will kill inncocents. Moreover, as the aforementioned grainy YouTube clips (some dating back to 2007) show, they have sophisticated surveillance techniques which show in minute detail the exact position of Hamas armament and fighters. Knowingly Bombing civilians is a crime against International Law and an indisputable breach of the Geneva Convention. Both Hamas and Israel are guilty and both should be censured. (For that matter, so should Britain and the US, for crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, but that’s another sorry tale altogether).

I am equally certain that Hamas rockets might have done a lot more civilian damage over the past eight years, with a lot more international outrage, had the Southern Israel citizens not organised highly effective early warning systems and educated their children to flee to purpose-built shelters within a minute of hearing a siren. Whether or not the bombs don’t achieve their ‘goal’ of killing people, the effect of constant bombardment, even with toytown rockets, exacts a terrible toll on the hearts and minds of Israeli civilians, up to and including the biblical desire for revenge. Thus, Israel’s efficiency in defending its citizens has possibly and paradoxically contributed to the build-up to the present unequal contest. Allied to the sense of hopelessness in the face of muted international condemnation of Hamas (and Hizbollah), this may have led inexorably to a situation where the military hawks (vicious, opportunistic bullies but never the cleverest or most lateral thinkers) forced their ‘solution’ (bombing civilian populations) to the front of the agenda. 

The (deplorable) default position of the international liberal media is to don the keffiyeh and metaphorically chant Palestinian slogans, in a misplaced parody of 1968 and all that. On the other hand, the (majority) illiberal media, as represented by The Daily Mail and Telegraph in the UK, Fox News and most of the Murdoch gang in the US and elsewhere, are natural Neocon allies of Israel, especially in its current belligerent incarnation. By banning the media (in contravention of international law and in defiance of a ruling of the Israeli Parliament itself) Israel is laying itself open to the charge that it has all but abandoned any semblance of respect for natural human justice. In doing so, it puts itself on the same rogue state level as the criminal sociopaths from whom it so rightly feels the need to defend its citizens. 

Israel has now achieved its domestic objective: the forces of Netanyahu have prevailed and the country needs to dig in for a period of international ostracisation. The US and Britain will veto any Security Council Resolution condemning its actions, so it won’t face international sanctions. Hamas will be deposed and go underground (again), where its hard liners will resort to acts of covert terrorism which will kill many more innocent people. Likewise Hizbollah and other whacko Palestinian militants. The neighbours and relatives of the thousands killed, half-starved and displaced by the bombardments of Lebanon and Gaza will hate Israel even more and aid the terrorists (no change there). There is no other possible outcome at this stage than an increase in the likelihood of Terror – so thanks a lot from the rest of us. On the other hand, Israel will have its Right-Wing coalition and may well try and invade Iran. In which case, welcome to Armageddon (literally). 

Obama has his work cut out, though the composition of his advisors (Rham Emmanuel, Hilary Clinton and her Rubinesque cabal, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Soros et al) make it unlikely that much will change on the policy front. I’m not saying any more about this horrible mess, (even if I told you so) except that I am sorry for all the innocent people killed in the name of political expediency. It was ever thus.

John J Kelly

(Irish, friend of Jews everywhere but not fond of Israel, especially its Neanderthal politicians).