5 ms·

You seem to be interested in this subject. As an outsider, I've been wondering why there hasn't been more of a ruckus after the Royal Mail privatisation. As I

You seem to be interested in this subject. As an outsider, I've been wondering why there hasn't been more of a ruckus after the Royal Mail privatisation. As I understood it, the shares turned out to be underpriced by about 80% and were primarily sold to a secret list of short time investors that made bank. Have I misunderstood what went down? If not, how is this possible in the UK without any political repercussions?

ZenoArrow 10y ago
I'm not overly familiar with what happened with the Royal Mail privatisation, but thank you for suggesting it as a subject, it sounds like something worth investigating further. I'm also not overly familiar with mainstream news media in other countries, but if you had to point the finger at any one group in terms of why there hasn't been more resistance in the UK to the dismantling of public institutions, a large portion of the blame lies with our crap mainstream news media. The public aren't kept informed about matters of substance, they're distracted by misinformation and personality politics. It may be a problem we share with other countries (from the outside, the US mainstream news media seems similar/worse), but it doesn't have to be this way. We could have mainstream news outlets that gave people a chance to get better informed about the issues being faced in their country/community. It's an essential part of society that is sadly missing, I don't think you can have an effective democracy (effective in the sense of standing up for public interest) without a well-informed public.
zigzigzag 10y ago
If I recall the story correctly, the government sold at a price that had been suggested to them by many highly paid financial services consultants. The fact that the pricing was wrong may or may not have been avoidable, but one of the basic arguments for privatisation is that it's hard to get and keep competent civil servants, so the fact that the final act of privatisation itself is often screwed up is not supposed to be very surprising. Just think how often pricing decisions were screwed up before!
laurencerowe 10y ago
> You seem to be interested in this subject. As an outsider, I've been wondering why there hasn't been more of a ruckus after the Royal Mail privatisation. I think people just care a lot less about the postal service since we stopped writing personal letters with the advent of email and social media. It's just not the lifeline it once was. Postal services are now in the business of delivering junk mail.

ZenoArrow 10y ago

I'm not overly familiar with what happened with the Royal Mail privatisation, but thank you for suggesting it as a subject, it sounds like something worth investigating further. I'm also not overly familiar with mainstream news media in other countries, but if you had to point the finger at any one group in terms of why there hasn't been more resistance in the UK to the dismantling of public institutions, a large portion of the blame lies with our crap mainstream news media. The public aren't kept informed about matters of substance, they're distracted by misinformation and personality politics. It may be a problem we share with other countries (from the outside, the US mainstream news media seems similar/worse), but it doesn't have to be this way. We could have mainstream news outlets that gave people a chance to get better informed about the issues being faced in their country/community. It's an essential part of society that is sadly missing, I don't think you can have an effective democracy (effective in the sense of standing up for public interest) without a well-informed public.

zigzigzag 10y ago

If I recall the story correctly, the government sold at a price that had been suggested to them by many highly paid financial services consultants. The fact that the pricing was wrong may or may not have been avoidable, but one of the basic arguments for privatisation is that it's hard to get and keep competent civil servants, so the fact that the final act of privatisation itself is often screwed up is not supposed to be very surprising. Just think how often pricing decisions were screwed up before!

laurencerowe 10y ago

> You seem to be interested in this subject. As an outsider, I've been wondering why there hasn't been more of a ruckus after the Royal Mail privatisation. I think people just care a lot less about the postal service since we stopped writing personal letters with the advent of email and social media. It's just not the lifeline it once was. Postal services are now in the business of delivering junk mail.