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> profoundly stupid mistake Surely the PAF formed part of the sale price when privatising Royal Mail? So if you removed it before selling (at a lower price),

• willyt 2y ago
  I doubt they thought about it at that level of detail. I think it was just sold off on the cheap through a share offering with an initial offering[0] of underpriced shares? There was some kind of scheme where a private individual could buy a small number of shares before they went on general sale. Could be wrong though.
• scott_w 2y ago
  To never have given would have simply required the government to say "this is not part of the sale." To take it would likely require either lengthy court battles or legislation. Given the priorities of the Labour Party, the latter isn't likely to happen within the next 5 years (when they'd have to add it to their manifesto).
• ascorbic 2y ago
  Privatisations, like most IPOs, are deliberately under-priced, and I'd very much doubt that the valuation of Royal Mail would have been affected by adding "The universal service provider must maintain the postcode address file and make it available under the Open Government Licence" to the Act
  • InsomniacL 2y ago
    > very much doubt that the valuation of Royal Mail would have been affected To include a postcode lookup on your website costs nearly £7000 per year. Given how popular that is I don't see how it couldn't have formed part of the price.