Lord Mandelson is still coming under huge pressure over his plans to sell a stake in the Royal Mail to rival operators after the Commons Business and Enterprise Select Committee heavily criticised his plan as ill-thought out. In particular they criticised the fact that there are no definitive figures over the investment in the service required, the ballpark price they are expect to achieve for the sale or indeed whether any of the proceeds would be ploughed back into to help with much needed investment.

Six weeks ago in mid-Feb it appeared that the prospects for Lord Mandelson's plans were pretty bleak yet days later he forged ahead and announced his proposals ignoring a torrent of criticism. He obviously believes the support of Tories will carry the Bill through despite a backlash from Labour back benchers. The Commons committee conclusion that the omission of much detail shows that there was very little clarity of thought in the proposal or that the government is hiding something, does not bode well.

The next step is the Bill's second reading so the committee has published its report ahead of that reading to give the government a chance to respond prior to this. The early salvo from Lord Mandelson was as abrasive as ever accusing the committtee of taking "the lowest common denominator approach" and dismissing the report as lacking vision.

It is difficult to see which way this will end. Perhaps the Business & Enterprise Secretary and his bullish approach is the only way to force change in a service that has been hampered by deregulation, lack of investment and faiiure to modernise.  However one salient statistic for 2007 shows that Royal Mail were responsible for 60% of strike days so whichever you look at it, something has to change.

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