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Royal Mail

And the Conservative party prides itself on knowing business. The difference between a majority and a minority shareholding is fundamental in business, and my point is that Royal Mail will remain a publicly owned company. If the work force fear the consequences of a partnership, I say this: industrial relations in the Royal Mail, as Hooper pointed out, are in urgent need of a fresh start. Change has been hampered by a lack of trust between management and work force. In 2007, as the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe said, 627,000 employee days were lost as a result of industrial action, accounting for 60 per cent. of the total days lost to strikes throughout the whole UK economy in that year. It is not just a question of that major strike, but the threat of other strikes, too. Disputes are frequently threatened, such as those threatened on pension changes or mail centre changes, which we saw in recent months, and they are hurting the company. They slow the pace of necessary change, and they hurt the customer and the mail market, as people are tempted to switch to other digital communications to meet their needs. For everyone to agree that they are up for change in general, but to oppose it in the particular is no way forward.