NEWSBLIGHT

Last night, Lord Mandelson was the subject of a pussycat interview with Kirsty Wark on Newsnight, one of the BBC "news" programs that long ago convinced this author that the BBC news was no longer worth watching. The first part of the interview was about the now "famous" (because the media have worked it up to be so) comment by Shriti Vadera about the "green shoots" she could supposedly see in the economy. Listening to other comments, it was clear she had been caught out by a sly journalist, slanting his/her question in a way designed to catch out the interviewee. This is a well-practised tactic and one of the ways in which the media generate their own agenda.

But more importantly, Ms Wark questioned Lord Mandelson about the government's intention to sell off part of Royal Mail, most likely to the Dutch company TNT. Lord Mandelson warbled happily along, smiling and preening, and explained that things in the Royal Mail were jolly well not good enough and that the government were determined to change that. If it took the presence of a "partner" company to improve the service then so be it. Lord Mandelson said that he was "passionate" about the universal service obligation.

Well, yes, Lord Mandelson should be passionate about the universal service obligation because its his job, as a member of our provincial government, to carry out the instructions from our real government in Brussels, which is to ensure that that universal service obligation is provided within a steadily decreasing state service with all the rest sold off into the private sector to ensure that the market for postal services is "liberalised" in accordance with the two EU Directives that require it.

Why on earth is it that journalists like Kirsty Wark, and presumably by extension, the whole Newsnight team, are incapable of discovering the simple fact that the government is OBLIGED to sell off the Royal Mail and its nothing at all to do with Lord Mandelson? Its a simple, elementary fact to discover. Is it because they are the real Little Englanders and simply cannot see beyond Dover?