Acid test burns

The Royal Mail stand down will have left Mandy fuming, though only inside of course. He’s far too polished to let his hair get out of place.

There were rumours that an unspoken deal was done over the issue at the Labour meeting, which saved Brown’s premiership, last month.

If Brown had to stay, said angry backbenchers, so too did Royal Mail.

The Government’s struggle to get the institution part-privatised was branded by Ken Clarke as an acid test of the leadership’s strength.

That it failed is not a huge surprise, we all knew the Government was weak. But what may become of Royal Mail now could still be a huge shock.

Royal Mail makes a profit of more than £320m but has a £10bn pension deficit, that makes paying for tech upgrades – and everyone admits they need it to survive – very difficult.

In other words without substantial amounts of new cash from somewhere it’s going down the toilet.