Green Paper on Postal Reform


The Green Paper on Postal Reform was a United Kingdom government draft plan to privatise and regulate the UK postal services. It set out various options, the key points of the plan being,
Then it laid out the different options for consultation of,
In the event, the plans did not go through. It met with support from Post Office managers, who advocated full sale because in their view this was the only way to achieve commercial freedom. It met with opposition from unions, much of the public and backbench Conservative MPs.

Debate

On 19 May 1994 the Green Paper was to be presented to the House of Commons. The issue was taken up in Prime Minister's Question Time by Margaret Beckett as leader of the Labour Party opposition.
Later that afternoon Michael Heseltine as The President of the Board of Trade and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry did present the proposals of the Green Paper. The Post Office, he began,
Then followed the debate, opened to the floor of the whole house. Some of the notable contributions are extracted.