We have long since got used to our corporate crown jewels being raided by foreign buyers: Roll-Royce Motors, Land Rover, Harrods, Heathrow, even Weetabix and Polos are all in the stewardship of overseas owners. Vital public services such as Thames Water are also not excluded from the list.
Even so the transfer of the Royal Mail into the hands of a Czech billionaire – effectively approved by the Labour government today — feels a bit different. Not just because it is one of Britain’s oldest commercial organisations, with origins dating back to 1516. Nor because Britain was a genuine pioneer in terms of mail services with the world’s first postage stamp, the penny black, launched in the UK in 1840.
