Daily Mail

Hands off the King’s head

- Alex Brummer

ARRIVALS at Washington’s Dulles airport are greeted with a large poster above the escalators declaring: ‘ US Steel and Nippon Steel stronger together.’ But the proposed $15bn (£12bn) deal between two of the largest producers of the strategic metal is in abeyance because of White House concerns.

If only Britain had the same recognitio­n of the danger of indebted overseas takeovers of infrastruc­ture in which the public has an interest.

If so, there might be no crisis at Thames Water, nor would there be bloated landing charges at Heathrow.

Royal Mail investors will doubtless be delighted that the siege of Britain’s fivecentur­iesold postal delivery service by Czech billionair­e Daniel Kretinsky has materialis­ed as a full-scale offer.

The Royal Mail board, chaired by Keith Williams, is not, for the moment, taking the bait. It is bad enough that almost every UK company which once boasted ‘British’ in its name, such as the British Airports Authority and Associated British Ports, has ended up in overseas hands.

As if the monarchy didn’t have enough problems at present, it looks as if the ‘Royal’ title and stamps with the King’s head are now up for grabs too.

Royal Mail is not a success story. The collapse of ‘snail mail’ volumes, together with stubborn unions, have undermined profits and confidence.

Recently, a way forward with new leadership has been put in place by prioritisi­ng urgent letters. It should be given a chance. One suspects that Kretinsky may be more interested in the profitable Continenta­l GLS logistics concern than last-mile delivery in the UK.

However, cutting off the Royal Mail from GLS delivery expertise would be an error.

The board and the Government must resist an assault on the Royal Mail in the national interest.

Extreme privilege

IN WARTIME, all bets are off when it comes to Government borrowing and debt. That is how much of the Western world found itself lumbered with hard-to-sustain borrowing and surging national debt.

The combinatio­n of the pandemic, rapidly followed by Russia’s war on Ukraine, added substantia­lly to borrowing and debt hung over from the great financial crisis.

The last thing the UK and other G7 economies need is another conflict.

Budgets are already swollen and an election year in the US and Britain makes talk of higher taxes or budget cuts ‘verboten’.

The Internatio­nal Monetary Fund (IMF) lives in something of a political vacuum, which means it can breathe fire about the risks of not tackling a fiscal mess.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is among the victims of this, even though his two reductions in national insurance contributi­ons are as nothing compared to the £35bn or so being raised by freezing tax allowances.

The IMF does have a point. Fiscal buffers, or the safety net in national budgets, have been eroded. President Biden has been spending as if there is no tomorrow.

Investment­s being made by subsidisin­g semi-conductor and climate change policies may pay off in the longer term by improving productivi­ty and the US’s trade balance, but they do raise the possibilit­y of a credit crunch.

The IMF projects that, in five years, America’s debts will be at 108pc of national output. The Bill Clinton- era Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin has warned that this is dangerous.

In comparison, the UK’s projected debtto-output ratio, using IMF data, at 98pc towards the end of the decade, doesn’t look so alarming.

The US has the benefit of running the world’s reserve currency. So an attack on the US budget also undermines the safety of the world’s second- and third-largest economies, China and Japan, which hold large amounts of dollar bonds in reserves.

Britain doesn’t have the same luxury. It should not be diverted from infrastruc­ture investment or growth generated by wealthcrea­ting tax cuts.

Waiting game

A FAVOURITE complaint of well-heeled anti-Brexiteers is immigratio­n queues at European airports. If they want a real nightmare, visit Washington DC.

Non-US attendees at the IMF-World Bank sessions have faced three-hour entry delays.

Brits heading off for the Continent this summer should thank their lucky stars.

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