The UK government has been drifting for some months; since the London Group of 20 meeting in April, there has been little sense of direction. But one of the few areas where the Labour administration was still making progress was in pressing the case to part-privatise the Royal Mail. No longer. Now, even here, fearful of a fight, the government has sought the safety of the doldrums.

The Hooper report, published last December, analysed the Royal Mail. It, rightly, advises that the service would need investment, reform and a strategy to deal with its chasmic pension deficit if it were to survive the liberalisation of Europe’s mail markets in 2011.