Royal Mail is the government-owned postal service in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Royal Mail Holdings plc owns Royal Mail Group Limited, which in turn operates the brands Royal Mail (letters) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels). Post Office Ltd. (counters) and General Logistics Systems, an international logistics company, are wholly owned subsidiaries.

Royal Mail Holdings is a public limited company in which the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills owns 50,004 ordinary shares plus 1 special share, and the Treasury Solicitor holds 1 ordinary share.^[1]

Historically, the General Post Office was a government department which included the Royal Mail delivery business, represented in Her Majesty's Government by the Postmaster General, a Cabinet-level post. It became a statutory corporation known as the Post Office in 1969.^[2] Most of the duties were passed to Consignia plc, a public limited company wholly owned by the Her Majesty's Government, in November 2001^[3] and the dormant Post Office Corporation was dissolved in 2007.^[3] Consignia changed to Consignia Holdings plc, then Royal Mail Holdings plc, the current name.^[4]

Royal Mail was not privatised in the 1980s or 1990s, and currently remains a state-owned company. However the Postal Services Act 2011 enables the government to privatise up to 90% of Royal Mail, with 10% being held by Royal Mail employees.^[5][6] The first sale of shares is expected in late 2013 or early 2014.^[7] The Act makes provision for Post Office Ltd. to continue to be owned by the Crown or a mutual ownership structure.

Royal Mail is responsible for universal mail collection and delivery in the UK. Letters are deposited in a pillar or wall box, taken to a post office, or collected in bulk from businesses. Deliveries are made at least once every day except Sundays and Bank Holidays at uniform charges for all British destinations. First Class deliveries are generally made the next business day throughout the nation.^[8]

Welsh mail van

In 2006, Royal Mail delivered 84 million items every working day and had a network of 14,376 post offices with a revenue of £9.056 billion, and profits before tax were £312 million.^[9] Since that time, profits have dropped year on year – £233 million in 2006-7 falling to a £10 million trading deficit in 2007. In 2008, the BBC reported that Royal Mail's trading position had worsened to an annual loss of £279 million/yr in financial 2007.^[10] For the financial year 2008-9 Royal Mail had an operating profit of £321m, with all four group businesses in a full year profit for the first time in two decades.^[11]

In Wales, the service carries the Welsh name Post Brenhinol, as well as the English name. Both names are normally used on vans, postboxes etc. It is also compulsory for all Post Offices in Wales to have the name Swyddfa'r Post on display outside.^[12] Post Offices in Gaelic-speaking areas of Scotland, such as the Hebrides and parts of the Highlands, also display the name Oifis a' Phuist ("Post Office").^{[citation needed]}

History[link]

The main post office in Oxford, England, in St Aldate's.

The Royal Mail can trace its history back to 1516, when Henry VIII established a "Master of the Posts", a post which eventually evolved into the office of the Postmaster General.

Upon his accession to the throne of England at the Union of the Crowns in 1603, James VI and I moved his court to London. One of his first acts from London was to establish the royal postal service between London and Edinburgh, in an attempt to retain control over the Scottish Privy Council.

The Royal Mail service was first made available to the public by Charles I on 31 July 1635, with postage being paid by the recipient. The monopoly was farmed out to Thomas Witherings.

In the 1640s Parliament removed the monopoly from Witherings and during the Civil War and First Commonwealth the parliamentary postal service was run at great profit for himself by Edmund Prideaux (a prominent parliamentarian and lawyer who rose to be attorney-general).^[13] To keep his monopoly in those troubled times Prideaux improved efficiency and used both legal impediments and illegal methods.^[13][14]

In 1653 Parliament set aside all previous grants for postal services, and contracts were let for the inland and foreign mails to John Manley.^[13] Manley was given a monopoly on the postal service, which was effectively enforced by Protector Oliver Cromwell's government, and thanks to the improvements necessitated by the war Manley ran a much improved Post Office service. In July 1655 the Post Office was put under the direct government control of John Thurloe, a Secretary of State, and best known to history as Cromwell's spymaster general. Previous English governments had tried to prevent conspirators communicating, Thurloe preferred to deliver their post having surreptitiously read it. As the Protectorate claimed to govern all of Great Britain and Ireland under one unified government, on 9 June 1657 the Second Protectorate Parliament (which included Scottish and Irish MPs) passed the "Act for settling the Postage in England, Scotland and Ireland" that created one monopoly Post Office for the whole territory of the Commonwealth.^[14][15]

At the restoration of the monarchy, in 1660, all the ordinances and acts passed by parliaments during the Civil War and the Interregnum passed into oblivion, so the General Post Office (GPO) was officially established by Charles II in 1660.^[16]

Between 1719 and 1763, Ralph Allen, Postmaster at Bath, signed a series of contracts with the post office to develop and expand Britain's postal network. He organised mail coaches which were provided by both Wilson & Company of London and Williams & Company of Bath. The early Royal Mail Coaches were similar to ordinary family coaches but with Post Office livery.^[17]

Uniform penny postage[link]

In December 1839 the first substantial reform started when postage rates were revised by the short-lived Uniform Fourpenny Post. Greater changes took place when the Uniform Penny Post was introduced on 10 January 1840 whereby a single rate for delivery anywhere in Great Britain and Ireland was pre-paid by the sender. A few months later, to certify that postage had been paid on a letter, the sender could affix the first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black that was available for use from 6 May the same year. Other innovations were the introduction of pre-paid William Mulready designed postal stationery letter sheets and envelopes.

As Britain was the first country to issue prepaid postage stamps, British stamps are the only stamps that do not bear the name of the country of issue on them.

By the late 19th century, there were between six and twelve mail deliveries per day in London, permitting correspondents to exchange multiple letters within a single day.^[18]

See also: London Penny Post

Pillar boxes[link]

Traditionally British post boxes carried the Latin initials of the reigning monarch at the time of their installation: in this case VR for Victoria Regina or in the case of a male regent, e.g., GR for George Rex. This is now only applicable in England, Wales and Northern Ireland [citation needed]. Such branding is not used in Scotland due to dispute over the current monarch's title (Queen Elizabeth II should have simply been Queen Elizabeth as there had been no previous Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, only of England and Wales). Pillar boxes in Scotland are simply marked "Post Office". Pillar boxes and other Royal Mail Group street furniture are maintained by Romec Ltd, a company part owned by Royal Mail Group.

Contrary to urban myth, Royal Mail does not own the trademark on the colour red, but a specific shade of the colour red: "Royal Mail, the Royal Mail Cruciform, the colour red (as part of the Royal Mail logotype) and SmartStamp are all registered trademarks of Royal Mail Group plc."^[19]

From 1960[link]

Under the Post Office Act 1969 the General Post Office was changed from a government department to a statutory corporation, known simply as the Post Office. The office of Postmaster General was abolished and replaced with the positions of Chairman and Chief Executive in the new company.^[20]

During the 1980s both British Telecom and Girobank were split off from the Post Office and sold, however the postal services section remained in public ownership as privatisation of this was deemed to be too unpopular. However in the 1990s President of the Board of Trade Michael Heseltine began investigating a possible sale and eventually a Green Paper on Postal Reform was published in May 1994, outlining various options for privatisation. The ideas though, proved controversial and were dropped from the 1994 Queen's Speech after a number of Conservative MPs warned Heseltine they would not vote for the legislation.^[21]

After a change of government in 1997, the Labour administration decided to keep the Post Office state-owned but with more commercial freedom. This led to the Postal Services Act 2000, where the Post Office became a public limited company renamed Consignia plc. However, the change proved to be highly unpopular with both the public and even the organisation's own employees, with the Communication Workers Union boycotting the name. In 2002, the organisation adopted the name of the letters delivery business, becoming Royal Mail Group plc with the following operating divisions:

• Royal Mail, delivering letters
• Parcelforce, delivering parcels
• Post Office Limited, managing the nationwide network of post office branches as retail outlets.

As part of the 2000 Act the government set up a postal regulator, the Postal Services Commission, known as Postcomm, which offered licences to private companies to deliver mail. In 2001, the Consumer Council for Postal Services, known as Postwatch, was created for consumers to express any concerns they may have with the postal service in Britain.

From 1 January 2006, the Royal Mail lost its 350-year monopoly and the British postal market became fully open to competition.^[22]

On 1 October 2008, Postwatch was merged into the new consumer watchdog, Consumer Focus.

In 2008, due to a continuing fall in mail volumes the government commissioned an independent review of the postal services sector by Richard Hooper, the former deputy chairman of Ofcom. The recommendations in the Hooper Review led to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to seek to part privatise the company by selling a minority stake to a commercial partner. However despite legislation for the sale passing the House of Lords, it was abandoned in the House of Commons after strong opposition from backbench Labour MPs. The government later cited the difficult economic conditions for the reason behind the retreat.^[23]

After the departure of Adam Crozier to ITV on 27 May 2010, Royal Mail appointed Canadian Moya Greene as Chief Executive,^[24] the first woman to hold the post.^[25]

Following the 2010 general election the new Business Secretary in the Coalition government, Vince Cable, asked Richard Hooper to update his report. Based on the Hooper Review Update the government passed the Postal Services Act 2011. The Act allows for up to 90% of Royal Mail to be privatised with at least 10% of shares being held by Royal Mail employees.^[26]

As part of the 2011 Act, Postcomm was merged into the communications regulator Ofcom on 1 October 2011, with Ofcom introducing a new simplified set of regulations for postal services on 27 March 2012.^[27] On 31 March 2012 the government took over the historic assets and liabilities of the Royal Mail pension scheme which ran at a considerable deficit. On 1 April 2012 Royal Mail's subsidiary Post Office Ltd was separated from the group and is to remain in public ownership or possibly be mutualised.

Timeline[link]

London's largest sorting office, Mount Pleasant

Logo on van.

• 1516: Royal Mail established by Henry VIII under Master of the Posts.
• 1635: Royal Mail service first made available to the public by Charles I.
• 1654: Oliver Cromwell grants monopoly over service in England to "Office of Postage".
• 1657: Fixed postal rates introduced.
• 1660: General Post Office (GPO) officially established by Charles II.
• 1661: First use of date stamp. First Postmaster General appointed.
• 1784: First Mail coach (between Bristol and London).
• 1793: First uniformed delivery staff. Post Office Investigation Branch formed, the oldest recognised criminal investigations authority in the world.
• 1830: First mail train (on Liverpool and Manchester Railway).
• 1838: Post Office Money order system introduced.
• 1839: Uniform Fourpenny Post introduced.
• 1840: Uniform Penny Post introduced.
• 1840: First adhesive stamp (the Penny Black).
• 1852: First Post Office pillar box erected (in Jersey).
• 1853: First post boxes erected in mainland Britain.
• 1857: First wall boxes installed Shrewsbury and Market Drayton
• 1863: First trial of the London Pneumatic Despatch Company to send mail by underground rail between postal depots.
• 1870: Post Office begins telegraph service.
• 1870: Post Office Act banned sending of `indecent or obscene` literature; introduced the ½d rate for postcards; banned the use of cut-outs from postal stationery; introduced the ½d rate for newspapers; provided for the issue of newspaper wrappers.
• 1880: First use of bicycles to deliver mail.
• 1881: Postal order introduced.
• 1882: Army Post Office Corps formed from GPO employees (see British Forces Post Office)
• 1883: Parcel post begins.
• 1894: First picture postcards.
• 1912: Post Office opens national telephone service.
• 1919: First international airmail service developed by Royal Engineers (Postal Section) and Royal Air Force.
• 1927: Opening of the London Post Office Railway
• 1941: Airgraph service introduced between UK and Egypt. The service was later extended to: Canada (1941), East Africa (1941), Burma (1942), India (1942), South Africa (1942), Australia (1943), New Zealand (1943) Ceylon (1944) and Italy (1944).
• 1941: Aerogram service introduced.
• 1968: Two-class postal system introduced. National Giro bank opens.
• 1969: General Post Office changes from government department to nationalised industry.
• 1971: Postal services in Great Britain were suspended for two months between January and March as the result of a national postal strike over a pay claim.^[28]
• 1974: Postcodes extended over all of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• 1981: Post Office Telecommunications services split out as British Telecom.
• 1986: Separated businesses of delivering letters, delivering parcels and operating post offices.
• 1988: Postal workers hold their first national strike for 17 years after walking out over bonuses being paid to recruit new workers in London and the South East.
• 1989: Royal Mail establishes Romec (Royal Mail Engineering & Construction) to deliver Facilities Maintenance services to its business. Romec becomes owned 51% by Royal Mail and 49% by Haden Business Management Ltd in a joint venture.
• 1990: Girobank sold to the Alliance & Leicester Building Society.
• 1990: Royal Mail Parcels re-branded as Parcelforce.
• 1999: A new business: Royal Mail ViaCode – or ViaCode Limited – was launched. This wholly owned subsidiary of the Post Office offered online encryption services to businesses, using "digital certificate" technology. The short-lived venture was wound up in 2002.^[29]
• 2004: Reduction of deliveries to once daily. Travelling post office ("Mail Trains") end.^[30] SmartStamp is introduced.
• 2005: Mail Trains re-introduced on some lines.
• 2006: Royal Mail loses its monopoly when the regulator,^[31] Postcomm, opens up the Postal Market 3 years ahead of the rest of Europe.^[32] Competitors can carry mail, and pass it to Royal Mail for delivery, a service known as Downstream access. Also introduces Pricing in Proportion (PiP) for first and second class inland mail.
• 2006: Online postage allows Royal Mail customers to pay for postage on the web, without the need to buy traditional stamps.
• 2007: Royal Mail Group plc becomes Royal Mail Group Ltd in a slight change of legal status.
• 2007: Official Industrial Action takes place over pay, conditions and pensions.
• 2007: Sunday collections from pillar boxes end.^[33]
• 2009: (September) CWU opens national ballot for industrial action.^[34]
• 2010: Bicycles begin to be phased out due to health and safety issues, 130 years after they were first used.^[35]
• 2010 (6 December): Hitherto free services were removed from the Inland Letter Post Scheme and became available under contract: Callers Service, Forwarding, Petitions to the Sovereign and to Parliament, Poste Restante, Private Post Box, Private Roadside Letterbox.^[36]
• 2012 (31 March): UK Government takes on historic assets and liabilities of Royal Mail pension scheme.
• 2012 (2 April): Post Office Ltd is no longer a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail Group Ltd.

Staffing[link]

Royal Mail employs 130,000 permanent postal workers (2011).^[37]

To cope with the additional workload during the Christmas period (November and December), Royal Mail recruits an additional 18,000 casual staff to work in their mail and distribution operations. In 2010 they received 70,000 applications for these temporary jobs, while in 2011 this figure jumped to 110,000.^[37] In 2011 a new in-house agency, Angard Staffing Solutions, was set up to recruit temporary workers. Royal Mail was accused of trying to circumvent the Agency Workers Regulations, but they denied this, saying they only wanted to reduce recruitment costs.^[38]

Services[link]

Special Delivery[link]

Royal Mail Special Delivery is an expedited mail service that guarantees delivery by 1pm or 9am the next day for an increased cost. In the event that the item does not arrive one there is a money back guarantee. It insures goods between the value of £500 and £2,500.

There are specific areas of the country where later guarantees apply. Quality of service for Special Delivery is very high at around 99%, and has been consistently at or about this level for a number of years. It is used by a number of major businesses, as well as consumers and smaller businesses, and can be purchased through a postage account, a postage meter, or from Post Office counters.

On receiving the item, the recipient must sign for it. If the recipient is not in, then a P739 'While you were out' card should be left by the post delivery person.

Business services[link]

The Royal Mail runs, alongside its stamped mail services, another sector of post called business mail. The large majority of Royal Mail's business mail service is for PPI or franked mail, where the sender prints their own 'stamp'. For PPI mail this involves either a simple rubber stamp and an ink pad, or a printed label. For franked mail, a dedicated franking machine is used.^[39]

Bulk business mail attracts reduced prices if the sender prints an RM4SCC barcode, or prints the address in a specified position on the envelope using a font readable by optical character recognition (OCR) equipment.^[40] There are no facilities to read addresses in these formats from general mail.

Non-postal services[link]

The General Post Office introduced telegraph services in 1870 and telephone services in 1912. It took over nearly all of Britain's municipal telephone companies (the sole exception being Kingston Communications in Hull) and was responsible for the resultant telephone network until British Telecommunications (BT) was demerged by the British Telecommunications Act 1981. BT was later privatised in 1984.

The National Girobank was introduced in 1968 and sold to Alliance & Leicester in 1990.^[41] The government run National Savings and Investments (founded in 1861 as the Post Office Savings Bank) is also operated through Post Office branches.

Historically, many government benefits and state retirement pensions were paid in cash through the post office network. However, in recent years, an increasing proportion of benefit and pension payments have been made directly by bank transfer, leading to a loss of revenue for Post Office branches and many closures.

Public interest[link]

Royal Mail postman with bicycle, Ilminster, UK

The Royal Mail is regulated by Ofcom, while consumer interests are represented by Consumer Focus. The relationship between the two bodies' predecessors (Postcomm and Postwatch) was not always good, and in 2005, Postwatch took Postcomm to judicial review over its decision regarding rebates to late-paying customers.

The Government department responsible for the Royal Mail is the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, however the public financial interest is managed by the Shareholder Executive.

Although now a private company, the Royal Mail enjoys special protection under Government legislation which severely limits consumer rights. Under the Postal Services Act 2000, the Royal Mail is under no contractual obligation to deliver most mail, including special delivery items. In addition, no court action can be taken against the Royal Mail more than 12 months after an item is posted.

Royal Mail has, in some quarters, a poor reputation for losing mail despite more than 99.93% of mail arriving safely and in 2006 was fined £11.7 million due to the amount of mail lost, stolen or damaged.^[42] According to Home Office figures from 2002 up to a million letters a week were lost or delivered to the wrong address.^[43]

The former Chief Executive of Royal Mail, Adam Crozier was quoted on various occasions as saying that "every single letter is important."^[44][45]

Industrial relations[link]

Automated post sorting machine.

Royal Mail has been at the centre of a number of industrial disputes during its history with the trade union that represents the majority of its workers, the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

Earlier disputes include a seven-week strike in 1971 after a dispute over pay and another strike in 1988 due bonuses being paid to new staff recruited in London and the South East.

Royal Mail suffered national wildcat strikes over pay and conditions in 2003.^[46]

In Autumn 2007, disputes over modernisation began to escalate into industrial action.^[47] In mid October the CWU and Royal Mail agreed a resolution to the dispute.^[48]

In December 2008, workers at Mail Centres affected by proposals to rationalise the number of Mail Centres (particularly in North West England) again voted for strike action, potentially affecting Christmas deliveries.^[49] The action was postponed less than 24 hours before staff were due to walk out.

Localised strikes took place across the UK from June 2009 and grew in frequency throughout the summer. A ballot on national industrial action^[50] over Royal Mail's failure to reach a national agreement covering protection of jobs, pay, terms and conditions and the cessation of managerial executive action was passed in October,^[51] causing a number of two and three day strikes.

Fleet[link]

Royal Mail Ford Transit van

Historic fleet

Royal Mail DAF HGV

Royal Mail is famous for its custom load-carrying bicycles (with the rack and basket built into the frame), made by Pashley Cycles since 1971. Since 2000, their old bikes have been shipped to Africa by Re~Cycle (10,000 as of 2008^[update]).^[52][53] In 2009, Royal Mail announced it was beginning to phase out bicycle deliveries, to be replaced with more push-trolleys and vans. A spokesman said that they would continue to use bicycles on some rural routes, and that there was no plan to phase out bicycles completely.^[54]

In addition to running a large number of road vehicles, Royal Mail uses trains, a ship and some aircraft, with an air hub at East Midlands Airport.

The following aircraft are included in the dedicated fleet:

• 1 Boeing 737-3Y0 G-ZAPV operated by Titan Airways.^[55]

British Airways aircraft are also used for airmail deliveries and bear a small Royal Mail logo towards the rear of the fuselage.

The RMS St Helena is a cargo and passenger ship that serves the British overseas territory of Saint Helena. It sails between Cape Town and Saint Helena, Ascension Island and occasionally Walvis Bay, Namibia. It also visits the Isle of Portland, England twice per year stopping at Tenerife^[56] en-route. It is the last dedicated Royal Mail Ship in service.^[57]

The London Post Office Railway was axed by Royal Mail in 2003—this had been a network of driverless trains running along a private underground track since 1927.^[58]

See also[link]

• Postage stamps and postal history of Great Britain
• Royal Mail rubber band
• Royal Mail Ship

Post offices[link]

• British Forces Post Office
• General Post Office (United Kingdom)
• London Post Office Railway

Post elsewhere[link]

• Australia Post – created in 1901 to replace the colonial post offices in Australia^{[citation needed]}
• Canada Post – created in 1867 to replace the Royal Mail services in Canada; Royal Mail references in Canada disappeared after the 1960s^{[citation needed]}
• Guernsey Post
• Hongkong Post – created in 1870 to replace the Royal Mail services in British Hong Kong (1841–1870); Royal Mail references in Hong Kong disappear after the handover in 1997^{[citation needed]}
• Isle of Man Post
• Jersey Post
• United States Postal Service

References and sources[link]

Notes

Sources

• Browne, Christopher (1993). Getting the Message – The Story of the British Post Office. Alan Sutton. ISBN 0-7509-0351-1. 
• A brief history of the Post Office – A GPO public relations publication 1965

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Royal Mail

• Royal mail chat, a forum for postal workers
• Royal Mail official website
• Post Office official website
• Royal Mail Group plc
• Royal Mail Group – About us: Facts
• The British Postal Museum & Archive – Our history through the post
• Postwatch – The Consumer Council for Postal Services
• Postcomm – regulator for postal services in the UK
• Monopolies and Mergers Commission – The organisation of the Post Office and its letter post operations (September 1984)
• Hellmail – Covers news stories about Royal Mail and other European postal operators
• Bath Postal Museum
• Mailroom News
• Inside Whitchurch, Hampshire Delivery Office on the day it was shut (2 May 2009)

The Right Honourable Vince Cable MP
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 May 2010
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	The Lord Mandelson
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats
In office 2 March 2006 – 26 May 2010
Leader	Sir Menzies Campbell Nick Clegg
Preceded by	Sir Menzies Campbell
Succeeded by	Simon Hughes
Liberal Democrats Treasury Spokesman
In office 12 June 2003 – 11 May 2010
Leader	Charles Kennedy Sir Menzies Campbell Nick Clegg
Preceded by	The Lord Taylor of Goss Moor
Succeeded by	Vacant
Member of Parliament for Twickenham
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 May 1997
Preceded by	Toby Jessel
Majority	12,140 (20.3%)
Personal details
Born	John Vincent Cable (1943-05-09) 9 May 1943 (age 69) York, England
Political party	Liberal Party (Before 1965) Labour (1966–1982) Social Democratic Party (1982–1988) Liberal Democrats (1988–present)
Spouse(s)	Olympia Rebelo (1968-2001) Rachel Smith (2004–present)
Children	3
Alma mater	Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge; University of Glasgow

John Vincent "Vince" Cable (born 9 May 1943) is a British Liberal Democrat politician and economist who is currently the Business Secretary in the coalition cabinet of David Cameron. He has been Member of Parliament for Twickenham since 1997.

Cable studied economics at university and became an economic advisor to the Kenyan government in 1966. He was an advisor to the British government and to the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the 1970s and 1980s. Later, he served as Chief Economist for the oil company Shell from 1995 to 1997. In 1970s, Cable was active in the Labour Party and became a Glasgow councillor. However in 1982, he joined the Social Democratic Party which would later join the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats, and he unsuccessfully contested seats in the elections of 1983 (York), 1987 (York) and 1992 (Twickenham) until being elected as the MP for the London constituency of Twickenham in the 1997 general election.

Cable was the Liberal Democrats' senior economic spokesperson from 2003 to May 2010. He was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons in March 2006, and following Sir Menzies Campbell's resignation, he was Acting Leader for two months—from October 2007 until the election of Nick Clegg. He resigned from his position as Deputy Leader in May 2010.^[1]

Early life and education[link]

Cable was born in York and attended Nunthorpe Grammar School. He then went up to Cambridge University (Fitzwilliam College), where he initially studied Natural Sciences and later switched to Economics.^[2] He was the President of the Cambridge Union in 1965. He was also a committee member and later President-elect of the Cambridge University Liberal Club, however he resigned from the Liberals before taking up the office of President.^[3]

After graduating in 1973 as a PhD in Economics from the University of Glasgow, Dr Cable studied further at Cambridge, were he was appointed an Overseas Development Institute Fellow (ODI Nuffield Fellow) before working in Kenya where he met his first wife.^[4]

Economics career[link]

Cable lectured for a time at the University of Glasgow and was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics, for a 3-year period until 2004. ^[5] From 1966 to 1968, he was a Treasury Finance Officer to the Kenyan Government.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1970s, he was special advisor to John Smith when the latter was Industry Secretary. He was an advisor to the British government and then to the Commonwealth Secretary-General in the 1970s and 1980s.

Later, he served as Chief Economist for the oil company Royal Dutch Shell from 1995 to 1997. Questions have been asked in a left-leaning magazine about his role at Shell during a period when the company came under fierce criticism for its claimed role in a turbulent era of Nigerian politics.^[6]

Political career[link]

Early years[link]

At university, Cable was a member of the Liberal Party but then joined the Labour Party. In 1970, he unsuccessfully contested Glasgow Hillhead for Labour, and later became a Glasgow Councillor. In 1979, he sought the Labour nomination for Hampstead, losing to Ken Livingstone, who was unsuccessful in taking the seat.

In February 1982, he joined the recently created Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was the SDP-Liberal Alliance parliamentary candidate for his home city of York in both the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following the 1988 merger of the alliance, he lost his 1992 general election bid as a Liberal Democrat to unseat Conservative MP Toby Jessel in the Twickenham constituency.

Member of Parliament (1997 - present)[link]

Cable entered the House of Commons after unseating Conservative MP Toby Jessel in the Twickenham constituency at the second attempt, in the 1997 general election. He subsequently increased his majority in the elections of 2001, 2005 and increased still further in 2010.

In 2004, Cable contributed to the Orange Book and is identified with the economic liberal wing of the party. He believes that the Liberal Democrats should stand for "fairer taxes, not higher taxes".^{[citation needed]} However, Cable describes himself as being a social democrat.^[7]

Prior to the 2005 Liberal Democrat party conference, Cable did not rule out the possibility that the Lib Dems might form a coalition government with the Conservative Party in the event of a hung parliament at the forthcoming general election. Then Lib Dem Leader Charles Kennedy said that the party would remain an "independent political force".^[8]

In late 2005 or early 2006, Cable presented Charles Kennedy a letter signed by eleven out of the twenty-three frontbenchers, including himself, expressing a lack of confidence in Kennedy's leadership of the Liberal Democrats. On 5 January 2006, because of pressure from his frontbench team and an ITN News report documenting his alcoholism, Charles Kennedy announced a leadership election in which he pledged to stand for re-election. However, he resigned on 7 January. Cable passed on the opportunity to run for the party leadership himself, instead supporting Sir Menzies Campbell's candidacy.

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats (2006 - 2010)[link]

Since being elected Deputy Leader in March 2006, Cable continued to rise in status within the party until doubts were first raised about his judgement after his idea for a much mocked "mansion tax" when he appeared unable to understand the likely practical difficulties with such a tax. The idea was quickly buried following the 2010 election^{[citation needed]}.

Cable in March 2008

He won plaudits for his repeated warnings and campaigns on the high level of personal debt in Britain.^[9] His was a significant voice of criticism during the Northern Rock crisis, calling for the nationalisation of that bank, capitalising on the claimed indecisiveness of both the Labour Government and Conservative Opposition on the issue.

In May 2010, Cable declared his resignation as Deputy Leader to dedicate more time to his Cabinet role as Business Secretary. His responsibilities and authority were somewhat reduced when it was revealed in December 2010 that he had boasted to Daily Telegraph reporters posing as constituents of his "nuclear option" to bring the government down by his resignation. Still worse he claimed to the reporters that he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation despite having the responsibility to impartially arbitrate on the News Corporation bid to acquire the remaining 60.9% of BSkyB it did not already own. Amid cries for his resignation or sacking, all his responsibilities concerning the bid were removed. Cable did not resign.

Following the earlier example of Ann Widdecombe, Cable appeared as a contestant in the BBC's Christmas 2010 Strictly Come Dancing contest but failed to win. ^[10]

Acting leader of the Liberal Democrats (2007)[link]

With the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell as Party Leader on 15 October 2007, Dr Cable being Deputy Leader automatically succeeded him as Party Leader pending a leadership election. Asked on Channel 4 News that day by Jon Snow whether he would be a candidate for the leadership, he refused to rule himself in or out at such an early stage, but a few days later did rule himself out.

Cable during the 2008 party conference in Liverpool

Cable received significant acclaim during his tenure as Acting Party Leader, with particular praise for his strong performances at Prime Minister's Questions.^[11] He was popular in the party and media for his attacks on the government's record over Northern Rock, HMRC's loss of 25 million individuals' child benefit data and the party funding scandal surrounding David Abrahams' secret donations to the Labour Party. The latter attracted for Cable positive media attention for a joke at PMQs describing Gordon Brown's "remarkable transformation in the last few weeks from Stalin to Mr Bean, creating chaos out of order rather than order out of chaos", called by The Economist, "the single best line of Gordon Brown's premiership".^[12]

Global financial crisis[link]

Cable is credited by some with prescience of the global financial crisis of 2007–2010. In November 2003, Cable asked Gordon Brown, then Chancellor, "Is not the brutal truth that ... the growth of the British economy is sustained by consumer spending pinned against record levels of personal debt, which is secured, if at all, against house prices that the Bank of England describes as well above equilibrium level?" Brown replied, "As the Bank of England said yesterday, consumer spending is returning to trend. The Governor said, 'there is no indication that the scale of debt problems have ... risen markedly in the last five years.' He also said that the fraction of household income used up in debt service is lower than it was then."^[13]

In his book The Storm, Dr Cable writes, "The trigger for the current global financial crisis was the US mortgage market and, indeed, the scale of improvident and unscrupulous lending on that side of the Atlantic dwarfs into insignificance the escapades of our own banks." In an interview about the book, Cable was asked whether he had warned about this. Cable replied, "No, I didn’t. That’s quite true." He continued, "But you’re quite right, and one of the problems of being a British MP is that you do tend to get rather parochial and I haven’t been to the States for years and years, so I wouldn’t claim to have any feel for what’s been going on there."^[14]

Cable has also been vocal over the bonus culture in the banking system. He has called for bonuses to all bank employees to be frozen.^[15]

However, Cable has been criticised by some, mostly Conservatives, for 'flip-flopping'^[16] on issues in connection with the crisis. For example, he is accused of criticising the Government's policy of Quantitative Easing, when in January 2009 he used the phrase "the Robert Mugabe school of economics",^[17] while in March 2009 he said, "directly increasing the amount of money flowing into the economy is now the only clear option".^[18] He responded to deny this claim, saying that he had been warning of the dangers were QE not managed properly,^[19] and the Liberal Democrats also have responded that he was making the point that QE "needed to be managed with a great deal of care".^[20]

On the issue of fiscal stimulus, Cable told the BBC in October 2008, "it is entirely wrong for the government to assume the economy should be stimulated by yet more public spending rather than tax cuts".^[21] In February 2009, however, he said, "we believe — and the Government say that they believe — in the need for a fiscal stimulus. Despite the severe financial constraints on the public sector, we believe that such a stimulus is right and necessary".^[22]

On the principle of the independence of the Bank of England, Cable said at the 2008 Liberal Democrat party conference, "The Government must not compromise the independence of the Bank of England by telling it to slash interest rates."^[23] The following month, though, he called on the Chancellor to urge the Governor of the Bank to make "a large cut in interest rates".^[24] The Liberal Democrats have responded that this in no way changes their policy on Bank of England independence.^[20]

Expenses[link]

Cable's constituency office

A Twickenham resident, Dr Cable commutes by train into central London daily and so claims the 'London Supplement' instead of the Additional Costs Allowance. However, the Daily Telegraph reported in May 2009 that he had been unaware that he was entitled to the London Supplement and so in 2004 wrote to the Fees Office to ask if he could receive retrospective payments for 2002–03 and 2003–04. The Fees Office refused the request, informing Cable that these accounts were already closed.^[25]

When overall MP allowances are ranked, Cable came in 568th for 2007–08 (out of 645 MPs). The Daily Telegraph also noted that he did not take a recent 2.33% salary rise.^[25]

Coalition government minister (2010 - present)[link]

At the 2010 General Election Cable was again returned as MP for Twickenham. With the election resulting in a hung parliament, Cable was a key figure in coalition talks, particularly the unsuccessful negotiations with the Labour Party. The Liberal Democrats entered a coalition agreement with the Conservative Party on 11 May 2010, and Cable was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on 12 May. The Queen approved his appointment as a Privy Counsellor, and he formally joined the Privy Council on 13 May 2010.^[26][27][28]

In May 2010, Cable insisted the Coalition Government was not split over planned increases to non-business Capital Gains Tax, which some thought would raise taxes on sales of second homes by 40% or 50%. Senior Tory MPs attacked the rise as a tax on the middle classes and a betrayal of Conservative values. Cable told BBC News it was a "key" part of the coalition deal and there was no disagreement over it between the coalition partners. Cable said the changes to Capital Gains Tax would help to fulfil the Lib Dem aim of bringing more "fairness" to the tax system: "It's very important that we have wealth taxed in the same way as income."^[29] He continued,

He insisted there was no real disagreement at the top of government over the changes: "It's not actually an argument between the coalition partners, as I understand it, It's an argument between a few Conservative backbenchers and others."^[29]

In July 2010, Cable dismissed claims that there "isn't a problem" with credit lines. He demanded that banks curb bonus payments and use the cash to boost lending instead. A green paper on bank lending that Cable launched on 26 July 2010 specifically urged banks to limit bonus and dividend payments to "pre-crisis and 2009 levels respectively". The green paper states that the move would enable banks to retain £10bn of additional capital in 2010 could in turn sustain £50bn of new lending. Cable's demands came as the Forum of Private Business said that small firms were finding it harder to secure loans. The trade body said its latest Economy Watch survey found that there was a "significant demand" not being met by banks with conditions worsening in recent weeks. The FPB said that 1pc of respondents said access to finance has improved, compared to 3pc in May, and 15pc said it has worsened. In addition, 67pc said they had seen no changes in their ability to secure loans.^[30]

The British left wing press has often been critical of his role in the Coalition, from The Guardian^[31] to the communist daily The Morning Star describing him as "the man who started off a Lib Dem and now looks more convincingly Tory than most of the Tory frontbench" for his role in supporting public spending cuts.^[32]

In September 2010, during a speech to the Lib Dem conference, Cable said that bankers present more of a threat to Britain than Trade Unions. Cable said that "The Government's agenda is not one of laissez-faire. Markets are often irrational or rigged. So I am shining a harsh light into the murky world of corporate behaviour. Why should good companies be destroyed by short-term investors looking for a speculative killing, while their accomplices in the City make fat fees? Why do directors forget their duties when a fat cheque is waved before them? Capitalism takes no prisoners and kills competition where it can."^[33]

After the interim report on banking by Sir John Vickers was published in April 2011, Cable said: "I read it over the weekend and I was very impressed with the quality of the analysis. "It does address head on the issue of banks that are too big to fail, the dependency on the government guarantee. It makes the case for separation," he added.^[34]

In June 2011 Cable said "rewards for failure" were unforgivable at a time when real wages were being squeezed across the country. Speaking yesterday at the Association of British Insurers' biennial conference, the Liberal Democrat Cabinet Minister warned he planned to bring "excessive and unjustified" pay under control by launching a fresh consultation into the subject next month. "Britain does have some world-class executives and one of the real privileges of my job is dealing with them," he said. "But let's not forget that, using the FTSE 100 as a benchmark, investors have barely seen a return since the turn of the century. For most of that time, they would have been better off investing in government bonds. "And yet, in 2010, average total pay for FTSE 100 chief executives was 120 times that of the average UK employee. Back in 1998, the multiple was 45."^[35]

In January 2012 Cable told the House of Commons: "We cannot continue to see chief executives' pay rising at 13% a year while the performance of companies on the stock exchange languishes well behind." Dr Cable said companies would be required to publish "more informative remuneration reports" for shareholders. There would be an obligation to highlight notice periods for executives that were longer than a year, and substantial exit packages. He also suggested moves to ensure that remuneration committees were more diverse - including potentially two members who had not served on boards before. "I want to see more people appointed to boards who come from different backgrounds," he said.^[36]

Tuition fees[link]

During the autumn of 2010 Cable's stance on university tuition fees attracted media attention. Before the 2010 General Election he and other Liberal Democrat MPs signed a pledge to oppose any rise in tuition fees.^[37] Cable as government Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, is responsible for higher education. Cable stated he might abstain from voting on the policy changing tuition fees.^[38] Cable subsequently voted for the policy.^[39]

[edit] December 2010 Daily Telegraph comments

In late December 2010, undercover reporters from The Daily Telegraph, posing as constituents, set up a meeting with Cable, who expressed frustration with being in the coalition and compared it to "fighting a war"; he stated he had "a nuclear option... if they push me too far then I can walk out and bring the government down and they know that", and had to "pick" his fights carefully. He also claimed the Liberal Democrats had pressed for a "very tough approach" to the UK's banks, which had been opposed by the Conservatives. He described the coalition's attempt at fast, widespread reforms (including the health service and local governments) as being a "kind of Maoist revolution", and thought "we [the Government] are trying to do too many things... a lot of it is Tory inspired. The problem is not that they are Tory-inspired, but that they haven’t thought them through. We should be putting a brake on them." When his comments appeared in the press, Cable stated, "Naturally I am embarrassed by these comments and I regret them", before reaffirming his commitment to the Coalition Government, stating that "I am proud of what it is achieving".^[40][41]

In an undisclosed part of the Daily Telegraph transcript given to the BBC's Robert Peston by a whistleblower unhappy that the Daily Telegraph had not published Cable's comments in full, Dr Cable stated in reference to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB, "I have declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we are going to win."^[42] Following this revelation Cable had his responsibility for media affairs – including ruling on Murdoch's takeover plans – withdrawn from his role as business secretary.^[43] In May 2011 the Press Complaints Commission upheld a complaint regarding the Telegraph's use of subterfuge: "On this occasion, the commission was not convinced that the public interest was such as to justify proportionately this level of subterfuge."^[44] After the News of the World phone hacking scandal caused the News Corp. bid for BSkyB to collapse, Cable claimed that his views about Murdoch had been vindicated.^[45]

Dr Cable's stature in the Government has continued grown since then, being dubbed "the moral centre of this Coalition" by Peter Oborne, chief political commentator at the Daily Telegraph^[46]

Personal life[link]

Cable's first wife was Olympia Rebelo, a Goan Roman Catholic, whom he met "in the unromantic setting of a York mental hospital where we happened to be working as nurses during a summer vacation."^[47] He courted her while working in Kenya as a treasury finance officer and despite the concerns of both their fathers, they married in Nairobi's Catholic Cathedral in 1968.^[48] They had three children together and she completed her PhD at Glasgow University in 1976.^[49] Olympia Cable was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after the 1987 general election. After apparently successful treatment the disease returned in the mid 1990s and by the 1997 election Cable was juggling his senior post at Shell with being his wife's carer. Olympia Cable died shortly after the 2001 election.^[48]

In 2004, he married second Rachel Wenban Smith. When appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs programme in January 2009, Cable revealed that he wears the wedding rings from both of his marriages.^[50][51]

A keen ballroom dancer, Cable long expressed his desire to appear on the BBC's hit TV show Strictly Come Dancing;^[52] he appeared on the Christmas 2010 edition of the show, partnered by Erin Boag and dancing the Foxtrot. He performed well and scored 36/40 from the judges, including a mark of 10/10 from head judge Len Goodman. Cable was the second politician to appear on the show, after Ann Widdecombe.^[53]

Cable is a Patron of the Polycystic Kidney Disease Charity (PKD)^[54] and is also a Patron of the Changez Charity.^[55]

Styles[link]

• Mr (John) Vincent Cable (9 May 1943-1973)^[56]
• Dr (John) Vincent Cable (1973-1 May 1997)
• Dr (John) Vincent Cable MP (1 May 1997-13 May 2010)
• The Right Honourable Dr (John) Vincent Cable MP (13 May 2010—)^[57]

See also[link]

• Liberal Democrat Frontbench Team

Bibliography[link]

• The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What it Means Vincent Cable (Atlantic Books, 2009) ISBN 1-84887-057-4
• The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism edited by David Laws and Paul Marshall; contributions by Vincent Cable and others (Profile Books, 2004) ISBN 1-86197-797-2
• Regulating Modern Capitalism (Centre for Reform Papers) Vincent Cable (Centre for Reform, 2002) ISBN 1-902622-36-7
• Commerce (Liberal Democrat Consultation Papers) Vincent Cable (Liberal Democrat Publications, 2002) ISBN 1-85187-688-X
• Globalization: Rules and Standards for the World Economy (Chatham House Papers) Vincent Cable, Albert Bressand (Thomson Learning, 2000) ISBN 1-85567-350-9
• Globalisation & Global Governance Vincent Cable (Thomson Learning, 1999) ISBN 0-8264-6169-7
• Preparing for EMU: A Liberal Democrat Response (Centre for Reform Papers) Vincent Cable (Centre for Reform, 1999) ISBN 1-902622-06-5
• China and India: Economic Reform and Global Integration Vincent Cable (Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995) ISBN 1-899658-00-9
• Global Superhighways: The Future of International Telecommunications Policy (International Economics Programme Special Paper) Vincent Cable, Catherine Distler (Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995) ISBN 0-905031-97-0
• The World's New Fissures Vincent Cable (Demos, 1995) ISBN 1-898309-35-3
• Trade Blocs: The Future of Regional Integration edited by Vincent Cable and David Henderson (The Brookings Institution, 1994) ISBN 0-905031-81-4
• Commerce of Culture: Experience of Indian Handicrafts, Vincent Cable (Lancer International, 1990) ISBN 81-7062-004-X
• Developing with Foreign Investment edited by Vincent Cable and Bishnodat Persaud (Routledge, 1987) ISBN 0-7099-4825-5
• Economics and the Politics of Protection: Some Case Studies of Industries (World Bank Staff Working Papers Number 569) Vincent Cable (World Bank, 1984) ISBN 0-8213-0199-3
• Education and Social Action Programming for Cable: Conference Report edited by Vincent Thompson (Council for Educ. Technology, 1984) ISBN 0-86184-131-X
• World Textile Trade and Production Trends Vincent Cable, Betsy Baker (Economist Intelligence Unit, 1983) ISBN 0-86218-084-8
• Case Studies in Development Economics Vincent Cable (Heinemann Educ., 1982) ISBN 0-435-33937-0
• The Role of Handicrafts Exports: Problems and Prospects Based on Indian Experience (ODI Working Paper) Vincent Cable (Overseas Development Institute, 1982) ISBN 0-85003-086-2
• British Electronics and Competition with Newly Industrialising Countries Vincent Cable, Jeremy Clarke (Overseas Development Institute, 1981) ISBN 0-85003-076-5
• Evaluation of the Multifibre Arrangement and Negotiating Options Vincent Cable (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1981) ISBN 0-85092-204-6
• British Interests and Third World Development Vincent Cable (Overseas Development Institute, 1980) ISBN 0-85003-070-6
• Britain's Pattern of Specialization in Manufactured Goods With Developing Countries and Trade Protection (World Bank Staff Working Paper No 425/8 Oct) Vincent Cable, Ivonia Rebelo (World Bank, 1980) ISBN 0-686-36204-7
• World Textile Trade and Production Vincent Cable (Economist Intelligence Unit, 1979) ISBN 0-900351-85-3
• South Asia's Exports to the EEC: Obstacles and Opportunities Vincent Cable, Ann Weston (Overseas Development Institute, 1979) ISBN 0-85003-068-4
• World Textile Trade and Production Vincent Cable (Economist Intelligence Unit, 1979) ISBN B0000EGG8M
• Import Controls: The Case Against Vincent Cable (Fabian Society, 1977) ISBN 0-7163-1335-9
• Glasgow: Area of Need Vincent Cable. Essay in 'The Red Paper on Scotland' ed. Gordon Brown. Edinburgh 1975. ISBN 0-9501890-7-3
• Glasgow's Motorways: a Technocratic Blight (New Society, 2 September. 1974)
• Whither Kenyan Emigrants? Vincent Cable (Fabian Society, 1969) ISBN 0-7163-2018-5

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Vince Cable

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Vince Cable

• Dr Vincent Cable MP official site
• Vincent Cable MP official Liberal Democrats profile
• Twickenham Liberal Democrats
• Profile at Parliament of the United Kingdom
• Contributions in Parliament at Hansard 1803–2005
• Current session contributions in Parliament at Hansard
• Electoral history and profile at The Guardian
• Voting record at PublicWhip.org
• Record in Parliament at TheyWorkForYou.com
• Profile at Westminster Parliamentary Record
• Profile at BBC News Democracy Live
• Articles authored at Journalisted
• Works by or about Vince Cable in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Tracking Vince Cable (universities & research only) at Research Fortnight

News articles

• Gold standard?. Third Way Magazine, 11 May 2009
• Vince Cable: Beneath the halo The New Statesman, September 2009
• profile of Cable (2009) by Fran Monks; How to Make a Difference
• Debrett's People of Today