Mandleson looses the plot

When was the last time someone said to you "It would be really great if they privatised the Post Office"? If anyone has ever said that to you, were they anything other than an Uber-Thatcherite? The reason I as is because of the bizarre comments by Peter Mandleson in The Observer.

Mandleson reportedly said that "The Party would be kicked out of office if it retreated and showed itself to be tired and afraid of making a decision". Well Mr Mandleson, I'm sorry to say that Labour will be kicked out of office for imposing stupid and unpopular policies. In their Thatcherite pomp, the Tories sold privatisations as they funded tax cuts and were seen as a way of making a quick buck. The Post office privatisation will achieve neither of these politically useful goals. Any extra revenues raised in the next year, will merely be shovelled down the black hole which the bank bailout has created.

Labour has about a year before the election must be held. The only thing that might save them would be to come up with a few genuinely popular policies and rush them through Parliament. Put the Tories in a corner where they either back them or lose votes. Given that there is no cash to splash, what could catch the public imagination. Here's a few suggestions. If Mandleson pushed these policies, he might actually achieve the public admiration he craves :-

a) MP's to take a 5% pay cut.
b) Full on-line access to all MP's expenses.
c) Limit all expenses to genuine out of pocket costs.
d) Ban ALL sale of playing fields for redevelopment
e) Force councils to publish full details of all council house waiting lists (not names or addresses) and the way points are allocated to achieve one.
f) Allocate seats to members of the public (elected by common vote) on all state ownbed companies.
g) Have complete transparency on all public sector pensions (including recently Nationalised (or semi nationalised) banks - give the public a veto on excessive awards

So what would you prefer Labour to implement - Post Office Privatisation or my list above? Which do you think would be better for the Country? To be completely honest, although I'm a lifelong Labour Member, I am so disgusted with Mandleson's Post Office plan, that I'd probably vote for any non Racist Party which scrapped PO privatisation and adopted my plan above.