The Queen’s head is the real EU target
June 1st, 2000
A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 1st June 2000.
The European Commission’s alleged competition objective in breaking up national post offices’ monopoly of postal deliveries (report 31 May) is nothing of the sort. If they were really interested in competition they would have a go at France Telecom, French electricity, German coal mines, nationalised airlines, and so on.
The real EU target is the system of stamps bearing national insignia – in our case the Queen’s head without any country name. The EU objective is an EU stamp which would be the only legally valid mark of postage paid – on the grounds of course that it would “improve the transparency” or whatever vogue phrase was in fashion at the time. After all if you have a single market, a single currency, a single driving licence, why should you not have a single stamp?