Rent-a-Tory Vince Cable is doing something staggeringly idiotic - trying to sell us something we already own in the middle of a recession, and no doubt during a time of those much looked forward to swingeing cuts.

Prepare to buy Royal Mail.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11526179

Erm, how much more of an expensive bailout? And if it isn't much more, let's do it...

I seriously doubt it will work out well. The prime reason to privatise it is to raise money for inheritance tax cuts. Nothing more than that. It may not be any more profitable, they will sack tens of thousands of people, all of whom will be on the dole for months.

or something quite inconsequential like a massive huge deficit.

Though I cant wait for Labour to come out and campaign against something they wanted to do. The smell of hipocrasy shall be heavy in the air.

Yes but the government will get much less for it in the current economic conditions. It is also not the best run organisation. Plus the liabilities are immense. Even if you strip out the old liabilities with the numbers of staff it will have a huge pension liability almost instantly. Also a one off cash windfall will barely make a dent in the ongoing deficit. It will also lose the large government levy that helps balance the government books and is one reason why the Royal Mail makes a loss.