This site is unashamedly right-of-centre. If in power it would enact policies which would make David Cameron cringe. Tax-cuts and freedom. Liberty and justice. Social responsibility. The Union.

However politics has been turned on its head over the last few years – for example by a recent Home Secretary often outflanking the Tories on the Right. Here we have another example.

In a move which the Tories once considered but rejected as too politically risky, the first steps towards the privatisation of Royal Mail have been leaked/pre-announced this week as ministers kill off the biggest obstacles to a break-up.

“Lord” Mandelson, the Business Secretary (pictured in a traditional yet still appropriate pose), will apparently say that the government is going to take on the RM’s £22 billion pension fund – which is in a bit of a hole by all accounts.

By taking responsibility for the scheme (one of the largest in Britain) the government will make Royal Mail more attractive to possible buyers. In theory the plan will give Royal Mail greater commercial freedom and enable it to start negotiations with EU rivals. In fact it will steal £22 billion of pension assets, dump the liability as a mortgage on future generations and they will get to spin it as salvation of the Royal Mail.

Crash Gordon again. When will it all stop?

TheEye instinctively supports small government and the private sector doing as much as possible – but a coherent plan is the important first step. Nothing half-baked or a compromise because that always goes wrong.

Any break-up would cause a political storm. Unions will bleat about potential huge job losses and Labour backbenchers will be scared of losing their seats for backing out on a specific manifesto commitment not to privatise the Royal Mail. The unions of course have not bothered to look at the merits or downside of any proposal and have simply reverted to type – going on strike. On a Friday just before Christmas.

Every child who doesn’t get a present or a card in time should be told that the unions are responsible.

The children who doesn’t get their present in time for Christmas can take away one bit of cheer though – they will have a big gift in the post. The debt this half-plan will give them when they are 30-ish and the tax bill they will need to pay to support it.