Royal Mail sale: Tell Sid? Not quite

Today the Business Secretary, Vince Cable will make the announcement that previous governments have not dared. The Queen's head is to be sold off! Well at least the one on our stamps.

But the coalition's plans for selling off the Royal Mail - remember, not the same as the Post Office - are not quite the same as the privatisations of the Big Bang era like 'Tell Sid,' the British Gas sell off.

First, employees will be given free shares, in the biggest offer of its kind.

Second, you and me will have a chance to buy shares, but the government's main aim here is not to create a new nation of share owners - I expect a minority of the company will be up for public grabs, most of the business will be on sale to big City investors.

And last, I understand the government itself will retain a share - perhaps even more than ten percent.

So the 'privatisation' of the Royal Mail will be big, controversial and significant, but rather than creating a company like any other on the stock exchange, it will create instead a hybrid that could potentially make it even harder to manage.

The government believes it is essential to get cash in to the company to modernise and improve it. It will be many months before that conviction can be proved.