Odds and Ends #38: A critical British data asset is at risk in the Royal Mail sale

Plus thoughts from the Progressive Britain conference, and the next AI revolution

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Hello! It’s time for Odds and Ends, your mini newsletter-within-a-newsletter, containing some shorter takes, brief asides and other things I think you’ll find fun or interesting.

First off, huge apologies for not getting a big essay out this week. I’ve been busy working on pieces for the future, and have a couple of other half-finished things in drafts. And as I’ve said before, I’d rather optimise for ‘good’ rather than ‘on time’. But I will try and catch up!

In the meantime however, here’s something on the start of the next AI revolution, why Eurovision looked weird this year, and… my dispatch from the neoliberal sell-out, continuity Blairite shill event of the year, the Progressive Britain conference (it was super fun and I had a great time).

So assuming you forgive me, let’s get on with this week’s Odds and Ends.

The government should protect the Postcode Address File if Royal Mail is sold

Word on the corporate takeover street is that Royal Mail could soon be sold to a Czech firm called EP Group for around £3.5bn – putting the postal service into the hands of foreign owners for the first time.

And sure, Czechia is hardly the scariest country¹, but unsurprisingly the proposed deal has already attracted political attention for obvious reasons.

For example, Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch has already waded in saying that universal services must be protected.

And more importantly for the actual future of the company, Jonathan Reynolds, who will probably be in Badenoch’s job by the end of the year, has echoed her concerns.

Reynolds, who is perhaps my favourite politician, has written to EP Group, explaining that “it is imperative for us that any purchase of [RM’s parent company] comes with it cast-iron guarantees on the Royal Mail's future, its core values and safeguarding this iconic British brand.”

In the letter, he goes on to talk about the importance of protecting Royal Mail’s workforce from getting screwed over, and so on – all very worthy and important things.

But as far as I’m aware, both politicians and both parties have so far not mentioned the most important thing about Royal Mail.

I am, of course, talking about the Postcode Address File (PAF).

Because if Royal Mail is sold, I think it presents a unique opportunity to right a historic wrong, and bring the PAF back into public ownership – so that it can be opened up for the good of the nation.

Why? Because the PAF is a critical national dataset that underpins countless British apps, services and businesses. It’s a key strategic asset that, as I have written once or twice before, could unlock growth and innovation if the underlying data were made freely available for everyone from small businesses to bedroom coders to build on.

It would be completely crazy to put control of it into the hands of a foreign company, which would have even less incentive than the current owners to do anything other than use it to maximise profits.

So despite the corporate turmoil, I think this could be a big opportunity. If the government can find some way to insist that, as part of the deal, the address management part of the company is taken back under public control, we could finally liberate the PAF² – which would not just protect of important data infrastructure, but help the British economy too.

The next AI revolution has just started