Hands off the King's head: We must resist this assault on Royal Mail, says ALEX BRUMMER

Arrivals at Washington’s Dulles airport are greeted with a large poster above the escalators declaring: ‘US Steel and Nippon Steel stronger together.’

But the proposed $15billion (£12billion) deal between two of the largest producers of the strategic metal is in abeyance because of White House concerns.

If only Britain had the same recognition of the danger of indebted overseas take-overs of infrastructure in which the public has an interest.

If so, there might be no crisis at Thames Water, nor would there be bloated landing charges at Heathrow.

Royal Mail investors will doubtless be delighted that the siege of Britain’s five-centuries-old postal delivery service by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky has materialised as a full-scale offer.

Rich pickings: The collapse of ‘snail mail’ volumes, together with stubborn unions, have undermined profits and confidence at Royal Mail

The Royal Mail board, chaired by Keith Williams, is not, for the moment, taking the bait.

It is bad enough that almost every UK company which once boasted ‘British’ in its name, such as the British Airports Authority and Associated British Ports, has ended up in overseas hands.

As if the monarchy didn’t have enough problems at present, it looks as if the ‘Royal’ title and stamps with the King’s head are now up for grabs too.

Royal Mail is not a success story.

The collapse of ‘snail mail’ volumes, together with stubborn unions, have undermined profits and confidence.

Recently, a way forward with new leadership has been put in place by prioritising urgent letters. It should be given a chance.

One suspects that Kretinsky may be more interested in the profitable Continental GLS logistics concern than last-mile delivery in the UK.

However, cutting off the Royal Mail from GLS delivery expertise would be an error.

The board and the Government must resist an assault on the Royal Mail in the national interest.

Extreme privilege

In wartime, all bets are off when it comes to Government borrowing and debt. That is how much of the Western world found itself lumbered with hard-to-sustain borrowing and surging national debt.

The combination of the pandemic, rapidly followed by Russia’s war on Ukraine, added substantially to borrowing and debt hung over from the great financial crisis.

The last thing the UK and other G7 economies need is another conflict.

Budgets are already swollen and an election year in the US and Britain makes talk of higher taxes or budget cuts ‘verboten’.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) lives in something of a political vacuum, which means it can breathe fire about the risks of not tackling a fiscal mess.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is among the victims of this, even though his two reductions in national insurance contributions are as nothing compared to the £35billion or so being raised by freezing tax allowances.

The IMF does have a point. Fiscal buffers, or the safety net in national budgets, have been eroded. President Biden has been spending as if there is no tomorrow.

Investments being made by subsidising semi-conductor and climate change policies may pay off in the longer term by improving productivity and the US’s trade balance, but they do raise the possibility of a credit crunch.

The IMF projects that, in five years, America’s debts will be at 108 per cent of national output. The Bill Clinton-era Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin has warned that this is dangerous.

In comparison, the UK’s projected debt-to-output ratio, using IMF data, at 98 per cent towards the end of the decade, doesn’t look so alarming.

The US has the benefit of running the world’s reserve currency. So an attack on the US budget also undermines the safety of the world’s second- and third-largest economies, China and Japan, which hold large amounts of dollar bonds in reserves.

Britain doesn’t have the same luxury. It should not be diverted from infrastructure investment or growth generated by wealth-creating tax cuts.

Waiting game

A favourite complaint of well-heeled anti-Brexiteers is immigration queues at European airports. If they want a real nightmare, visit Washington DC.

Non-US attendees at the IMF-World Bank sessions have faced three-hour entry delays.

Brits heading off for the Continent this summer should thank their lucky stars.