The sale of Royal Mail to the Czech Sphinx must be stopped, says ALEX BRUMMER. We're flogging one our most vital institutions to a ruthless foreign billionaire - as our politicians sit on their hands

The sale of Royal Mail to the Czech Sphinx must be stopped, says ALEX BRUMMER. We're flogging one our most vital institutions to a ruthless foreign billionaire - as our politicians sit on their hands By Alex Brummer Updated: 12:16, 15 June 2024 e-mail View comments The familiar red, Royal Mail pillar box at the corner of my street on the fringes of Richmond Park in South-West London features the cypher of Edward VII. Across the country there are still postboxes from Queen Victoria ’s reign, which carry the letters VR — which stands for Victoria Regina.

Regina meaning queen in Latin. Our postboxes are living memorials to the kings and queens of Great Britain who followed her — some 130 are marked with the cypher of Edward VIII, despite his short reign before his abdication. More than two thirds of them carry EIIR, for the late Queen Elizabeth.

In short, there can be few commercial institutions in the UK which are so redolent of our national history — and none at all that can trace their origins back to the moment in 1516, when Henry VIII knighted the first Master of the Posts, Sir Brian Tuke, who created the first formal postal network. Daniel Kretinsky, right, at last year’s Europa Conference League final, which was won by West Ham, a club in which he owns a large stake In the manner of other billionaires Kretinsky has an heiress girlfriend, 27-year-old fellow Czech Anna Kellnerova Yet 508 years on, Royal Mail, one of the nation’s most venerable institutions, has .