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FOR more that 150 years, Scots have relied on the Royal Mail.

They know that whether you post a letter in Selkirk, Sauchiehall Street or Stornoway, the cost is the same.

That is only possible while the Royal Mail remains in public hands.

Now the coalition government in Westminster – who make all the decisions about Scotland’s post – want to sell it off “within weeks”.

Nobody asked us.

That’s bad manners – especially as Scotland owns a population share of the Royal Mail.

Actually, it’s worse than bad manners, it’s a travesty of democracy.

When the West-minster parliament voted on Royal Mail privatisation, 79 per cent of MPs from Scotland were against.

By contrast, 58 per cent of MPs from the rest of the UK were in favour of a sell-off.

That is the harsh reality of the political straitjacket that binds Scotland to Westminster.

We are told we have “influence” in London. We are told the parliamentary union of Scotland and England is the finest partnership in history.

How can that be when Scotland’s representatives at Westminster are ignored?

That is not an equal partnership. Nor is it one based on equality or respect.

The political arithmetic is against Scotland. We will always be outnumbered at UK level.

That’s why Thatcher was able to impose the Poll Tax on Scotland.

And that’s why OUR Royal Mail can be sold off against OUR wishes.

The arrival of a Scottish Parliament in 1999 protected us from another Poll Tax because that was an area of policy controlled by Holyrood. Because devolution also gave the Scottish Parliament total control of education we were able to abolish university tuition fees.

And because we control health we could stop charging old people for personal care and the poor for medicine.

When water was sold off to the highest bidder in England and Wales, we said enough was enough.

There was a successful campaign to keep Scottish Water publicly owned – the only morally correct position.

Now Scots have the lowest household water bills in the UK.

But devolution is unfinished business because it left important parts of our national life under Westminster control.

Some essential services – such as the Royal Mail – continue to be run from the south.

Our Scottish Parliament doesn’t control defence, so we are powerless to stop nuclear weapons being dumped on the Clyde while we are charged £250million a year to accommodate them.

Our Scottish Parliament doesn’t control welfare, so we are powerless to stop the cruel bedroom tax, which the vast majority of Scottish MPs at Westminster voted against.

We cannot even depend on UK Labour to save the Royal Mail. Ed Miliband could stop privatisation tomorrow if he announced that a future Labour government at Westminster would take it back into public ownership.

Nobody would buy the shares and the planned privatisation would collapse tomorrow.

But Ed refuses to make that commitment.

When the mail was privatised in other countries, such as the Netherlands, thousands of postal workers lost their jobs or saw their incomes cut.

The service became unreliable and costs soared.

Privatisation of the Royal Mail comes at the worst possible time.

Online shopping is growing as the Scottish government invest in broadband – opening up new retail opportunities.

But a privatised Royal Mail could charge Scottish customers more if they are considered “remote”.

Remember, some independent delivery companies already classify cities like Inverness “remote”.

The last thing we need is for Royal Mail to impose similar geographical penalties.

But that would eventually happen as a privatised Royal Mail abandoned the universal service obligation in order to increase profits.

We’ve already seen what the privatisation of gas and electricity has done to fuel bills.

That is why Alex Salmond has asked David Cameron to put a stop to the Royal Mail sale until after the 2014 independence referendum.

He has also appealed to Miliband to speak up and stop the sell-off by matching the SNP promise to keep the Royal Mail public.

So far, both Westminster leaders have ignored these appeals from Scotland.

It’s yet another example of a useless union.