It’s all right for some. On the eve of May Day, it was revealed that the hedge fund headed by George Osborne’s best man Peter Davies netted £36 million from the privatisation of Royal Mail in under six months. That’s £210,000 for each day since the sale in October last year. Davies sits on the management committee of Lansdowne Partners, which bought shares at the offer price of 330p.
The National Audit Office criticised the government for the sale, which saw City firms walk off with two-thirds of the public asset: “The [government] was very keen to achieve its objective of selling Royal Mail...Its approach, however, was marked by deep caution, the price of which was borne by the taxpayer.” ■