We MUST cease the Royal Mail heist: The six causes Labour promoting off our crown jewels to a Russian-connected Czech is unhealthy for buyers, unhealthy for patrons and unhealthy for Britain: ALEX BRUMMER

The postie, in his all-weather shorts, is so much loved in one small Hertfordshire village, that each Christmas residents club together to buy him a £500 gift voucher plus champagne and chocolates.

At this festive season, love it or hate it, the Royal Mail is an enduring feature of our lives.

Whether one is queuing for an hour and a half to post a gift to a loved-one Down Under or forking out a whopping £13.20 for a book of eight bar-coded first-class stamps, most households have a relationship with the Royal Mail.

There is nothing nicer than receiving a hand-written card (even if it is delayed!) in an age when e-greetings pile into the inbox alongside scams, junk and other unwanted communications.

The Royal Mail’s bright red pillar boxes with the crest of the monarch, stamps with the King’s head – even the unfailing nuisance of having to visit often down-in-heel sorting office to collect undelivered parcels – are all an unchanging aspect of British life.

Yet this oh so familiar institution, which trades on the London stock market as International Distribution Services (IDS), is facing an existential crisis.

Daniel Kretinsky, a Czech billionaire who’s had historic entanglements with Vladimir Putin’s regime in Russia, is close to taking control with a £3.6billion takeover bid. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has given a thumbs up to a deal, naively taking guarantees made as to the future of the postal service and the way it is run at face value.

If you think the post is too expensive now at £1.65 for a first-class stamp and 85p for second class, just you wait.

As for delays, Royal Mail has just been slapped with a £10.5million fine for delivering more than one in four first-class letters late. This too may get even worse under Czech ownership as Mr Kretinsky is likely to try to maximise his profits and to scale back service commitments.

Yet our mealy-mouthed, insensitive and business-naive Labour politicians don’t seem to care.

Mr Reynolds has declared the would-be buyer Mr Kretinsky a ‘legitimate businessman’. Scrutiny by a government probe, under the terms of the National Security & Investments Act, failed to abort the deal.

There are six good reasons why the Government, the public, the posties and shareholders in the business should have told Mr Kretinsky to take a hike:

1. Russian Connections

Much of Mr Kretinsky’s wealth has been accumulated doing energy and pipeline deals with Putin – currently sanctioned by the West. 

He is still entangled in a lengthy and complex legal dispute in Russia over the fate of his coal interests. 

The 49-year-old has been backed in his deal making, which includes ownership of West Ham United FC, by an elusive Slovak investment bank J&T, which is embroiled in an ongoing alleged corruption legal case in the far-off Turks and Caicos Islands.

2. Debt pile

The bid is to be financed by some £3billion of high interest loans provided by foreign banks. 

This is in addition to £2billion of debts already sitting on the balance sheet of the Royal Mail owner IDS. 

Such highly leveraged, debt-driven takeovers, by uncaring overseas financiers, have a terrible record. 

The implosion of Thames Water, currently awaiting a bail-out, has been driven by the need to meeting the interest charges on £16billion of debt. 

The result is under-investment in repairing leaky pipes and tons of sewage spilling into the River Thames. 

At the grocer Asda, a highly leveraged takeover has seen the group suffer a calamitous decline in sales, market share and reputation.

3. Security

The roots of the Royal Mail can be traced back 500 years to a ‘secure’ messenger service for King Henry VIII. 

Centuries later it is the way in which vital public services such as HMRC, the Metropolitan Police, the NHS and other parts of government communicate with us securely in an age of internet scams. 

It is also, of course, key to postal voting and therefore our democratic process. Most households in Britain will be familiar with the distinctive brown, windowed envelopes which land on our doorstep.

4. Culture

Royal Mail is one of the most recognisable brands in the UK. The postie in his shorts, in all weathers, is a visitor we anxiously await especially in the run-up to Christmas, the New Year or a birthday. 

The Royal Family is celebrated with a cipher, dating back to Queen Victoria, on the bright red post boxes in every town, city and hamlet the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

The stamps, decorated with the monarch’s head, are celebrated by every schoolchild collector. 

The commemoratives, exalting everyone from Sir Winston Churchill to the fictional Harry Potter, offer snapshots of all that makes Britain great. 

The price of a first-class stamp may seem high at £1.65. But the service will deliver to the most remote parts of the country (mostly!) by the next day. No other commercial service would offer this. 

This uniquely British heritage is unlikely to mean as much if Royal Mail were to become just another outpost in Mr Kretinsky’s commercial empire that has spread from roots in Eastern Europe. He may also seek to maximise his profits by cutting back on services and raising stamp prices.

5. Investors

Shareholders, including the posties and other employees who own nearly 5 per cent of the stock, risk being short changed. 

A body of activist investors believe that if the regulator, Ofcom, gives the Royal Mail permission to be more flexible on the price of first-class deliveries and the regularity of the second-class service then Mr Kretinsky’s offer price of 370p per share will prove a bargain for him.

They also think that Royal Mail will have been sold for far less than it is really worth. 

In that case the board, headed by former British Airways boss Keith Williams, should withdraw its support or resign, rather than allow shareholders to be sold short.

6. City stitch-up

Advisory firms such as Goldman Sachs, lawyers, banks and consultants are in line to collect mouth-watering fees of £146million if the Czech deal goes ahead. 

They have no pride in a British heritage band and will advise the board that they have no choice – saying it is their fiduciary duty (obligation under company law) – but to accept the offer. 

It is nothing of the kind. Stock market history tells us that brave boards such as pharma group AstraZeneca, miner Anglo-American and others stand firm and reject unsatisfactory deals. 

This shows respect for their company’s history and a commitment to do their job, which is to create value for shareholders themselves, rather than selling out.

Too many foreign takeovers of UK firms such as Thames Water, Heathrow and Arm Holdings have been bad for investors, bad for customers and bad for Britain. There is still time to kill the bid for the Royal Mail.