Minor Title Newspaper Access to Royal Mail Night Flights

The motion

That the Parliament notes the emergency resolution passed at the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) calling for steps to be taken to restore access for minor title newspapers to the Royal Mail night flight to Scotland; notes the resolution passed at the conference of the National Federation of Retail Newsagents to fight for the continued distribution of specialist titles; notes the detrimental consequences of the Royal Mail's unilateral decision to cancel the service for the range and diversity of the press available in Scotland, and particularly the loss of two daily newspapers, the Morning Star and the Daily Jang; notes that the cooperatively-owned Morning Star is supported by the STUC and most major trade unions and is relied upon by the trade union movement, while the Daily Jang is Scotland's only daily Urdu language newspaper and caters for Scotland's large Urdu-speaking community; notes that the Royal Mail enjoys a monopoly of night flight landings that are essential for same day distribution, that this monopoly has been associated with its status as a public service and that the withdrawal of access to minor titles represents a breach of this status, and considers that the Scottish Executive should raise these issues, both directly with the Royal Mail and with the Department of Trade and Industry, and press for the urgent restoration of access by the minor titles to Royal Mail night flights to Scotland.


No recorded vote on this motion. Most motions are never debated, and many that are debated are agreed without a division. Vote records are published from 2011.

Lab 14 LD 3 SSP 3 SNP 1 Ind 1 Green 1 SSCUP 1

Party shown is each supporter’s party when the motion was published.

No contribution in the Official Report cites S2M-01285 by reference.