Post question
One listener asked why did we stress so much that a 'German' firm DHL was in a news piece for the Today programme. The listener said that surely the important thing was that it was a "private" firm and that was the principal objection of public sector unions.
I don't think the piece was written in a way that was designed to stigmatise Germany. Clearly there is some concern that the private sector is running an important part of the NHS - transporting medical equipment around the NHS network.
That DHL is German-owned shouldn't affect the running of NHS Logistics. However, the fact that this company is also foreign-owned is an important detail that the listener might want to know about. They might be interested to know that profits from this venture could be heading out of the country to DHL's owner, Deutsche Post (the German Post Office).
There has certainly been a lot of interest in the way that so many foreign businesses have taken important stakes in British business this year. The key point here is not so much that DHL is German but that it is not British.
I also think that with some companies it's important for us to give a little bit of context to the story. Most people know that Ford is American and that BMW is German but many will not know about the ownership of DHL."
