Operating profits of £177m at Royal Mail - a doubling of last year's figure - ought to be good news. Instead, the warning that the improvement was achieved despite the universal service continuing to make a loss and ever-more intense competition from rival operators has fed fears that it is likely to be part-privatised. It will take more than chairman Allan Leighton's assurances of a commitment to the universal delivery service to allay fears that one of the last remaining great British institutions will not be sold off in job lots to the highest bidders.

Operating profits of £177m at Royal Mail - a doubling of last year's figure - ought to be good news. Instead, the warning that the improvement was achieved despite the universal service continuing to make a loss and ever-more intense competition from rival operators has fed fears that it is likely to be part-privatised. It will take more than chairman Allan Leighton's assurances of a commitment to the universal delivery service to allay fears that one of the last remaining great British institutions will not be sold off in job lots to the highest bidders.

There is still anger in many of the communities which have lost their post offices in the closure programme (188 in Scotland, plus 89 where an outreach service has been substituted) that the consultation exercise paid little heed to local concerns. That sense of injustice will now be further stoked by the knowledge that a reduction of spending on the Post Office network contributed to such a startling increase in Royal Mail's profits.

There is no doubt that the postal service is facing tough times: every day five million fewer letters are being delivered than two years ago and there is a pension deficit of £3.4bn, which is expected to increase "substantially" when it is revalued next spring. However, the principle that it costs the same to send a letter from Land's End to Lerwick as from one London suburb to another is built into the bedrock of what it means to be British. It is that same belief that a public service must be equally available to all which inspired protest in towns and villages the length and breadth of the country when "uneconomical" post offices were slated for closure. Elderly people and those on low incomes are hardest hit by losing their post offices. They are also less likely to have internet access at home and will, therefore, be particularly dependent on regular postal deliveries.

However, Lord Mandelson's decision to delay publication of the review into the Royal Mail by Richard Hopper, the former telecoms regulator, is fuelling speculation that part-privatisation will be added to the remit. It is true that Royal Mail has suffered as a result of postal deliveries being opened up to commercial operators. Inevitably, they moved in on the most profitable areas, such as commercial bulk mail, while the Royal Mail is obliged to continue daily deliveries to every one of the UK's 28 million addresses. For that very reason, it is different from any commercial operator - it should be governed by a regime which, while encouraging profitability, recognises that its prime aim is to provide a service.