Swinney says 'instinct' is to reverse postal services sell off after independence Finance Secretary John Swinney has told a BBC debate programme that his instinct would be to keep postal services in public control following a yes to independence, but he could not be "definitive" about it. He was answering a question about the UK government's impending privatisation of Royal Mail. The matter was raised again in the Scottish Parliament on Thursday when First Minister Alex Salmond said in the event of a yes vote in 2014, a post-independence government led by him would bring the service back into public ownership.