Sunday 22 May 2011

The Future of the Post Office

I totally opposed the part privatisation of Royal Mail and the Post Office when it was considered by the previous Government and I remain totally opposed to the current Coalition Government’s proposals. 

Post Offices are a vital part of our community, not least in rural areas, where they are often the focal point of a village.  If some commonsense and innovative thinking was to permeate the Post Office and Royal Mail then the Post Office could be a thriving business providing not just a traditional postal service but banking facilities and also carrying out a number of local authority tasks.

While it is true that the whole nature of the Post Office business has changed, with more use being made of the internet and less of traditional letters, the real problem arose because the European Commission brought in a Post Office Directive allegedly aimed at opening up ‘competition’ in postal services to ‘give the customer a better deal’.  This always was nonsense but is part of the European Union’s objective of bringing ‘competition’ into every walk of life on the grounds that it would somehow benefit consumers.  It does not.

As I have said I am totally opposed to the privatisation of the Post Office and Royal Mail and I will continue to oppose the Postal Services Bill although I have no confidence whatsoever that the Conservative Government and their Lib.Dem collaborators will listen to what the public want.

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