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Don't Be Deceived by
Tory Post Office Stance |
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At a time
when all politicians are rightly subject to increasingly rigorous scrutiny,
it’s regrettable, and damaging to the whole of politics, when certain
politicians try to pull the wool over the eyes of the general public. Take
the recent debate on Post Offices
 in
the House of Commons and the great Tory deception as proof of this.For almost a week the media was duped by into believing that the Conservatives wanted to save Post Offices from closure and that this would be the subject of an Opposition Day debate in the House of Commons. Imagine my surprise when Opposition Day arrived and the Tories said nothing of the sort. Gordon Brown has worked hard to put Parliament – not the Press – at the heart of the political decision making process in this country and so before deciding which way to vote I paid careful attention to the debate in the House of Commons, rather than the media spin. Speaking for the Conservative front bench, Alan Duncan (the Tory energy spokesman famously known for his self confessed "instinctive hostility" towards the nuclear industry) told the House, "Let me make it clear that we fully expect the network to shrink in size. We have never given a guarantee that no post offices will close…" A very different story to the one he had been telling the Press. When asked if he would match Labour’s £1.7 billion subsidy for the Post Office – money which is keeping open thousands of struggling Post Office branches - he replied "I will not do that." When asked how many branches he would like to see closed he replied that he had "never called for a specific number" and when asked how much public money the Tories would put into the Post Office network he replied, "no new money". At a stroke, the Tory campaign to ‘save’ Post Offices was revealed as nothing of the sort. No wonder then, that the press and the public were confused by this deceit. To add insult to his front bench spokesman’s injury, David Cameron did not even vote in favour of the Tory motion… In contrast, the Government motion made provision for a £1.7 billion pound subsidy for the Post Office between now and 2011 – the only motion which gave any support to any of our post offices whatsoever. I voted for this motion and with Copeland Borough Council, I have launched a campaign to save those Post Offices now threatened by closure. In addition to shutting over 3,000 Post Offices when they were last in power, the Tories never subsidised the Post Office by a single penny. Unfortunately, changes to the way in which we all live our lives have fetched some uncomfortable realities for the Post Office network. The facts are that there is a lot of competition for mail services, more and more people buy their car tax, and TV licences on-line and outside of normal operating hours and many payments such as pensions and other state entitlements are now paid directly into people’s bank accounts – all of which has seriously affected the Post Office. Since 1997 Labour has paid £2 billion in subsidies to the Post Office and has set aside a further £1.7 billion subsidy for between now and 2011. Nationally, the Post Office loses £3.5 million every week and has lost in the region of 4 million customers in recent years, so change to the Post Office network is sadly inevitable. So although we have to recognise the realities, and we have to consider whether approximately £4 billion would have been spent better on schools, hospitals and policing, we should fight to retain our threatened Post Offices and urge the Post Office to examine over-provision in urban areas before looking at our local service. Finally, I have asked Cumbria County Council to consider adopting our threatened Post Offices in the event of closure. Irrespective of political party, anyone interested in helping me and Copeland Borough Council to help the Post Office to change its proposed closure plans for Copeland should send their support to protectourpost@hotmail.co.uk or sign the petitions in any of the affected post offices.
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