News

.... a weekly column from Michael Howard MP

20 December 2006

 

The days running up to Christmas are often used by Government to bury bad news. 

The most infamous recent example was on the 14 December. On that day Lord Stevens announced the outcome of his inquiry into the death of Princess Diana, the Prime Minister was interviewed by the police in connection with the cash for honours scandal and the Attorney General announced the decision not to pursue the inquiry into possible corruption in selling arms to Saudi Arabia. 

Sometimes these announcements have a dramatic impact on peoples’ lives. One of these was the Government’s announcement that it expected 2,500 post offices to close by 2009. 

The closure of the local post office can have a substantial effect on a local community, especially, but not only, in rural areas. If the local post office closes then often the last shop in the village closes as well. The life blood of the community can be drained away. The effect on urban areas, too, is considerable. The extra distances which the elderly, in particular, have to walk can have a significant impact on their quality of life. 

Of course peoples’ habits have changed and some of these changes have had an inevitable impact on the way people use post offices. Lots of people now choose to have their pensions and benefits paid direct into their bank accounts. No-one will complain if this were the result of individual choice, freely exercised. The trouble is that some of these changes have been made under great government pressure making it unnecessarily difficult to continue to use the post office and denying post offices a level playing field. 

What is to be done? 

My Conservative colleagues have put forward an action plan to allow post offices to provide a greater range of products and services. We also think it worth investigating a scheme under which people who have concerns about a range of government services can use their local Post Office as a kind of ‘Government GP’ and have called on the Government to review their decision to abolish the Post Office Card Account. 

And remember there are things we can all do. We can use our post office more and make our voices heard if closure of our local post office is proposed. I shall do all I can to help. 

Meanwhile, Sandra and I wish you all a very Happy Christmas.