Now then, I know the post office closures are down to the EU, and that does anger me, but am I the only one who doesn't go purple in the face with rage when mention is made of post office closures? What really angers me is that our own government didn't withdraw the subsidy years ago and let them take their chances in the market like other businesses have to.
I'll bet £50 worth of premium bonds that if you ask a random 10 people when they last used their local post office at least 9 will answer that they can't remember, or that it was in 1978 to buy a dog licence. Here are my 10 reasons why post offices are a throwback that should be left to die or survive on the open market:
1-No more dog licences
2-No more British Visitors' Passports
3-No more Post Office savings accounts
4-Car tax bought on the internet as are TV licences.
5-Bills paid on the internet and/or direct debit as are TV licences
6-Pensions paid straight into the bank
7-Who buys premium bonds any more?
8-Emails
9-Stamps can be bought in virtually any shop
10-Anything that Crozier and Leighton run dies anyway-look at the English FA and Leeds United!
For God's sake it's 2008, times have changed (see above list) and if you really want a social hub in your village/suburb then try saving something useful like the local pub.
4 comments:
Hi Gregg
You are clearly not a friend of the Post Office network which is run in the main by hard working independent Sub Postmasters and Post Mistresses. We did not design the network or the way that it operates, that was down to Governments over the past 168 years plus.
You also clearly don't talk to the right 9 out of 10 people and don't full understand how E.Bay work or the hundreds of other types of non standard mail that are not covered by 1st and 2nd class stamps that you can buy in any shop.
Your formula would just throw these family businesses to the dogs just like this governments approach.
As for the management of Royal Mail if they were able to operate in a free market place do you really thing that the current model would last the first day?
Agreed. And if The People want them to be subsidised, then this should not be out of some vague central pot, it should be up to local voters to decide yes or no to subsidies, and for these to be added as an extra line to the Council Tax bill. That'll certainly focus people's minds.
It's not that I am 'not a friend of the Post Office' but I know lots of small family run businesses that have gone to the wall because they couldn't claim subsidies, and quite rightly so.
If the subsidy argument was taken to the logical extreme I could be running a bow and arrow making business now, or even be building stagecoaches.
I'm hard working too, so if I think of a business that is loss making, would you be happy to bung me a few quid every week to indulge my poor business sense just so I could carry on doing what I like?
Oh by the way, I was a counter clerk for a couple of years in the 80s and my Dad was a postman all his working life, so I think I have some idea how the Post office functions.
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