Post Office “burying” yet more bad news

Sent to the Evening Times: 10th January 2008. Not Published

Sir,

With all the current media frenzy about Post Office closures, the Post Office evidently decided it was a good opportunity to quietly bury news of yet another closure in Glasgow, in addition to the main closure programme. Bothwell Street Post Office in the City Centre is to close on 13^th March, to be replaced by a counter within WH Smiths on Sauchiehall Street. This had been out to consultation, but they conveniently chose this week to quietly make the formal announcement of the bad news.

Post offices provide a vital service both to local communities and to businesses, and the closure of the branch which serves Glasgow’s international financial services district cannot be defended as a change for the better. Neither can the potential job losses, as the 16 staff will not be automatically transferred to the new location.

Post offices in Scotland are currently operating at a relatively small annual loss of about £7.5million. The London government’s solution appears to be simply to close branches. The service has been seriously undermined in recent years, with functions such as pension and benefit payments now mainly bypassing the Post Office, and TV Licensing being taken away. It’s the combination of all the separate services which makes the Post Office viable and invaluable to its users.

Our national postal service is not just a business; it is a vital public service. Any normal country would defend this service, but our Labour government only treat it with contempt – what hope have we got when the Department of Work and Pensions now use a private mail company rather than Royal Mail?

Yet another reason for Scotland to ditch London rule and take control of its own affairs.

Yours, etc,

Blame for Post Office Closures

Sent to the Herald:  9th January 2008.  Not Published.

Sir,

As Glasgow comes to terms with the loss of 24 Post Offices, it is worth reflecting on where responsibility for this decision ultimately lies.

The simple fact is that the Labour Party is to blame for robbing communities in Glasgow and across Scotland of these key community assets.

The Labour Party abandoned the notion of the Post Office as a public service and passed laws that made profitability the key.  None of Glasgow’s Labour MPs opposed this in Parliament, which makes their attempts to now claim that they do not support the closures ring all the more hollow.

Nobody disputes that the Post Office needs to adapt to the new technologies and demands of the 21st Century.  As long as decisions about Scotland’s postal service are made in London by an arrogant and out of touch Labour government, however, it seems there is little hope of the Post Office properly meeting the needs of people in Glasgow.

Yours etc

Tearing Down the Ringfences

Sent to the Herald:  31st December 2007.  Not Published.

Sir,

Over the last few days your pages have covered several scaremongering stories about the abolition of ringfencing of Council budgets. If we were to believe them then we can expect a Great Flood to drown much of Scotland, vulnerable children to be left to fend for themselves, and no more Hogmanay at street parties in our cities!

These stories have been spun by Labour opposition MSPs who are struggling to find anything substantive to criticise the SNP Government on, and are forced to rely on the doom mongering that the electorate rejected in May. Labour MSPs evidently don’t trust even Labour-run councils to allocate funds in the most appropriate way for their local communities.

It was refreshing therefore to read COSLA President (and Labour councillor) Pat Watters’ opinion piece in Monday’s Herald, fully endorsing the removal of ringfencing. As he said, the reduction in the bureacracy alone will provide for more funds to be directed at these vital services, rather than on reporting back to central government.

Councils are accountable to the electorate, not to the Government, and this democratisation of councils’ spending abilities is yet another refreshing and positive initiative by the SNP Government.