Post Office Hypocrisy

Sent to the Evening Times: 27th March 2008. Not Published

Sir

Tom Harris argument that people who buy stamps in supermarkets but oppose Post Office closures are hypocritical makes no sense (report, 26th March). Real hypocrisy is when MPs and Government Ministers vote for the programme which led to the closures in Parliament but then fight to save their local branches.

Post Offices are often the focus for a local community – so much more than places to pay bills or buy stamps. It was the Labour Party that took away the Post Office’s functions in these areas in the first place.

I am not surprised Tom Harris and his colleagues are upset – they have been caught out putting London loyalty ahead of Glasgow’s grievances, and now they will have to answer to voters at the next election.

Yours sincerely

Labour betrayal

Sent to the Herald: 20th March 2008. Not Published

Sir

Twice in one week the people of Glasgow have been betrayed by their elected representatives in the House of Commons. On Tuesday they voted to drop a bombshell on the city’s whisky industry by approving a 59p per bottle tax hike. On Wednesday, not one of our MPs spoke in the debate about Post Office closures, but those present happily walked through the Government lobby to oppose the motion calling for halt to Post Office
reform programme.

Our MPs must explain themselves to Glasgow residents – why do they campaign locally to save Post Offices but vote in favour of closing them?

Yours sincerely

Whisky Tax Increase

Sent to the Evening Times:  19th March 2008.  Not Published

Sir

It is disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, to see Glasgow’s Labour
MPs once more trail through the voting lobbies of the House of Commons in
favour of London policies which can only harm our city.  Alistair
Darling’s tax bombshell on the whisky industry – an extra 59p per bottle
since the budget – threatens the jobs and livelihoods of the hundreds of
Glaswegians whose jobs depend on the industry.

Glasgow has a large number of bottling plants, not to mention the nearby
distilleries and world-famous whisky bars and shops. This was not enough
to stop city MPs voting for the tax rise on Tuesday. Once again our MPs
prefer to act as ‘Alastair’s Darlings’ rather than Glasgow’s Champions.

Yours sincerely,