The Stamp of Authority

The fallout from the local elections continues. Labour members who are willing to put their heads up still cannot agree on which policy the Governmnent has got most wrong. People are mostly complaining about tax and which sounds to many MPs as the abolition of the 10p rate. It was certainly a shot-in-the-foot decision affecting about 5m people but only marginally in terms of actual quids in pockets. What people really mean is where the cost of living has gone sky high such as petrol, gas and electricity where (short of a windfall tax on the companies) Government can do very little.

But one area where the Ministers certainly have their fingers on the levers of power are the Post Offices. Charles Clarke (Norwich South) was crystal clear on the impact the intention to shut 3,500 P.Os had on local voting intentions. On 6 May, Tony Wright (Gt.Yarmouth) secured an adjournment debate on the Government consultation process aka closure programme. The Minister responding, the lesser known Pat McFadden from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), set out many of the reasons for the network's lack of competiveness. They were predominantly because the post offices are no longer providing many services they used to. Mr McFadden failed to mention the decisions to take away products like car tax were Government ones. It's a bit like the chairman of a football club citing the reason for relegation being down to selling all their best players. To which the fans would reply "Yeah it's you who bloody sold 'em."

The atmosphere in most post offices is something like the 1970s which underlines the chronic lack of investment so no wonder they can't compete. Another threat hangs over about a further 3,000 post offices if they lose the contract for Card Account which millions use to cash their pensions, benefits etc. If it happens it will mean the network will effectively have been halved since 1997. The result would be an immense amount of self-congratulation amongst the free-market zealots in the Department but would leave many thousands of people without an essential community service. If Ministers think that is the right balance for the needs of the electorate then they deserve to lose power.