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Greg Pope · 23-04-2008, 09:43

Why would I vote to close post offices, indeed why would anyone vote for such a thing? To the best of my knowledge there has never been a vote on post office closures as they are, in fact, being closed by Post Office Ltd rather than directly by the Government (this is not to excuse the Government from all responsibility, just to point out that the Government is not actually doing the closing).

Some facts: there are 14,000 post offices of which 9,500 lose money and are subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of half a million pounds a day, every day; many postmasters want to leave as they, understandably, don't want to run what are in effect failing businesses; fewer and fewer of us actually use post offices - 4 out of 5 pensioners get their pension paid into the bank for example, and like many people I renewed my car tax online. As a result of all this 2,500 post offices are closing.

At the end of this process the Tories tabled a motion saying how terrible it all is. It didn't propose saving any post offices, nor did it suggest how we might pay for saving post offices, or even propose who might run them, nor did it mention that 3,500 post offices closed when they were in office. In short it was stunt and I didn't fall for it. It is simply untrue to say that I voted against a plan to save post offices.

Come on, it's bad enough being blamed for what I have done without adding to the charge sheet stuff that's not true!

23-04-2008, 09:43	#21
Greg Pope Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 65 Liked: 0 times Rep Power: 0	Re: Will Greg Pope remain a rebel? Why would I vote to close post offices, indeed why would anyone vote for such a thing? To the best of my knowledge there has never been a vote on post office closures as they are, in fact, being closed by Post Office Ltd rather than directly by the Government (this is not to excuse the Government from all responsibility, just to point out that the Government is not actually doing the closing). Some facts: there are 14,000 post offices of which 9,500 lose money and are subsidised by the taxpayer to the tune of half a million pounds a day, every day; many postmasters want to leave as they, understandably, don't want to run what are in effect failing businesses; fewer and fewer of us actually use post offices - 4 out of 5 pensioners get their pension paid into the bank for example, and like many people I renewed my car tax online. As a result of all this 2,500 post offices are closing. At the end of this process the Tories tabled a motion saying how terrible it all is. It didn't propose saving any post offices, nor did it suggest how we might pay for saving post offices, or even propose who might run them, nor did it mention that 3,500 post offices closed when they were in office. In short it was stunt and I didn't fall for it. It is simply untrue to say that I voted against a plan to save post offices. Come on, it's bad enough being blamed for what I have done without adding to the charge sheet stuff that's not true!