Crozier Was Only Obeying Orders

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Sir

Your correspondent Alec Baker last week highlighted the unacceptable consequences of the closure of Alton Post Office by the unlamented Adam Crozier who is now on his way to ruin ITV as well.

But Mr Baker appears not to be aware that Crozier was merely obeying orders from Brussels.

Article 88 of the Treaty of Amsterdam obliged the British government to seek Brussels’ permission to subsidise public services, including post offices. Such permission was limited in terms of both cash and time. To meet EU competition rules, 3000 sub-post offices were forced to close because, by March 2008, the time limit was up.

Hence the present crisis, particularly in rural areas.

Extensive questioning of the commission by me and others revealed that policy came before logic and common sense.

Mrs Neelie Kroes, the Dutch competition commissioner at the time claimed that ”consumers can continue to enjoy these services while also reaping the benefits of a more competitive market.” Quite where in rural communities competition to basic post office services is to be found she failed to make clear.

In a written answer to one of my many other questions, Neelie Kroes chose her words with infinite care. She said : ”The Commission has not been involved in decisions concerning post office closures.”

In the narrowest of senses she was exactly right. Crozier decided which were to go. But he was doing only what he was instructed to do. In Brussels-speak this is called “shared management”. We decide - you enforce. It allows each side to avoid blame for the consequences. The Brussels bureaucrats could say the closure of any specific post office was nothing to do with them. But the British government, terrified of the public outcry which would have followed, dared not allow the Post Office to say that they were only following Brussels’ orders.

I invited Mrs Kroes to come and see the effects of post office closures in rural Britain for herself. She refused.

Ashley Mote

(MEP for SE England 2004-2009)