CWU:Post Office announcement is government propaganda

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9th November 2010

The Communication Workers Union today (Tuesday) accuses the government of misleading the public through propaganda on post office funding. CWU points out that the current funding package is £360 million less than the last funding package, that further closures are not being ruled out, and Vince Cable and Ed Davey are reneging on a Lib Dem manifesto commitment to establish a Post Bank.

Billy Hayes, CWU general secretary, said: "What we're seeing today is a lesson in presentation and spin. Today's plans and funding will not solve the problems faced by the Post Office, in fact this government is adding to the uncertainty the network faces and giving the taxpayer a bad deal in the process.

"Yes funding is welcome, but it's £360 million less than what the last Labour government gave the network. Saying 'no programme of closures' is very different from saying 'no closures'. And the rhetoric of post offices being the shop front for government services is already being exposed as benefit payments look set to move away from post offices to the private company PayPoint.

"Today's statement is light on any detail other than the decision to spike Post Bank. This would have brought lucrative business to the Post Office and access to finance in all communities for small businesses and the financially excluded. Being triumphant about securing access to accounts in banks owned by the taxpayer is ludicrous and a huge climb-down for the Liberal Democrats.

"Ultimately this government is preparing more damage than security for post offices. Privatising the Royal Mail and splitting it from the Post Office will threaten more than a third of the Post Office's revenue, dwarfing the government funding package.

"Finally, we're worried by the timing of this announcement on the day that key players are giving evidence at the Postal Services Bill committee. This empty statement is distracting people from the real issues facing the UK's postal services."