What happened to the government's pledges on the Post Office

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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Its actions are leading to a shrivelled network of post offices and the ultimate destruction of a great public institution

Exactly a year ago Vince Cable and Ed Davey, ministers of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, put their names to their big Post Office plan. It was called Securing the Post Office Network in the Digital Age, and it had lots of pledges in it.

Incredible as it may seem, the document, a year on, turns out to be full of glaring inexactitudes. The news last week that National Savings and Investments is to axe its link with the Post Office so that people may no longer operate their accounts through it – affecting 2,600,000 people – because the government wants NS&I to make 10% savings, shows how empty the pledges in the document were.

The Communication Workers Union general secretary, Billy Hayes, says: "The uncertainty facing the post office network is crippling for many postmasters. NS&I products have always been associated with the Post Office brand and are popular. Removing them makes no sense and is another betrayal of the network by a government which claims to care about the Post Office."

George Thomson, general gecretary of the National Federation of SubPostmasters, was "surprised and bitterly disappointed" by NS&I's decision to remove certain products from sale to the public.

Both organisations reminded the government of its pledge to make the Post Office the "front office for government". In fact, since this pledge was made, the amount of government business going through post offices has declined – revenue from this decreased by 7.4% in the last financial year – the "green giro" account has been lost, and now the government has blessed the NS&I decision.

A year ago, the government also said it wanted the expansion of financial services available through the Post Office. Clearly, there has been no expansion. Indeed the dismal alliance with the Bank of Ireland has produced neither the promised children's account, the business account nor the full current account. Of the Post Bank (promised in the Liberal Democrat manifesto) there is no sign.

So, two big pledges have come to naught. What about "there will be no programme of post office closures under this government" and "the Post Office serves a distinct social purpose"? It depends on what is being closed and whether you think a social purpose is served by having decreased postal functions served up at the general counter of Londis or Tesco.

For this, under the Post Office modernisation, is what is schemed to happen to 2,000 sub post offices – a fifth of the network- under the Local model. Reduced PO functions will now be offered at retail counters of supermarkets, petrol stations and pharmacies. One point to make about this cost saving measure – which has not been the object of wide consultation by Post Office Ltd – is that it makes a nonsense of the government pledge to increase financial services offered through the Post Office. A Local model will not be able to deal with them.

The truth is that the government is not committed to expanding or strengthening this great public institution. It is subjecting it to one-size-fits-all-cost and revenue requirements, which as a public service it is unable to satisfy. It is refusing to let it take the logical directions – government business and financial services – that could create revenue.

With the latest news from NS&I, it's clear the government's more truthful pledge would be to a shrivelled Post Office network and the ultimate destruction of a great public institution.

[DirtyHarry]

I hate everything about modern Britain, a really crap nation is this very moment being forged by the greedy, the dishonest, the morally, as well as the culturally, deficient people ever to walk Britain's soil.
Nothing, but nothing, is left alone. Even something which works, has worked, relatively well for decades and decades, is systematically dismantled, and then re-assembled into the most appalling mess.
I despair for the young, I really do.

[osgoody1970]

how right can you be, your spot on, and my son just joined the royal mail!!!

[POSTMAN]

how right can you be, your spot on, and my son just joined the royal mail!!!

Nasty,couldn't you of just got him adopted.

[jmcg]

good grief i feel sorry for your son! its not too late to save him.........................