The not so solid post strike

The Mirror (which I read today because someone brought it in to work) would have us believe today that support for the postal strike is rock solid. This seems at odds with my own experience.

I know people still receiving parcels. I myself have received my post for the last two days and plenty of other people tell me that they are also receiving their post.

The truth is that there are many in Royal Mail who know that the strikes will inevitably lead to greater job losses. It was pointed out on TV last night by Andrew Neil that back under the 1970-74 Edward Heath government, there were many strikes and the government caved in on al of them except for one. The only unsuccessful strike was the postal strike. Back in the 70s there was no e-mail and no competition. The world now does not come to an end when postal workers go on strike and the longer they strike, the more this becomes obvious to everyone.

Labour hypocrisy

When I first started this blog more back in 2006 one of my first blog posts was about a former Lib Dem activist, something of an "odd bod" if you understand what I mean, who had after some rows and internal party issues (to do with him thinking he was more important than he actually was), jumping ship to the Labour party. Subsequently to me posting my original story I was told he was actually rejected by the Tories, so in effect Labour were his last port of call.

Anyway, back in 2006 this person wrote a letter to the Eastern Daily Press attacking me in my position as a councillor and used this letter to also totally misrepresent the Lib Dems new policy on the Post Office.

Now, interestingly, Labour have in great part adopted about 50% of the Lib Dem proposals on the post office, only leaving out the Lib Dem proposal to hand 30% of the Post Office to staff so they can be shareholders in their own future.

So it is very odd that 30 months on from Labour members attacking the Lib Dems over a policy, Labour themselves are actually now flipping 180 degrees and largely agreeing with the Lib Dems.

It does though rather make an idiot of this former Lib Dem colleague of mine who attacked me personally, but then again, if you knew him (and I am sure many Norfolk Lib Dems will have a good idea who I am on about), you'd know it does not take much to make him look like an idiot !

Lib Dem MP uses FOI Act to get info on Post Office Closures

Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk, is using the Freedom of Information Act to request a full copy and breakdown of the score ranking system the Post Office used when deciding to close a number of Post Offices in his North Norfolk constituency.

It might be a good idea for all MPs to do this given the rather arbitrary nature of some closures of Post Offices that are well used and don't seem to qualify for closure. it should make interesting reading.

What's the difference between Labour in opposition and Labour in government ?

Back in 1994 I was agent for the Liberal Democrats in what was termed an "unwinnable" by-election for the vacant Tory seat of Reedham on Broadland District Council. The Lib Dems did actually win, but Labour ran some effective campaigns, particularly the rolling petition they were doing to save rural post offices. Yes, "Only Labour can be relied upon to save local Post Offices" was their bold claim, and this message found a resonance with the electorate that we only overcame be finding a more important issue (Labour didn't really that people had fresh water shrimps coming out of their taps and the Lib Dem petition on this issue, which was succesfully followed up by action from Anglian Water, saw the Lib Dems win by 17 votes).

Whatever the result though, Labour made a bold claim which clearly voters wanted to hear in rural Norfolk.

A few months later I went to University and grabbed a poster from the Labour Students stand at the Fresher Fayre, with a picture of Ken Clarke on it with the headline "This fat bloke just ate my grant", with the tag line underneath that "Kenneth Clarke's budget will mean student grants are cut 10% each year for three years.

You can see the poster below which for some reason I kept, perhaps aware even then that it would highlight Labour's hypocrisy in the future.

Of course, Labour were at the time in opposition, and again like Post Offices, they were claiming that they would defend people from the "evil Tories".

The problem is that in government, Labour have now closed 5,000 Post Offices after today's announced closures, beating the Tories 3,500 during their 18 years in office. And for students, Labour turned out to be even worse than the Tories. Far from a 10% cut in grants each year that the Tories gave us, Labour abolished it completely.

So what is the difference between Labour in government and Labour in opposition. Well its a world of difference, but its a difference that any opposition party ought to take note of. Labour hinted they were different and in some cases promised to be better able than the Tories to prevent cuts, to halt closures and to defend the things that people cared about. But in truth events in recent days, like the Post Office closures that the Labour party, when in opposition, campaigned against, show that there is a real danger, a cancer in British politics, that means that party's desperate attempts to get elected means that they will promise what they know they cannot deliver.

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Post Strikes will not help the Post Office survive but ...

Yes, a big but in my mind is that the problems in the Post Office could so easily have been avoided.

In great part the problems have been caused by the government insisting that the UK postal market be opened up to foreign competition whilst many of the countries the foreign companies are from do NOT open up their own services. In much the same was as it is very difficult now to find a UK company that provides water, gas or electricity because they have been bought by foreign companies whose home markets are still monopolies, the same is happening to the postal service.

The changes the Post Office need to go through do not have to be so quick and so radical and were it not the need to change so quickly of be made extinct by foreign companies who offer few benefits to their own workers, the Post Office's change could have been evolutionary and not revolutionary.

Of course, the proposed changes to the Post Office Pension scheme might have been avoided if the post office had not taken a seventeen year pension holiday on its pension fund (not this was started under the Tories and continued under Labour).

However, given where we are at, I cannot see hoe striking will do anything other than play in to the hands of the Post Office's foreign rivals but I accept at the same time that if I were a postal worker and they were threatening to cut my pension then I would probably go on strike too.

Gordon Brown's coronation will be remembered for what ?

Gordon Brown's coronation will be remembered for what ?

For me it will be remembered for the announcement that his party, the party he will now lead, is going to close 2,500 Post Offices.

Gordon brown claims he is going to spend six weeks travelling the country and listening. he therefore needs to be lobbied again and again about post Office closures, he needs to be shown the devastating effect this will have on rural communities and he needs to have it pointed out that Labour have been highly hypocritical on this issue.

I remember in a local council by-election in 1994 seeing Labour leaflets asking people to sign their petition to "Save the Post Offices" and "Stop the Tory Cuts". This was a by-election held just days after Blair became leader. At the time, it was a popular message in a rural Broadland community that won Labour lots of votes (not enough to win though).

How hypocritical those Labour words sound now.

Here lies the rural Post Office. Born : Victorian Times, died of deliberate neglect : 2007

So it is to be announced that at least 2500 post offices are to close as the government lets private industry take over post office services.

Of course, this will be the death knell of rural post offices in particular. However, the ITN News this evening indicated that it could be even worse with several thousand more post offices likely to be made redundant by "Pay Points" being put in to other shops.

Anyone who knows anything about rural life will know that Post Offices are much more than a place to buy stamps and post letters. They are the very life blood of villages.

Let's make sure that voters always remember that it was Labour that destroyed the Post Office.

How many villages will die after Post Office closures ?

The news today that up to half of all Post Offices will close under plans by the Post Office to save money will be a shattering blow to many, but particularly those in rural communities whose local Post Office is often the very heart of the community and is what keeps the villages sustainable.

I was impressed by plans adopted last year by the Liberal Democrats to part privatise the Royal Mail (the people who sort and deliver the post) in order to raise funds to invest in the Post Office network. It appears though that the government are less creative in their thinking. The government's answer is instead to withdraw the £150 million subsidy the rural Post Office network currently receives.

Let us be in no doubt about the government's actions for they show at its clearest that this government cares not one jot about people living outside of major towns and cities. They simply believe that closure is the only answer.

Very sad indeed !