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Independence won’t deliver on postal service        24/1/13

 

Sirs,

It is nice to be able to agree with Angus Brendan MacNeill MP about something, so I welcome his opposition to the possible Post Office privatisation. However, this raises the obvious point that Mr MacNeill also has some questions to answer.

Would he agree that the best bulwark against privatisation is the retention of a majority of MPs who are opposed to that principle? If all of Scotland's MPs were removed from Westminster - Labour, Liberal Democrat and Scottish Nationalist - would that make Post Office privatisation more or less likely?

At present, the Universal Obligation which our MP wishes to defend covers the whole of the United Kingdom. If the Post Office in the rest of the United Kingdom was privatised, what likelihood is there of it respecting an Universal Obligation covering the furthest corners of what could, by then, be a foreign state if our MP’s dreams are realised?

Have the SNP made any attempts to secure the guarantee of a "United Post Office" any more than they have sought legal advice on EU membership or decided which currency they want to adopt? It seems most unlikely that they have given the implications for postal services or charges a second thought, any more than any of the other "details" about independence.

An Universal Obligation restricted to Scotland would be of very little use to the Western Isles. Increasingly, the postal service is used for the delivery of parcels and packages ordered on-line. Whereas haulage contractors impose island surcharges, the Post Office does not. Turning Scotland and England into separate countries would throw away that benefit, along with many others.

Finally, does Mr MacNeill have any idea what it would cost to run a separate Post Office and what charges would be passed on to consumers? I will give him a clue. The most expensive country in the world to post a letter is Norway, at a cost of £1.15, almost double the UK charge even after the recent price increase.

If Mr MacNeill is genuinely interested in his constituents' postal interests rather than in merely putting out a press release, it is not just privatisation he should be opposing but the pointless break-up of the United Kingdom.

Matt Bruce

Western Isles Constituency Labour Party

38 Church St

Stornoway

 

 

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