2,500 more post offices to close

The BBC reports today that about 2,500 post offices are to close by 2009, representing a fifth of those left in the UK.

The news comes on top of the over 4,000 post offices that have shut in the past eight years.

Trade Secretary Alistair Darling, ahead of speaking in Parliament about the post office network, claimed that the current network was "unsustainable".

But opposition parties say further closures will devastate local communities, particularly in rural areas.

The network has been affected by the decision to pay a range of services like pensions and benefits directly into bank accounts, while others traditionally provided by post offices like TV and driving licences, passports and tax disks are now increasingly being bought online.

Liberal Democrat trade spokeswoman Susan Kramer said the closures would be a "death knell" for many communities.

"The government sees only a business in inevitable decline. Its plan is designed purely to save money and has nothing to do with meeting the long-term needs of people who rely on post offices for essential services."

If the government can't afford to subsidise those post offices that are not profit-making on the grounds of the essential support and services they provide in many communities, they need to be looking to make savings in the areas of government spending that are an obvious waste.

One obvious target for making a saving is the £2.5bn extra every year that Tony Blair has agreed to hand over to the EU - because of the scale of the saving possible, and the complete lack of justification for rewarding an audit-failing organisation with a 60% increase in payments.

Are MPs going to agree to this waste, when the EU budget deal comes before Parliament for their approval? If so, post office closures due to lack of public money for subsidies will be their fault alone - and local voters will know who to blame, come the next election.