Letters
It’s perfectly obvious why the Post Office is on the move
SIR - Robert Sanders felt that the meeting about the central Post Office transfer did not address the issues of why the business was being moved to WH Smith's (Chronicle, March 13).
I thought that the Post Office's Peter Mylchreest dealt with the matter most honestly.
He made very clear that the transfer was taking place primarily because WH Smith's consider they will be able to employ counter clerks at a wage substantially less than currently paid by the Post Office.
The difference not only allows a profit to be taken by WH Smith's shareholders and senior management, but still reduces the cost to the Post Office significantly.
No doubt some of the margin will also allow the board of the Post Office to take a bonus on top of their current stratosalaries for their success in cost cutting.
As prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate, Mr Sanders should recognise the activity as a microcosm of the Thatcherite free market' dogma promoted by UK governments over the past quarter-century.
The effect is that, overall, income is transferred, from those (such as PO clerks) who actually carry out the work on which we all depend, to the pockets of the already wealthy who can claim they have earned even more by their success in cost-cutting', or just shuffling money around.
The only difference between the parties in this game of making the rich richer and the poor poorer, is that New Labour' has provided better welfare payments to supplement the inadequate pay of the privately employed staff.
So, here in Winchester, the reduction in Post Office subsidy will probably be more than offset by the additional cost of providing and paying welfare benefits of various kinds to the new WH Smith staff. However, this true cost of transferring the work will be hidden elsewhere in the government accounts - currently, the budget deficit since our government does not even have the courage to tax bloated salaries progressively.
A century ago, it was the free market's' ever-widening disparities in income and wealth which promoted the rise of trade unions and the Labour Party.
Now, with enfeebled trade unions and identikit parties, there is no organised power to counter the erosion of earned incomes at the bottom and the associated inflation of wealth at the top of the salary scales, which is the framework behind the Post Office transfer.
George Sudbury,
Romsey Road,
Winchester.
9:57am Thursday 27th March 2008
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CommentPosted by: Stephen, Winchester on 10:25am Thu 27 Mar 08
George Sudbury is completely wrong, the reason post offices are closing is because is because of an EU diktat that stops governments (at the least the UK government) supporting their post offices financially. Can you possibly imagine the French and Germans letting thier post offices be closed!
George Sudbury is completely wrong, the reason post offices are closing is because is because of an EU diktat that stops governments (at the least the UK government) supporting their post offices financially. Can you possibly imagine the French and Germans letting thier post offices be closed!
Posted by: Mike Davies, Winchester on 3:03pm Fri 28 Mar 08
I was in WH Smith's this morning (Fri) to buy a newspaper. The queue was 16 people long (10 minutes wait). Goodness knows how long the queues will be when the Post Office opens!!!
I was in WH Smith's this morning (Fri) to buy a newspaper. The queue was 16 people long (10 minutes wait). Goodness knows how long the queues will be when the Post Office opens!!!
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