THIS SEPTEMBER, 67 post offices in different parts of Greater Manchester face closure. The government wants to shut 2,500 around the country. Many local post offices have started their own petitions. We support that and urge everyone – save your post office! We have produced campaign petitions, leaflets and sign-up sheets for action.
Hugh Caffrey
Around 100 local councils say that if post offices are threatened in their area, then they will consider taking them over. We are calling on Greater Manchester residents to contact their councillors, and ask them whether they support such a step.
But none of the parties represented in parliament are consistently anti-cuts, or genuinely on the side of working-class people. No Greater Manchester Labour MP voted against ‘congratulating’ the government on closing our post offices in March 2008.
Liberal Democrats say they oppose closures. But when an independent report proved that privatising mail delivery was a disaster, they demanded more privatisation! They want the government to sell 49% of its stake in Royal Mail (Guardian, 7 May). The original party of privatisation, the Tories, say they oppose post office closures. But they attacked postal workers striking to defend their service and are committed to Labour’s spending limits, i.e. cuts.
