This week has seen, the announcement of post office closures in Thanet, which has given Laura Sandys much to get her teeth into.
It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good, and this week has seen, the Tories make plenty of capital out of the post office's announcement of local closures. It appears to me that Laura Sandys has almost been omnipresent in our local newspapers.
I am frequently mean to her opponent, Stephen Ladyman so for balance, I examine this week's PR performance. It certainly looks like local Tory functionaries, have got their act together as far as making good use of the local press (if only David Cameron were as competent in the coming up with some solid policies, it would be game over for Labour).
Now if you care to visit, Laura Sandys website, you get the impression that the main motivation for her condemnation of the post office proposals is a good sense of community and public service, which as far as I suspect may well be a genuinely held sentiment although the cynic in me, believes this to be purely a politically motivated stunt.
Still if this is part of a new softer caring, Tory party, I just wonder what or how the old guard of Mrs. T's generation feel, I imagine they're spinning in their retirement homes, let's just consider why these post offices, are being closed, unless the Tories know different, we're told that it's to do with making the post office more competitive (something which conservatives when in government have never had a problem with).
Like it or not, Tory or Labour, in the real world, tough decisions are made by people & businesses every day, and since the conservatives have always claimed to represent the interests of a free market, then regrettable as these changes are, wholesale condemnation seems out of place coming from a Tory candidate.
I doubt when push comes to shove, that David Cameron will have the stature or substance to produce a convincing win for the conservative party in the next general election, but on current form labour candidates in marginal constituencies, ought to be updating their C V's.
PS Local Labour party activists ought to take, a close look post-haste, at how the conservatives are running their campaign in Thanet South and contrast that with their apparently non existent efforts to unsettle Rodger Gale let alone unseat him at the next election.
Not a related comment, but the next Thanet local board meeting is on 16th October at 6.30 for 7pm start, and held at Ellington New School off Pysons Road Ramsgate. I am not sure if you will have got the notification this time!
ReplyDeleteThe present Governmrnt presummably controls and issues the directives to close Post Offices. Once lost, these Post ooffices will not reopen which is a lost to our society. We have seen banks closing local branches, but now only to see them reopen local branches in places such as Natwest in Penge in S.london. No private Business would survive with the ques that the general public experience every time they vist a post office i.e Westwood. So will closing post offices will mean that the dreadful que will get longer.. and if so they will lose even further business. This Govt will be responsible for destroying a much valued public institution and has ignored the social consequences. It also encourages poeple to use cars more as they now have to travel further etc.. which is contadictory of policy?
ReplyDeleteNot to mention the fact that my nearest post office is (a) a profitable independent operation under franchise and (b) significantly nearer than the nearest bank. Without that post office there is a chance that no less than 5 additional profitable businesses will fail leaving me with a 35 minute walk into Margate where half the services I enjoy more locally also do not exist.
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