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Post Office closures will go ahead
7:38am Thursday 20th March 2008
Comments (11)THE CLOSURE of dozens of Hampshire post offices will go ahead as planned after a last ditch attempt to save them was defeated in Parliament last night.
A Tory motion demanding Post Office bosses "suspend" the Government's programme to axe up to 2,500 branches across the UK - including about 60 in Hampshire - was rejected in the Commons by a majority of just 20 votes.
The motion was supported by the Lib Dems but opposed by most Labour MPs even though many of them - including Southampton's John Denham and Alan Whitehead - have campaigned against closures in their constituencies.
Labour MPs were accused by Tory Post Offices spokesman Charles Hendry of a "betrayal of the most vulnerable people in their constituencies that will haunt them for the rest of their careers".
Chris Huhne, Lib Dem MP for Eastleigh, said Mr Denham should have resigned from his Government post as Skills Secretary to oppose the post office closures in the same way as he did over the Iraq war.
Mr Denham hit back, saying: "It's quite possible to support overall Government policy of capping the taxpayers' subsidy to post offices, and putting more money in, while not agreeing with the way the Post Office takes every single decision."
Your Say YourDaily Echo
Common People, Hampshire says...
8:51am Thu 20 Mar 08
older tax payer, southampton says...
9:04am Thu 20 Mar 08
Aaron, Winchester says...
9:05am Thu 20 Mar 08
Neil Fitzgerald, Conservative Candidate for Sholing, Soton says...
9:21am Thu 20 Mar 08
bingolover, southampton says...
10:11am Thu 20 Mar 08
Once again, elderly people are being further isolated by lack of public services. This is a shocking way to treat people who have been paying taxes their whole lives.
Also, I'd like to know where the government got these figures from. Every time I go to the Post Office, regardless of which one it is, I have to queue for at least twenty minutes!
Condor Man, Southampton says...
10:40am Thu 20 Mar 08
Watch in amazement next year when these two almost invisible MP's come back into the local domain to convince the electorate that they are worth another spell at Westminster. Give Royston Smith and Jeremy Moulton a go I say.
hmm, says...
1:13pm Thu 20 Mar 08
288 against
That speaks a lot, you know all the busy body nimbys would of been out to vote for keeping it, where as people who do not care wouldnt of bothered.
It looks like your precious post offices were not as great as your thought
nmills1757, southampton says...
2:40pm Thu 20 Mar 08
Gozza, In the queue at the post office says...
4:23pm Thu 20 Mar 08
Seriously, this whole problem stems from the insistence that public services must makes money. It's like the NHS - if we want it to be there when we need it, we've got to subsidise it through our taxes.
Hopefully the voters will remember this, and boot these two clowns out at the next election...but I have to say I dount it.
Gozza, Still in the queue says...
4:27pm Thu 20 Mar 08
hmm wrote:Umm...you do know that's MPs votes don't you? It isn't about NIMBYs and don't cares!
268 for 288 against That speaks a lot, you know all the busy body nimbys would of been out to vote for keeping it, where as people who do not care wouldnt of bothered. It looks like your precious post offices were not as great as your thought
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Andy, Locks Heath says...
8:20am Thu 20 Mar 08
I accept that the Sub Post Office network needs radical overhaul, but total closure is an outrageous abrogation of the Government's duty. I don't trust them with my taxes and they rob me of more of my money every year to fund pet urban projects. The trouble with labour now is that they no longer even realise how corrupt they've become.