“POSTAL SERVICE PRIVATISATION WILL DESTROY THE POST OFFICE .

Labour MP, Michael Connarty, confirmed his strong support of a publicly run postal system with a storming attack in the UK Parliament on the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government’s Postal Services Privatisation Bill.

“POSTAL SERVICE PRIVATISATION WILL DESTROY THE POST OFFICE AND END UNIVERSAL ONE PRICE MAIL DELIVERY”

Labour MP, Michael Connarty, confirmed his strong support of a publicly run postal system with a storming attack in the UK Parliament on the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government’s Postal Services Privatisation Bill.

Connarty focused on the failure of the Bill to protect the Inter Business Agreement (IBA) that underpins the business relationship between Royal Mail and the Post Office. He said, “This is one of the nastiest things that the government will ever do to the people of the UK.”

He drew comparisons with past utilities privatisations which now resulted in sky high prices for consumers in domestic and transport fuel, and said that the introduction of market forces into the Post Office had already seen the loss of TV Licensing services to Paypoint.

Michael Connarty said,

“With the refusal of the government to agree a 10 year extension of the Inter Business Agreement, this Bill attacks one of the fundamental structures of our local communities” because, “it will result in the loss of over £300million in Royal Mail business for post offices and their closure in large numbers. Already, 900 post offices are up for sale, and many others are long term temporarily closed. Even in the market driven USA, there was still a full scale public postal service which they accept as a service to their communities supported by government funds".

He concluded, “The most important thing is to vote against this Bill and to let people know that what is being done is another broken promise by the Liberal Democrats in helping the Conservatives to privatise our Mail services and also smash the post office network.”

See full speech in Hansard, Wednesday 12 January 2011

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