Adrian Sanders

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Adrian's Herald Express Article for Friday 18th April 2008

You might not have noticed given the number of major political issues that have been in the headlines this past fortnight that the House of Commons has been in recess.

While that hasn’t prevented very important matters coming to light and being discussed in public, there hasn’t been any Parliamentary scrutiny of those who have some responsibility for these matters. When the House returns next week we are going to have our work cut out.

I hope we shall get an opportunity to look at the repercussions of the very welcome High Court Ruling that said Human Rights laws should be applied to British troops.

The Defence Secretary has appealed this decision which means we won’t be able to debate the implications of the Judgement in detail, but we can question why he and the Government felt it necessary to appeal.

There was another High Court judgement that has very serious implications for this and any future Government. This was the ruling that the Serious Fraud Office inquiry into secret payments by British Aerospace to Saudi Arabia should never have been dropped.

We need two investigations, one into the arms deal itself, and an independent inquiry into the political pressure that was brought to bear on the director of the Serious Fraud Office before he dropped the investigation.

I cannot believe it can ever be right for a Government to submit to effective blackmail by another state. I am not very hopeful that Parliament will vote for both investigations given the Conservative Opposition’s support for the Government in this matter.

It was the hard work of my colleague Vince Cable MP who almost single handedly brought out the truth of this shoddy deal and he, others, and I, are determined not to allow things to rest here.

We’ve also had the Coastguard strike where skilled people who take life and death decisions when alerted to incidents earn between Ł12,500 and Ł14,500 – a scandal even by the low pay standards of our part of the world. Hopefully there will be a debate, or at least a statement from the Government about this dispute.

But by far the biggest concern for everyone is the state of the economy and our ability to withstand the international pressures that have been mounting for some time.

Once again it was my colleague Vince Cable MP who before the last election was arguing that the UK was over-borrowing and household debt was rising too fast.

During the recess there has been another interest rate fall but there remains a disconnect between the Bank of England's interest rate and the rates high street banks are willing to offer customers. Many lenders have actually increased their mortgage rates.

Falling stock markets, adverse currency fluctuations for the pound and rising food prices have all hit the headlines these past few days and are all likely to remain high on the news agenda.

The problems facing the Government are likely to dominate politics for the next two years as I cannot see Gordon Brown calling an election until he has to in May 2010.

Gordon Brown is taking a great deal of flak for economic factors beyond his control, such as the sub-prime lending market in the US that has caused so many problems for the UK economy. PMs always get the blame for what happens on their watch, although it’s a little unkind that around Westminster Gordon is being referred to as the Sub-Prime Minister!

By the end of May we will know which post offices in Torbay will be recommended for closure. It will be the third round of closures to impact on the bay.

The threat does not come from the EU as some claim. The EU’s intervention concerns opening up competition in the postal and parcel sectors, not post offices. To prove the point over 3,500 local post offices closed under the last Conservative Government before the postal services directive was even on the drawing board. Under Labour another 4,000 have closed, hitting communities across the country. These closures are a matter of UK Government policy.

Post offices are often a vital community resource and have benefits far in excess of the services they offer; they often serve as a local community hub not only in villages, but also in urban communities away from town centres.

It’s clear though that the post office network in its current state is not financially viable. People are voting with their feet, or should that be cheque books, to have tax credits, pensions and benefits paid direct to their accounts.

Instead of closing post offices, which is an act of social irresponsibility, ways should be found to keep them open.

The Government keeps saying that services provided by central and local government need to be more accessible to local communities. This could be addressed by providing one stop shops in neighbourhoods.

Such a vision could allow for the relocation of post office and other services into public buildings currently on the Mayor’s for sale list.

We must also look to incorporate post offices with services provided by the voluntary and private sectors. Local shops and pubs are obvious choices as they already serve as a community focus.

There is also scope for providing high quality jobs in local communities as these new hubs can be staffed by multi skilled professionals, expert not only in providing post office services but in local advice and advocacy in a range of areas; housing, benefits, pensions, tax and so on.

Vision is clearly lacking in central Government to do something radical to save the network. Can a local solution be found to save our Post Offices or is that a dream too far?

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