Post Offices

I have to confess I have no great emotional attachment to Post Offices perhaps it's because I do not live in a so-called rural community and thus do not benefit from the various social services that are provided from Post Offices. But looking at the harsh economic reality of it, the Government is 100% correct to reform the network. Any Government has to make sure that it is getting value for taxpayers money i.e in terms of the £150m-a-year subsidy for the rural network. Is it sustainable for 800 of the smallest post offices to be used by an average of 16 people a week? The Government has pumped nearly £2billion of taxpayers money into the entire Post Office network that shows it's committment in my view, in return should the Government not ask for some form of change/reform? The blunt truth is that more and more people use bank accounts and have no need for the Post Office, also it's cheaper for the Government to pay benefits into bank accounts rather than than the through the Postal Network. Anybody who herd the Trade and Industry Secretary on the Today program in my view car'nt but be persuaded by the Govt. argument which is sound. This country is starting to become more and more anti-reform and risk averse, I wonder what Thatcher would say? I find it amazing that traditional bastions of the establishment such as the Telegraph and the Tory Party are happy to maintain the status quo which reguard to this issue. Perhaps David Cameron is playing this for electoral reasons like the NHS, but these things always come back to bite as Labour have found. I imagine some Tories feel that once in power that Cameron will be a proper radical like Thatcher, but many Labour people thought Blair would be a proper 'leftie' once in power and it turned out to be untrue. So perhaps when Cameron reads out the 'longest shopping list in history' which seems to includes increasing support for the postal network he really does believe it. I almost feel sorry for the Conservatives.