Post Office Closures Will Hit Rural Areas Hardest

Labour has acknowledged that proposals to cut the number of post offices in half will disproportionately affect the elderly in rural regions.

It says ‘nearly half’ of all those nationwide are no longer profitable and subsidies are unsustainable, meaning almost 6,000 of the 11,500 risk being scrapped.

Part-time ones, which open a few days a week or share premises with other businesses, are also threatened. Village post offices are most at risk, particularly if they can’t afford to open full-time.

The Government also suggests it could redefine what is meant by a ‘branch’. This means ‘drop and collect’ boxes could count as post offices.

The threats are in the fine print of Labour’s Future of Post Office consultation, which closes tomorrow.

The Tories have created a petition railing against the changes, with shadow post office minister Harriett Baldwin saying: ‘Post offices are a precious part of our critical national infrastructure.

‘Every community must have access to essential services like cash, parcels and communications.’

In the consultation, the Government acknowledges that post offices are vital community hubs that provide the most ‘social value’ for elderly people. It also admits those in rural areas rely on them more.

Numerous postmasters are still fighting for compensation after being persecuted in the Horizon faulty computers scandal.

A Department for Business spokesman said last night: ‘It is right to consider a range of options to secure the organisation’s long-term future, but our preference is to keep the overall size and shape of the network the same.’

To be honest, why would this Labour government even give a damn about the elderly? After all, they cut the winter fuel allowance, so they’ve already proved that they don’t care about rural communities.

Keir Starmer seems to forget about the pensioners. You know the pensioners that he dislikes, but what he needs to remember is that they are the parents and grandparents of our ordinary working-class people.

When banks began to close branches, we were told we could access many of their facilities from a post office, particularly the depositing and withdrawal of cash. Now they want to do away with the post offices as well.

Of course, it’s more convenient to use a card rather than cash, but if we stop using cash, we will end up losing it, and then our government will be able to follow our every move.

This is truly shameful. Post offices are the fabric of our society, but the game is up if these are allowed to disappear.

This is all part of the plan for a cashless society. Close bank branches and tell us to use the post office, then close them too.

Labour is here just so they can hurt pensioners – they are the meanest government ever, and every policy is a sickening betrayal of their constituents.

Mark my words – not so long from now, post offices will just be history and so will banks, and cash will be gone as well, and it will just be something that our children and grandchildren read in history books, and this is not a country for old folk anymore.

The attack on cash continues. High street banks are as good as gone. ATMs are constantly empty, and now the post offices are being shut. It’s pretty obvious what they’re doing. Digital IDs tied to Central Bank Digital Currency – were screwed!