Friday, August 24, 2007

Medway Messenger

Mail Services
We need some action post haste

I HAVE been interested to read on your letters pages the recent exchange between Cllr Andy Stamp and MP Paul Clark, about Gillingham Post Office.

Following Cllr Stamp’s latest remarks regarding privatisation, I felt compelled to offer my two pennies’ worth.

I am a Conservative and proud of it. However, I completely disagree with Cllr Stamp’s suggestion that selling 49 per cent of the Royal Mail is the answer to our prayers as concerned citizens – and one could use Metrnoet entering into administration as an example of why privatisation should not be considered.

I seem to remember a report published around the time of Chancellor Gordon Brown’s Budget earlier in the year revealing that, for every extra £100 raised by Mr Brown’s stealth tax increases, only £30 made it on to front line services. The rest, it was claimed, was squandered on bureaucracy and Government waste.

What is needed as a sustainable solution to this, and many other Government failures, is to cut the Government waste, particularly eradicate as much bureaucracy as possible, and see what we are left with:

• Police Officers on the streets where they belong, not stuck at their desks filling in forms.
• Doctors who know what they are doing in charge of our Health Service, rather than pen-pushers who haven’t got a clue.
• Most importantly, more money to invest in eductaion, the NHS, policing and post offices.

This is the common sense approach to governance, supported by the Conservative Party and their Parliamentary Candidate for Gillingham & Rainham, Cllr Rehman Chishti.

Perhaps Cllr Stamp and Mr Clark could consider using their common sense and agree, or perhaps only the Conservative Party can save valuable services such as the Post Office, before it is too late.

Alan Collins
Goudhurst Road
Gillingham