www.vote-jonathan.co.uk

Local Lib Dems, Labour and Conservatives unite in indignation at the proposed closure of 53 South Yorkshire Post Offices, and rightly so. Yet it begs the question: why are Post Offices threatened?

A daily delivery to the entire country including remote rural areas is unprofitable. Hence the Royal Mail made profit from other services such as couriering, and relying on government subsidies.

Thanks to European Union Directives 97/67/EC and 2002/39/EC, competing companies can now cherry-pick the Royal Mail's most profitable services. Meanwhile EU competition laws prevent the Government from increasing subsidies. There is a black hole facing the Royal Mail's finances, and it is local Post Offices which suffer.

Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem MEPs voted for the EU's Postal Services Directives; only UKIP consistently opposed them.

Jonathan Arnott (UKIP Sheffield Branch chairman)