I signed a petition recently complaining to the government about the various threats to local post offices. I was pleasantly surprised to receive a letter from my MP confirming that he had presented the petition in Parliament, and attaching a copy of the Hansard record.
It started me thinking about “What is the Aim or Purpose of the Post Office in the Modern World?”
I suppose its purpose in years gone by was to provide access to the postal system, and to be an agency for all sort of public services – TV licenses, Road tax, pension and benefit cash payments and so on. And I suppose the modern world has come along to multiply significantly the means by which such services can be accessed: email and telephone, competing carriers, multiple outlets for stamps, PayPoints for bill payment, direct debit, and of course the internet.
Opponents of Post Office closures will, I guess, point to the social benefits of the network; access for some people (perhaps older, perhaps less well off, perhaps otherwise less able) who may be left unable to source cash and other services; a place at the heart of the community where people meet especially in rural areas; also in rural areas provides the core around which the business of a rural shop might revolve.
So does that mean that the real remaining purpose for the Post Office is solely to provide such service for the otherwise disadvantaged? Or can the Post Office derive a new purpose for the 21st Century which makes it a dynamic business as opposed to a simple social service?
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So what was your motivation for signing the petition? Is it that you felt it was your social duty or did you in fact have no feelings about it either way and are simply contributing to keeping an outmoded institution going for a little longer because you felt under some pressure to sign the petition?
Good question. I think I signed it from a nostalgic point of view - which might equate to your suggestion of social duty - and probably also from a self-interest point of view as the Post Office has a part to play in keeping our local shop open.
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