I’m not usually much of a moaner, but it seems the Post Office fiasco in the UK just gets worse and worse. Currently there are calls to sell-off / fully privatise the Royal Mail in order to rescue it. Now, I’m all in favour of low taxes (Ireland is great for that) and I realise that selling off Nationalised institutions is a good way for the Government to save some cash, except for the fact that inevitably the Government ends up pouring in subsidies, and gets absolutely nothing back.
Call me a cynic, but the current idea of some local councils stepping in to save local post-offices seems like a particularly good ruse on behalf on National Government; they avoid the expense of running these offices (which provide an essential service to many people), and then when the local authorities have to increase council tax to pay for them, it is they that look bad, and not the National Government. I may have a rant about council tax another time, but as someone who currently lives in a country which doesn’t have any equivalent to it, I don’t feel I should be commenting at this point!