Royal Mail's monopoly has steadily been eroded

MIKE SMITH, of Pool Farm, Ilsington Road, Liverton, writes:

Michael Bennie's challenge (March 20) to my EU-scepticism merits a proper reply. I regret it won't be as gripping as a D-Day narrative, even if the underlying themes of national self-determination and freedom are similar.

1 Post Office closures – EU diktat?

We used to have a state postal service that worked, with urban profitable parts balancing out the rural unprofitable parts, a valuable social asset.

Then came EU Directive 97/67 EC which split the PO into Parcelforce, PO Counters and Royal Mail Letters, the latter still being responsible for delivery anywhere in the UK from the Isles of Scilly to Muckle Flugga, but with the monopoly over mail only up to a certain weight. Above this weight other countries could join in – and cherry-pick.

Royal Mail's monopoly has since been steadily eroded, so that now all weights are open to competition, yet with the Royal Mail still having the nationwide delivery responsibility. Hence the rising cost of stamps and the start of closures.

Britain was the first country to obey the diktat to fully liberalise its postal service – no surprise there, then – with the Royal Mail now competing with 21 mail companies.

To help ease the growing mess, the government has invested in improved mechanical sorting systems – but that's unfair, complain the competitors to Brussels, who have launched an enquiry, prior to approving this state subsidy, maybe.

The edict that really got closures going was 'C(2003) 1652 fin State Aid N784/2002' in connection with EU Directive 2002/39/EC. State Aid is anathema. The French may see it differently. Unprofitable POs had to go.

After negotiations, in November '07, Foreign Secretary David Milliband was allowed to subsidise the PO with 460 million euros – provided he close down 2,500 post offices.