SO THE Post Office closure consultation is now over. The

letters have been written, the protest walks have been walked,

and my MP, Geoffrey Cox, Conservative, has even been on a

protest invalid-buggy ride.

I have done my bit too – but it started earlier than when

the present list of closures came out – for I arranged to have

my imminent state pension paid, using the Post Office account

card, not at my nearest post office but at a more distant one

for the sole reason of supporting a post office that I felt

might be threatened with closure. Perhaps this was in vain for

that post office, in Chillaton, may now become an occasional

mobile “post office”.

And as the consultation period is now over, it is fully time

to declare an open season again on hypocritical Conservative

MPs.

Let's get this clear. Margaret Thatcher started the

closures, and I gather 2,500 closed under her and John Major's

premiership. Maggie once said “there is no such thing as

society”, and when told the rural disadvantaged needed a social

and community networking point, it is rumoured she suggested

people join the hunt or the golf club. At the last election,

Michael Howard offered the countryside a vote on re-legalising

hunting in his first week in office – not a vote to halt to

post office closures. That's the true Tory rural priority – the

countryside as a playgroup for grown-ups.

The Tories say they are concerned about these closures, and

they cite the social and community need, but when you look at

their website they are not going to reopen any of the

closures.

If post offices are of social importance now, logically,

they will be of importance during the likely next Conservative

government. The Tories don't even suggest that their own party

members get their state pensions paid at the post office, like

I chose to do, yet a majority of their members are

pensioners.

That would have been a practical action, effective, at no

cost to the party member, and achievable now. Think how these

members could have increased the work flowing over the Post

Office Counters®, reducing their chance of closure – but it

would mean country people getting off their backsides. Is it

easier to just whinge?

Once we had post offices; now we have Post Offices ®. What

could be more Tory than that little “®” symbol. Maggie must be

delighted at this evidence of her project to demolish society

and replace it with a democracy of “One pound, one vote” is

continued under New Labour as New Labour wants the urban and

suburban Conservative vote.

Theo Hopkins

Lifton

Open railway lines

IT SEEMS clear that no new railway line for the South West

will be constructed for many years.

For the interim I suggest that the old Southern Railway line

from Exeter to Plymouth should be restored.

It is still in use at either end, restoration would be

needed from Meldon to Bere Alston. The whole line would then

require to be brought up to main line standards, and would form

the main line from Exeter to Plymouth and Cornwall, and would

enable Okehampton and Tavistock to be returned to the railway

map.

Such a line would not have the severe gradients which have

always made Brunel's route difficult to operate and it could

provide an excellent express service.

The coastal route would continue to provide the rail service

to Newton Abbot and Torbay. The reduced traffic using it might

enable the section from Dawlish to Teignmouth to be singled,

facilitating operations when bad weather makes it difficult to

do so. The possibilities would then exist of having branch

lines, using existing track from Newton Abbot to Totnes and

Plymouth to Ivybridge.

The complete separation of the Plymouth and Torbay routes

would greatly facilitate the planning of services and thus

bring about the improvements which are so obviously needed.

Since the creation of a new route is not involved, the

financial cost should not be unduly burdensome.

If such a scheme were implemented, the first stage should be

the restoration of the SR line from Bere Alston to Tavistock.

This would enable the existing service from Plymouth to be

extended whilst work on the remainder was carried out.

Roy Bartlett

Minehead

Referendum anger

I HAVE just paid the second instalment of my annual

contribution to MPs' expenses, EU corruption and African

dictators' bank accounts.

I object strongly to many of the uses to which my money is

put with no referendum and with another two years to go of this

futile government there is no way I can make my voice

heard.

Joan Calmady-Hamlyn

Bridestowe

Pull up drawbridge

IT HAS always been known that an Englishman's home is his

castle. So with the threat of inspectors visiting our homes, I

think it is time to pull up the drawbridges.

Hazel Westlake

Okehampton

Windy argument

ONE fact rarely advertised by the wind industry when they

are talking about saving CO² emissions is that the UK power

industry only amounts to 20 per cent of the UK total

emissions!

If we covered every inch of the UK mainland and surrounding

shores with monstrous wind generators there would still be 80

per cent of emissions to account for and deal with.

With all these wind generators there would be no guarantee

of supply – indeed, when there was a lack of wind there would

be no power at all!

Dave Haskell

Boncath, Pembrokeshire