The facts about Conservatives and Post Office closures

Sep 2 2008 Letters To The Editor

Dear Editor It seems the Conservatives say one thing locally and another nationally about post office closures. The Conservative candidate for North Warwickshire misled your readers about the Conservative position. (“Too little too late in support of their constituents” Post, Aug 29).

He also claimed I voted against a Conservative motion to stop Post Office closures. It’s fiction. The Conservative motion in the main Commons debate on March 19 asked only to temporarily “suspend” – not stop – closures to allow councils to consider putting services into Post Offices. But in Warwickshire, Conservative councillors have refused to save post offices by putting services in.

Nationally, the Conservatives admitted they will need to lose Post Offices. In the Commons, the Tory spokesman Alan Duncan said; “We have to face facts about the future of the postal offices in this country…We understand that the Post Office is haemorrhaging around £4million a week…Let me make it clear that we fully expect the network to shrink in size…It must be admitted that the internet has displaced much of the revenue-earning activity preciously enjoyed by post offices”.

He said the Tories had ‘no new money’ to offer the Post Office. Importantly he even refused to commit to continuing the £1.7billion of new investment Labour has put in to sustaining a network of 11,500 Post Offices.

Asked by Martin Salter MP: “Will he give an undertaking on behalf of his party to put the £1.7billion of government investment into the network so that it can be sustained?” Alan Duncan responded, “I will not do that”.

Let’s be clear, without this subsidy the Post Office network would close 7,500 additional post offices. So there is the prospect of even more closures if the Tories ever came to power. On March 19, the Labour motion was in favour of a subsidy to keep open 11,500 post offices and the Conservatives opposed that.

In 2006 they wanted to close at least a thousand Post Offices. Charles Hendry, a shadow DTI minister, told BBC 24 News, “There are clearly some which are marginal. There are about a thousand of them which have less than fifty customers a week and it’s going to be quite difficult to give them a viable future.” So while, Conservatives in North Warwickshire pose as opponents of closures, their front bench intends to close them.

The Conservative candidate trumpeted in his press releases that he was a national campaigner on closures. You can’t make such claims and then fail to deliver but in North Warwickshire he had no impact at all.

People are asking what is the point voting for the Tories? Councillors could have kept Post offices open as they are doing in Essex but in Warwickshire Conservatives have refused to do anything.

Mike O’Brien MP,
North Warwickshire.

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Confusion surrounding Ramadan begins all over again

Dear Editor, The blessed month of Ramadan is upon us and once again there is confusion over when we should start fasting, as every year Muslims begin and end the fasting on different days. I am sure I, as well as many others, will be asked the same question – when will you start fasting, and more importantly when will you be celebrating Eid? I am also told frequently that Christmas and Easter is always on the same day, so why not Eid?

Many people may not be aware of this issue and I wish to shed some light on why this happens every year, and most importantly why this should stop occurring.

The holy month of Ramadan is part of the Muslim lunar calendar, starting and ending with the sighting of the new moon and dates are determined by the actual sighting of the new moon where you are.

Now this is where many sects and mosques differ. Many say that because Islam was founded in the holy city of Mecca, we should celebrate Eid on the same day that Muslims in Saudi Arabia do. But the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) has informed us that we should start fasting after the new moon has been sighted in the country that you are living in. Naturally, wherever you are geographically in the world the sighting of the new moon will take place at different times, just as we have day and night at different times in different countries.

As a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community based in Birmingham, we take a commonsense approach in determining these dates, which are determined according to the lunar calendar of the country that we are living and residing in, and according to this we have confirmed the start of the holy month of Ramadan from Tuesday, September 2, and Eidul Fitr will be celebrated on Thursday, October 2. Many questions will be raised in people’s minds, especially of our fellow Muslims as to how this date has been agreed.

It’s quite straight forward – by using the wonderful thing we call technology. According to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the sighting of the new moon in Britain will be Monday, September 1, thus signalling the start of Ramadan on the following day, ie Tuesday, September 2. Likewise, the sighting of the next crescent moon here will be Wednesday, October 1, so Eidul Fitr will be on the following day, Thursday, October 2.

Many Muslims may disagree because according to tradition the moon must be sighted by the naked eye, and they feel that once it has been sighted in Saudi Arabia then they too can begin the fast. But what if visibility is limited or the person responsible for sighting the moon has weak eyesight (not uncommon), consequently the moon will not be seen due to these and other factors. Why in this technological age do we shy away from using knowledge that has also been granted by God?

I urge my fellow Muslims to think logically about these points. It is a commonsense approach to determine the correct dates.

While it appears to be a noble ideal for Muslims everywhere globally to celebrate Eid on the same day, this cannot actually happen, but at least all of us in the UK should be able to celebrate it on the same day – which this year will be Thursday, October 2.

Not only would this create unity among Muslims here, but they would also be helping schools and employers too.

Asif Abdul,
Stirchley.

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The nightmare of streets in the sky

Dear Editor, Despite the current slump in the housing market, combined with the much talked about credit crunch, it is interesting to note that the Government is still pushing the West Midlands to accept dramatically higher housing figures than originally planned for – an astonishing 445,700 new builds by 2026.

In reality this will inevitably lead to us to building at higher and higher densities (ie flats).

Already over the past 10 years Birmingham and the Black Country have become engulfed with these newly built ‘uxury apartments which seem to have sprung up more frequently than a Boris Johnson racial faux pa.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m all for new housing, in fact I passionately believe that everyone in our region should have the opportunity to live in a well-designed, well-maintained dwelling. However, cramming people into flats, badged as twentieth century luxury living in not the answer.

Have we learnt nothing from the 1960s?

The glorious vision of us all living in futuristic “streets in the sky” was the dream we were sold at the time but it wasn’t long before this dream turned into a nightmare.

Poor maintenance, cramped conditions, paper thin walls, no green space and no history of living this way bred social unrest, spiralling crime rates and sink estates which brought a stigma to all who lived in them.

These new developments will suffer exactly the same fate.

What this region craves over the next 20 years are new, well-designed houses, with their own garden or yard.

The importance of a sense of personal space and any area to call your own should not be underestimated in relation to the well being of our society.

Isn’t it ironic that as we demolish the disastrous concrete towers of the 60s, from the rubble emerges the same beast in a different guise.

Angus Gill,
Wolverhampton.