Union has taken all of our profit

Alistair Darling, Trade and Industry Secretary, said when announcing the closure of up to 2,500 post offices: "I call on the Post Office to come up with new and imaginative ways of generating business".

He forgot to add: "If they do, we will find new and imaginative ways of taking it from them and presenting it to the private sector."

I worked for five years as a postman and a further 20 years behind a Crown Office Counter. In every one of those 25 years the government of the day dipped its sticky fingers into Royal Mail profits to the tune of up to £300 million per year. I believe it was called the EFT, external financing tax.

The post office launched the very successful Giro Bank, it took business from the High Street banks and was sold to Alliance and Leicester for a pittance.

The problem is the fact that the public believes the Post Office to be a public service, while the government believes it is a business and must pay its way.

To help them achieve this aim the Government this year bowed to the EU and allowed German and Dutch post to come in and cream off the most profitable areas of Royal Mail.

Bob Wydell Oswestry