---

Royal Mail

Perhaps the Minister might like to observe that, with friends like that, who needs enemies? The Post Office needs capital and, as part of what goes on, it is important that some of the capital raised should go to the Post Office. The Minister alluded to the fact that capital is needed to transform the future of the Post Office, to help it to become viable. I see two ways in which that could be done. The first involves the creation of what has been termed a post bank. The second would be for post offices to become the first point of contact between the citizen and the state. As so many local offices and benefits centres have closed, so the ability for people to interface with a human being to deal with simple questions has disappeared. That is a job that could be done by post offices for a modest fee, and it would save the Government a great deal of administrative money at a later stage.