Christmas Adjournment

I start by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Turner), who, as we all know, had a very serious stroke some time ago. In his speech, he showed that he is still a robust spokesman for his constituency on the island despite recovering from that serious illness. Many of us are very pleased to see him here making those contributions. This is one of those occasions when we can range over a wide number of issues, but there is often a consistency between our speeches. Several hon. Members have referred to post office closures. We have gone through several under this Government and although I accept that post offices close at various times—they always have and they will continue to do so—the lengthy uncertainty that has been experienced by the Post Office and the post office structure is something of which the Government should be ashamed. Initially, we were subject to the urban reinvention scheme, which led to four of our five post offices in Belper being closed, and now we have the rationalisation scheme. The right hon. Member for Enfield, North (Joan Ryan) talked about consultation. I have just gone through such a consultation on post office closures, and I think that we need a new definition of that word. I am reminded that I am in the House of Commons, so I will not repeat some of the words that I have used to describe that supposed consultation process in my constituency. I think that consultation now means, in effect, ““This is what we're going to do—give us your views and we'll ignore them.”” That is exactly what has happened as regards the post office closures that have been confirmed in my constituency. Elizabeth Hoosley, who runs the post office in Marston Montgomery, will be closing her business after providing a service to that village for 42 and a half years. She is not somebody who is there to make a profit, but somebody who is providing a service to the community, yet that post office has been earmarked for closure. The same applies to the post office in Kirk Ireton, about which the most representations in my constituency were made. Again, those representations were completely ignored by the Post Office and the closure has been confirmed. The Government need to consider the whole process much more carefully and consider whether they should continue with it.