Serious questions to ask on strength of our postal service
COVID-19 is making us all think more about what is really important in our lives. Highest on most people’s list are seeing family and friends again, caring for people at risk through age, illness or because they are living on insecure small incomes.
That along with making sure our young people get back to school and college, and that people who have to work from home now are able to work alongside others pretty soon.
Many of us are working down the line.
By now I can ask questions and make speeches in Parliament from my office in Caernarfon.
But after Covid-19 started I soon saw that working through the screen is just not as good as seeing people face to face.
Reading on the screen is not the same as having it on paper.
All of which gets me round to what I really want to say this week.
Some things are only going to get through if they come in an official envelope – through the post. And importantly, that goes for medical appointment letters.
We depend on those people who work hard to sort and deliver the mail.
But, as I’m sure most of you know, many of our local postal workers have been ill. I’ve heard that some places haven’t had any post for two weeks.
Postal workers have been drafted in from far away, but they don’t have the local knowledge that our firstclass local postal workers have.
I want to send all our best wishes to those postal workers in Caernarfon and elsewhere who have fallen ill and to wish them a speedy recovery.
But I’m also going to question the government as to how strong the service is, particularly in areas like ours where a single sorting office serves a large rural area.
So, I’ve put in for a question to the Prime Minister for today (Wednesday).
I don’t know if I’ll get in. If I do, then you’ll be able to judge for yourself if Mr Johnson is really up to his job. But personally, I’m not holding my breath.