Eurosceptics try to have their cake and eat it

At the hustings meeting on Sunday a member of the audience commented that the EU closed our post offices (where was the UKIP candidate?). Now I knew that the Post Office had given arguments for closure on economic grounds. I knew that UK post offices were closed and Westminster was blamed. I knew that Adam Crozier was brought in to make the business more efficient. I didn’t know that the EU was to blame so I came home and made enquiries and the best place to look is http://ec.europa.eu/unitedkingdom/press/doc/post_office_closures.pdf

This document states that I am not to quote from it so I will summarise it. The EU does not close post offices and there is no EU legislation forcing post office closures. This is a matter for the UK Government and Royal Mail. Furthermore EU rules allow state aid for post offices

The EU directive which the Eurosceptics blame for the closures applies equally to all EU members. It doesn't mention any EU member countries by name. So if that directive allows Dutch and German companies to come over here and compete, it also allows Royal Mail to compete in Holland and Germany. Any denial of that is, I think, just the Eurosceptics trying to have their cake and eat it too.

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