SIR Regarding the Government plans to abolish Post Office card accounts, a general post office for the entire kingdom was set up in 1710.

Mail was delivered to the remotest places at uniform prices. It must have been deemed safest for a single national agency to collect and deliver mail. Royal Mail became a trusted institution.

The present Government has subjected Royal Mail to competition. Private firms cherry-pick lucrative commercial business, while Royal Mail remains legally obliged to serve, at a uniform rate, distant areas like the Western Isles.

Foreign competition Dutch TNT and Deutsche Post are allowed to practice here, although Royal Mail cannot yet operate on the continent.

Behind this unequal arrangement is the EU Postal Services Directive 97/67/EC, which our compliant Government eagerly obeys. Resulting loss of revenue has caused some Royal Mail services to become less efficient.

The Government has also encouraged the payment of pensions and benefits through bank accounts, causing further loss of Post Office revenue, and closure of local post offices.

Abolishing the Post Office Card Account, officialdom's latest attack on the Post Office, will bring further branch closures, with inconvenience and hardship for many pensioners.

Let there be a pensioners' march on Downing Street. Save our post offices!

Douglas Hartley, Irving Terrace, Clayton