Dear Editor, I note that attention is being drawn away from the EU involvement in Post Office Services by letters to your paper.

Yet we are losing these vital community facilities due to EU directives.

There have been several directives on postal services the first in 1997 (97/67/EC) and second in 1999 (2002/39/EC), demanded liberalisation, under which Royal Mail had to open its service to commercial firms.

These companies then moved in to take over great slices of the business sector, which is the lucrative part.

Some of these firms admit their part in this destruction. Jan Bart-Henry of TNT Netherlands admits, “TNT are cherry pickers”.

By taking the money making business post and leaving Royal Mail the expensive part of collecting from post boxes, sorting and delivering all the mail,- including the final stages of the business post-, the heart has been ripped out of the service.

To cap it all about three years ago Tony Blair did a deal with the European Commission whose agreement is necessary for member states to subsidise their own industries.

The post office need a subsidy of £200m per year but Blair accepted the EU ruling that he could spend only £150m per year.

That means the Post Office is left short to the tune of a million a week.

Now do you understand why postal rates are going up, with fewer deliveries and collections, and why post offices are closing right, left and centre.

The sad part is that MEPs of all parties, except UKIP, voted for all this and now pretend it was not them. You only have to check the voting records to check these facts.

So now we have a puppet government which must obey EU rules and the other parties also worship this new god.

No wonder 75 per cent of our law now comes via EU directives.

Mike Nattrass MEP,

(UKIP West Midlands).

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Good luck to the striking workers

Dear Editor, Best of luck to the council workers who are going on strike this week. If only more low paid employees in other sectors had the backbone to do this the working class, who made this country what it used to be, would be better off.

It’s all very well government ministers telling employees they shouldn’t be asking for above inflation pay rises, but those rules certainly don’t apply to them or the MPs, so why should council workers be excluded?

Particularly when they have gone four years with below inflation pay rises and face ever increasing prices of food, fuel and housing on what in many cases is a minimum wage.

When will the government realise that the most important issue which is ruining the country and creating frustration and crime is the increasing gap between the well off who don’t give a stuff about the credit crunch, and the average worker who keeps the country going.

Paul Jenkins,

Rugeley, Staffordshire.

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Who do you know who deserves to be a winner?

Dear Editor, It is with great pleasure that I will be hosting the tenth annual Pride of Britain Awards on ITV1 in October.

As your readers may know, it is an incredibly uplifting occasion where HRH Prince Charles and the Prime Minister join a star-studded audience to honour the nation’s unsung heroes.

For me, it is the only awards show on TV that really matters because the winners are real people who could not be more deserving. It is a chance for us to celebrate Britain at its best and I’m not surprised it has become the biggest national event of its kind.

Over the past decade, like many millions of viewers, I have been stunned, moved and inspired by what our winners have done.

Yet I know there are many more heroes and heroines whose achievements go unrecognised. And that’s why I am appealing to your readers to tell us about them.

We are looking for the people who put the Great into Britain to honour at this year’s very special tenth anniversary gala in London.

Sponsored by The Co-operative it will be screened on Wednesday 1 October at 8pm on ITV1.

We want to hear about those individuals who make the world a better place - from courageous children and adults, people who improve their neighbourhoods, tireless careworkers, teachers, campaigners and charity fundraisers, to members of the emergency services who put their lives at risk for others.

You can nominate by email: nominate@prideofbritain.com, online at www.prideofbritain.com or in writing to Pride of Britain Awards, PO Box 4014, London, E14 5BF.

Or you can pick up a form, fill it in and post it in the Pride of Britain boxes at your local Co-operative food store or travel, bank or pharmacy branch. Nominations must be received by Friday 1 August to be considered by our panel of judges.

I know Pride of Britain 2008 will be another memorable night. But we need your readers help to make it so.

Carol Vorderman