A metaphor for modern Britain?
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drapesy
- Posts: 2614
- Joined: Sat 24 Feb, 2007 4:50 pm
Kirkstall, October 2008. Boarded - up pub, bookmakers (open), closed down Post Office.Need I say more?
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there are 10 types of people in the world. Those that understand ternary, those that don't and those that think this a joke about the binary system.
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Uno Hoo
- Posts: 755
- Joined: Fri 20 Jun, 2008 2:04 pm
It's a sad sight, Drapesy, but becoming more common.It's inevitable that local post offices will close, as the rapid rise in e-mail use etc is bound to affect them, and once the generation above mine has gone there'll be relatively few people who need them; I'm probably over-generalising, but many of the older folk (I'm 64 by the way) without PCs, mobiles and internet banking are likely to be the bread and butter of the post offices that are left. Except for odd things like using special delivery I hardly ever go in mine. It's really only the same syndrome as call boxes declining now that nearly everyone has a mobile.Pub closures are more serious. I don't drink myself, but regard pubs as important community amenities. Already more people seem to do nothing in their leisure time beyond watch crappy TV on massive screens while drinking cheap supermarket booze and smoking themselves to death. Some pubs have no-one but management to blame, but the rate of closure is quite shocking.How long d'you reckon betting shops will last in these days of internet gambling? In my very limited experience they're quite cheerless places.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, moves on; nor all thy Piety nor all thy Wit can call it back to cancel half a Line, nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
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Uno Hoo
- Posts: 755
- Joined: Fri 20 Jun, 2008 2:04 pm
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Trojan
- Posts: 1990
- Joined: Sat 22 Dec, 2007 3:54 pm
Uno Hoo wrote: It's a sad sight, Drapesy, but becoming more common.It's inevitable that local post offices will close, as the rapid rise in e-mail use etc is bound to affect them, and once the generation above mine has gone there'll be relatively few people who need them; I'm probably over-generalising, but many of the older folk (I'm 64 by the way) without PCs, mobiles and internet banking are likely to be the bread and butter of the post offices that are left. Except for odd things like using special delivery I hardly ever go in mine. It's really only the same syndrome as call boxes declining now that nearly everyone has a mobile.Pub closures are more serious. I don't drink myself, but regard pubs as important community amenities. Already more people seem to do nothing in their leisure time beyond watch crappy TV on massive screens while drinking cheap supermarket booze and smoking themselves to death. Some pubs have no-one but management to blame, but the rate of closure is quite shocking.How long d'you reckon betting shops will last in these days of internet gambling? In my very limited experience they're quite cheerless places. I think it is a shame. The government for me should transact all its business with inidviduals through Post Offices, in rural areas where banks don't have branches they should also act as cash offices for the various banks - the government could put a charge on the banks for this service. I believe that closing local Post Offices is another example (like Beeching) of British short termism.
Industria Omnia Vincit
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simong
- Posts: 722
- Joined: Sat 08 Sep, 2007 6:17 am
To be fair, if you stepped a few feet towards the bookies you would also see that the Kirkstall Lights pub next door is now (probably permanently) closed, in preparation for demolition when the reconstruction of the district centre starts. I would think that William Hill's will close at the last possible moment, as long as it keeps making money. To the left the Kwik Save has become a sort of squatted market or something and the Farmfoods closed a few years ago, also in preparation for the alleged new B&Q and flats.I don't doubt that the Post Office was seen as an easy win to tick off by Post Office Counters, and won't be replaced when the area is rebuilt, making Headingley the nearest, a good uphill mile away.What's is interesting in the light of the financial apocalypse that is going on, is that Jon Cruddas has been advocating that if you're going to have a national bank, we might as well have a proper one again, that uses Post Offices as its outlets as the Post Office Savings Bank did (managed by the Bank of Ireland now, oddly enough), which would give the Post Office network a new lease of life, although it's probably a bit too late for most (Victoria Avenue in Rawdon is now an office, Kirk Lane in Yeadon has a few weeks left).