by The Informer.
I called into my local proper Post Office Branch the other day to buy a postal order. This new branch is located in a recently refurbished CO-OP store and is very modern.
However I was in for a shock. It was 4.25pm and there were about 25 people in front of me. There is a major meat processing plant close by with hundreds of immigrant Polish workers on the payroll in an area of high unemployment.
Most in the queue spoke in a foreign tongue an were carrying cash. I assumed that as it was Thursday it was payday and they were using the Post Office as a bank. I was wrong.There was a prominent MoneyGram logo beside each till and most in front of me were using this 'service'.
I eavesdropped and found that the transactions ranged between £250 and £400, and took about 3 minutes to complete. Not all in front of me were foreign, but I reckoned that about 18 were. All of these appeared to be sending money abroad instead of spending it here and contributing to our economy as we are repeatedly told.
Whilst I was there some £6000 left our local economy never to return. The ailing Post Office has started this service country wide and it is now a lucrative part of its business. This just goes to highlight the lie that former eastern block migrant workers contribute to the British economy. Add this to the already existing scandal of Asian money transfer businesses masquerading as travel agents, and we can begin to understand why our economy is poorer suited to recovery than others which do not allow this bloodletting of resources.
However I was in for a shock. It was 4.25pm and there were about 25 people in front of me. There is a major meat processing plant close by with hundreds of immigrant Polish workers on the payroll in an area of high unemployment.
Most in the queue spoke in a foreign tongue an were carrying cash. I assumed that as it was Thursday it was payday and they were using the Post Office as a bank. I was wrong.There was a prominent MoneyGram logo beside each till and most in front of me were using this 'service'.
I eavesdropped and found that the transactions ranged between £250 and £400, and took about 3 minutes to complete. Not all in front of me were foreign, but I reckoned that about 18 were. All of these appeared to be sending money abroad instead of spending it here and contributing to our economy as we are repeatedly told.
Whilst I was there some £6000 left our local economy never to return. The ailing Post Office has started this service country wide and it is now a lucrative part of its business. This just goes to highlight the lie that former eastern block migrant workers contribute to the British economy. Add this to the already existing scandal of Asian money transfer businesses masquerading as travel agents, and we can begin to understand why our economy is poorer suited to recovery than others which do not allow this bloodletting of resources.