Rural Post Offices

Not really relevant to the world of stibasa, but talk of the effects of closure of rural post offices provokes thoughts about the role of physical outlets for goods and services.

As readers will gather, I do as much as possible on line, but I do have some sympathy for those who can't or don't want to do this.

I'm also strongly in favour of basic bank accounts - with no overdraft facility (if the customer doesn't want it) and strong capabilities for checking the account balance.

One use of POs is for paying utility bills. Well I'm sorry, but what's wrong with writing a cheque, or filling in a form with card details and posting it back? If necessary, a freepost envelope can be provided by the utility company.

The same applies to TV licences and "car tax". Moreover, these are only renewed once a year and the former is free to over 75s so no money need change hands.

Another use cited is getting cash, but where is this cash to be spent? In the PO where it was just got?

One website I read had a contribution form someone who was concerned about not being able to send parcels. S/he didn't say how many parcels s/he sent, nor how often, nor where s/he bought the things that were in the parcels.

Some people are at least bold enough to say that the PO provides an informal social network. At least this has some merit a village with no public building whatsoever would be a grim dormitory.

What we seem to be getting at is that people want interactions face to face with other people, but they want a pretext for doing it: They don't want to interact with other people for its own sake. Once we decide that we must have places for communities to interact face to face, we start to build the argument the other way round. If people are going to this place, they may as well do practical things while they're there. And the range of goods and services needs to be maximised to make the place a going concern.

She Cycles - the online magazine for women cyclists

http://www.shecycles.com/

Campaign for Real Recycling

"The Campaign for Real Recycling wants central government and local authorities to act urgently to improve the quality of materials collected for recycling in the UK. "

http://www.realrecycling.org.uk/

Social lending

"social lending ... is to introduce people who need money to people who want to lend some - cutting out the middlemen like banks and mortgage companies. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6623267.stm

What's mine is yours - clothes swapping

http://www.whatsmineisyours.com/

Use this site to swap out your unwanted clothes.

Read it swap it

http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/Questions.aspx?Section=Introduction

When you've finished reading a book, set up a swap with this site - all users pay is P&P

Freecycle

http://www.freecycle.org/

Similar to free to collect (see below). Get rid of unwanted stuff / get free stuff.