Michael Henry Nattrass, on behalf of the IND/DEM Group. – Mr President, managing a postal system delivering to every part of the UK six days a week, as experienced by the British for more than a century, is a UK issue, not for EU rubberstamping. Efficient mail delivery encourages business, especially in rural areas. It is a public service. The Royal Mail may require subsidies to deliver to remote outposts, including Scottish islands. That is a matter for central and local British Government, not the EU. The EU concept favours more junk mail which is not required by the British, nor by their recycling bins. As usual, the EU wishes to micro-manage every aspect, destroying methods which have worked well for years, whilst dictating rules which limit innovation.

The EU meddling with the UK postal system is as foreign to me as Britain fiddling with the Flemish, Finnish or French letters. You may expect that I should welcome postdating of the full market to December 2010. In fact, I reject the entire directive on the simple British principle of mind your own business and we will get it sorted, not the apparent EU directive of stand and deliver while we envelop you in red tape.

In short, I mark this directive ‘return to sender’.