Last updated 13:24, Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson has had a brainwave. He is reported to be urging Gordon Brown that, given the parlous state of British banks, post offices could be extremely useful community resources.

He wants Gordon Brown to save the Post Office network by allowing it to provide new ranges of government services and financial products, according to reports leaked today.

Lord Mandelson suggests the economic downturn combined with “recent events in the financial services” present new opportunities for the Post Office. Millions will greet his remarks with a resounding: “Told you so!”

His suggestion is likely to be welcomed by backbenchers who bitterly resisted government moves to scale back the current network, which have seen 2,500 post offices marked for closure.

But across the country there’ll be a sense that the light has gone on rather too late in the day – that post offices might have had fighting chances of surviving their own downturn had government services not been withdrawn from them in the first place.

In gratitude for small mercies though, Lord Mandelson’s vision that post offices should become much more significant players in financial services – offering wide ranges of attractive products within easy reach of the whole population – might at least be offering some small glimmer at the end of a dark tunnel.