This made me grin…
Anti-junk mail postie loses round
In a nutshell, postman Roger Annies distributed leaflets telling residents how they could opt out of the Royal Mail’s ridiculous and annoying junk mail distribution service. Having been suspended, it looks like he’ll keep his job, although he’s being moved to a different round. Personally, I think he should be in the New Year Honours list.
How ironic that this story appeared on the day that the Dear Leader was giving his emotional farewell speech at the Labour Party conference, in which he listed a number of reforms made by New Labour. Several of them, admittedly, have changed Britain for the better, but Tony’s obsession with private finance makes me wonder how long it’ll be before a crumbling, failing Royal Mail is finally privatised. As Simon Jenkins wrote in the Guardian recently, even Thatcher stopped short of privatising certain things… I fear the same can’t be said of Blair.
In just a few years, an efficient and reliable postal system has crumbled into a hopeless mess. I’ve received packages from the USA and mainland Europe quicker than first class letters from the other side of London. Mail disappears far more than it ever used to. My local post offices are often unusably busy (queues of up to 20 minutes) because so many small local branches are closing. So what do they do? Make money by pushing junk through our doors.
(Incidentally, if you want to stop the stream of unaddressed leaflets and insurance offers that are bulk-delivered by the Royal Mail, write to… Opt-Outs, Royal Mail, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford, OX1 1RX)