October 9, 2007 at 11:30 am · Authored by Ewan · Filed under Annoying

A bit of dramatic license there with the headline. In fact, the Postal Strike is just winding me up. It will no doubt cause a large amount of chaos for people waiting to receive their mobile phone bills or trying to pay them by cheque.

I don’t entirely know what’s going on, strike wise, except that I’ve not had any mail for ages. Days, weeks, … I dunno, I returned from Italy having been away SEVEN days and had no post, with the exception of a birthday card that was entirely wrongly addressed.

In this age of immediate communications, I can’t explain to people just how insanely frustrating it is not to have a decent postal system in this country.

My mother posted me a letter last week — she got the ‘last post’ (that is, 5.30pm pick up from the local mailbox) mid-week last week. The letter still hasn’t arrived.

How bad is it that we don’t have a basic infrastructure that works — even when there’s no strike on.

And how bad is it that, in 1776, the Great British people were able to deliver a letter from Bristol to London (118 miles) overnight, taking 16 hours and requiring around 11 horse changes? Yet in the 21st Century, all we’re able to muster is a raised set of eyebrows, a wry smile and a ‘tut’, together with ‘isn’t it ridiculous?’ mutterings.

British Postal Museum: 1776 -John Palmer proposes using coach and horses to deliver mail. August 2 The first mail coach journey is made from Bristol to London via Bath overnight and takes 16 hours. Palmer’s system requires horses to be changed every ten miles because of the speed at which they travel.

I haven’t bothered with the strike much. Is there a strike? Apparently. South London somewhere. Who cares. It just means your shitty mail service is, temporarily, shitter.

The Telegraph reports that there’s another strike due — a week long walk out because folk don’t, according to the Post Office Chief Exec, want to ‘work the hours they’re being paid to’. Oh and most probably a pay increase. I’m deliberately not paying too much attention otherwise it would wind me up far too much.

Sentences like this really do it for me in terms of maximum wind-up value:

A union spokesman said organising rolling stoppages meant that workers would not lose more than a day’s pay while maximising the impact on services.

Just ridiculous.

Me? Well I’ve started couriering stuff. I found a wicked little firm that will send a document or small parcel anywhere in London for £4.99. Pure genius. The chaps arrive on their bike and bish bash bosh it arrives at the other end, same day, same hour(ish).

That or I fax it, or get FedEx to sort it out. The post is for eBay stuff that doesn’t have to arrive for weeks. I have, for years, been trying to avoid using the shoddy postal service.

Ever since I studied law years ago and found out that one is deemed to have ‘received notice’ one business day after a first class letter has been posted to you, I’d get nervous when it came to mail because nothing ever seemed to arrive on time. I didn’t like the idea of being served notice by someone and only finding out 5 days into the 7 day notice period because of the dire service.

Goodness me, in this world of electronic magic and instant communications, the last thing you want to be doing is going on strike. It’s far too easy to cut the Postman out nowadays.