Behind the scenes of the posties' dispute

We see daily on the news and in the papers headlines such as "Industrial Suicide" and "Posties' Anger Over Temps". And I bet many, many people will be trotting out the usual recycled misinformation and blaming the posties. "Lucky to have a job", "Bunch of troublemakers", "Wreckers!". In our media we rarely see behind the scenes of industrial disputes and never venture further than the politicised media headlines before constructing who's to blame and how to put it right.

Here's an excellent diary type item that goes behind the scenes of the dispute from the postie's point of view.

Old people still write letters the old-fashioned way: by hand, with a biro, folding up the letter into an envelope, writing the address on the front before adding the stamp. Mostly they don’t have email, and while they often have a mobile phone – bought by the family ‘just in case’ – they usually have no idea how to send a text. So Peter Mandelson wasn’t referring to them when he went on TV in May to press for the part-privatisation of the Royal Mail, saying that figures were down due to competition from emails and texts.

Read more at the London Book Review
.