Postman Pat had a great birthday

Specifically, my birthday: having dealt with several puzzled phone calls from friends and relatives (mother, sister, possibly even my father, who knows?), it turns out that every card and present sent to my home address has been intercepted, presumably by a Mail employee.

Apart from being annoyed, I'm disappointed. I'm a huge fan of the state postal system, and of the Communication Workers Union. Postmen and women have been treated appallingly by every government in living memory - underpaid, overworked, exploited and bullied. So, even though it's totally impersonal, I feel more hurt by this theft because a strong relationship (which existed only in my head) has been abused. I hope whoever nicked my stuff wasn't a union member.

You've got Mail

If you read Metro or one of the other rightwing papers (which ones aren't, these days?), all you'll have seen about the upcoming potential postal strike is that posties are lazy bastards who constantly skive and con their managers.

Anita the Lurker has kindly sent me this article from the London Review of Books (very good - subscribe today) which explains in some detail how the Mail is being made to look inefficient and obsolete, and how managerial culture is destroying this iconic lifeline. Funnily enough, posties are being treated in the same way we academics are - as blockages to some imaginary 'income stream' or 'repositioning' or whatever buzzword's current.