It is much to my regret, but I do not know the postman’s name. In fact, I have never met him or her because the post is delivered after I have left for work. I suspect that a large majority of people are in the same boat. That so few of us have any contact with our postman undoes Jackie Ashley’s ‘Support your local postie’ argument in today’s Guardian. She writes:
‘After the shock of the credit crunch, I thought we were pulling back from the age of neoliberal market worship and rethinking the value of reassuring institutions. With the disappearance of the milkman, the postie has a vital role in the community.’
It will take more than an all-singing, all-dancing postman, tapping on the door at 7am, to restore a sense of community in Britain, and concerted community renewal will not save the Post Office unless Billy Hayes stops his Arthur Scargill impersonation. Evidently,
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