• HERE in the heart of central London, my local post box offers one late afternoon collection Monday to Friday and one at noon on Saturday – nothing doing on Sunday.

On Saturday, at 11.45am, I arrived to find that collection had already occurred… the box displaying a “MON” plate for the next postal collection.

So the birthday card I posted wouldn’t be collected until late on Monday afternoon (after office hours) and, despite the first-class stamp I used, I had every reason through previous experience to suspect that it would not arrive on Tuesday – for the intended recipient’s big day.

Heaven forfend that I might interrupt any POETS (P*ss Off Early, Tomorrow’s Saturday) work syndrome but is today’s Royal Mail service less about customer benefit and more about staff convenience?

MARK NEWBERRY
W1