Afternoon:
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If you want to send a Christmas card to Tristan da Cunha, forget it. You have missed the boat - literally. The cut-off date for the world's most remote inhabited location was last Thursday. Almost unbelievably - if the worst warnings are to be believed - it may not be long before cards and presents being despatched a few short miles across London will also have to be on their way if they are to make 25 December. Yes, Christmas has come early to London's postal system. And not in a good way.
It is a measure of the shambles that such alarmist notions can be taken seriously. Royal Mail has dismissed the talk of massive disruption to Christmas post as "ridiculous exaggeration" but many Londoners are far from convinced. Ask anyone about their experiences of the postal system recently and it will throw up a story of astonishing delay: a birthday card sent in August that has only just arrived; an invitation that has turned up a fortnight after the event took place; a delivered cheque that had long since been stopped because it was assumed to be lost in the post. Snail mail just got slower.
In my house the effect of the industrial action has been to create a dangerous caffeine crisis. About a fortnight ago I ordered a batch of those fiddly Nespresso capsules winningly advertised by George Clooney. They still have not arrived. Instead of the bracing morning shot of Rosabaya de Colombia I am reduced to a bog-standard cafe-tiere. All right, as genuine cris de coeur go it falls a little short but, even so, the lack of "proper" coffee is irritating.
The dispute has been rumbling away like a distant thunderstorm since June now. Strikes have been short - usually 24 hours - and often very localised, which means they have not been given the publicity that a nationwide or even Londonwide walk-out would get.
This weekend, for example, there were stoppages in local delivery offices across a swathe of west and south-west London from Tooting to Earl's Court. Small-scale they may be but the impact has been large. There is a backlog of millions - estimates range from nine million to 25 million - of letters, packages and parcels languishing somewhere in the system.
The causes of the dispute are even more obscure than normal. Royal Mail says that it is merely asking its posties and other staff to work a full eight-hour day. That may mean no more than doing some sorting after they've finished their round or delivering to a few extra streets. The implication is that many postal workers are routinely bunking off long before their working day is over.
The unions see it very differently. They accuse Royal Mail of ramming through "frightening and unprecedented" changes to long-established working practices without the agreement of staff.
The reason why London has been disproportionately badly hit is that, according to Royal Mail, the capital has Britain's laziest postal workers, 30 per cent less efficient than the national average and therefore the most resistant to change.
Most Londoners just want their post to turn up on time. The low-level but protracted dispute is starting to wreak havoc on the everyday workings of western Europe's biggest city.
Some of the disruption is small scale and irritating. The Week magazine - a digest of the previous seven days' national journalism - is supposed to turn up on a Saturday. As one friend complained: "It just doesn't work when you get it on a Monday."
For other people the dispute has added to the general hassle factor of London life. Wandsworth council has been forced to extend its period of grace for cars that are not displaying renewed permits from five days to 10 because of the huge numbers of permits stuck in the post. Even then many will not turn up in time, potentially landing drivers with a £120 fine.
High days and holidays have also been ruined for tens of thousands of Londoners, who tell small stories of inconvenience and distress. One newly wed Londoner complained: "We got married on 2 September and we are still getting wedding cards postmarked 31 August."
A father said: "My daughter thought no one in the family loved her any more because hardly any cards reached her in time. Her birthday was on Friday 25th but nothing started arriving until this Tuesday, even though it was postmarked the 19th or 20th of September."
For organisers of any of the many major London events taking place this autumn the strikes present a logistical nightmare. Penny Watson, one of the organisers of the debut London Restaurant Festival, said invitations to a celebrity garlanded opening party on 7 October and an awards ceremony a week later went out at the end of August. Most have still not turned up.
"It creates all sorts of issues. Some people feel snubbed because they think they haven't been invited. Others now won't be able to come because their invitation came so late that they cannot make arrangements in time. They are just starting to drip-feed through but it tends to be the people outside London who are getting theirs first."
The organisers are reluctant to switch to an email invitation system. "It just doesn't have the same impact as a formal invitation on a stiff card you can put on your mantelpiece. That is a nice thing to receive. Also, people get so many emails these days it would so easy to delete it."
Anne-Marie Fyfe, organiser of the Troubadour Poetry Prize in Earl's Court, said the strike had completed shattered faith in the postal system among the bardic community.
She says: "The biggest problem has been the hundreds of emails from poets, local and international, wondering what to do, or asking whether their submission has arrived or, worse, endless use of registering and special delivery which hasn't happened before and which means I have to sign for packages or collect from the local sorting office later if I happen to be out.
"Next year we will have to consider becoming a totally email-based competition with PayPal but that would be thousands fewer postal items per annum for Royal Mail to handle and we must be only one of hundreds of small organisations considering such a drastic step. Poets are great supporters of the post generally - they're invariably committed to the look and feel of words on paper, to layout and font, in a way that email can't quite replicate."
For business the dispute has given a whole new meaning to that hoary old excuse "the cheque's in the post".
Ed Meade of estate agents Douglas & Gordon said: "I reckon we could have had an extra £150,000 in the bank than we got in September. Now it will be pushed into October and that presents cash flow issues.
"Anything bigger than a standard letter is taking God-knows-how-long to come - at least two weeks in many cases - and it is clogging up every single transaction. I would say about 25 per cent of deals are in serious risk of failing because everything is time sensitive. For example, your mortgage offer expires after a certain time. It's not helping at all in a fragile recovery."
Ordering tickets for sporting or cultural events has become an infuriatingly random lottery. Security arrangements at major autumn concerts by stars such as Alesha Dixon and Elton John have had to be rethought because of the number of fans expected to turn up without tickets.
Rob Wilmshurst, chief executive of online agency Seetickets.com, says: "Unfortunately we have had to put a certain amount of pressure on the venues to let customers in without a ticket. Frankly, it's a pain in the backside. It puts extra pressure on staff and it's the thousands of customers who suffer.
"Most people we sell tickets to are 18 to 25, and they don't know there's a postal strike. They buy their tickets at the last minute and don't understand why they haven't arrived."
After this weekend's walkouts the next milestone in the dispute is the result of a national ballot of postal workers next Friday. If the result is a "yes", then postal misery will roll on through the autumn and into a recessionary Christmas that could be make or break for thousands of already hard-pressed small businesses.
So in the unlikely event that you have missed that last post for loved ones in Tristan da Cunha, you have a watertight excuse: blame the postal strike.
Additional reporting by Alex Plough
Reader views (18)
Royal Mails idea of modernisation is simply cutting jobs and bigger profits, we have just gone through modernisation using a computer system that is supposed to make all deliveries the correct length so that no one has any spare time (not that we have any now)and we have already had next years savings percentages which basically means cutting more hours and more jobs. Most people i talk to aren't striking over pay its about protecting the service for the public and bringing in proper modernisation to get the job done. If we were going to strike about pay we would have done months ago when we were told that we were going to have a pay freeze especially seeing as delivery office managers got £4000 bonus, cluster managers £6500 bonus and area managers £9000 bonus at the same time. The directors have really lost the plot either that or they choose to ignore the way things really are.
- Postman, Staffordshire, 13/10/2009 18:16
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Sack the whole post office and put people in there that want to work !
- Michael Fincham, London, 06/10/2009 03:18
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If the EU forces the protection of Royal Mail to be removed, there will be a bloodbath. Royal Mail has not modernised, has militant union leadership (but many hard workers), does not care about small businessmen and job seekers. People will move to the internet, text and private company like Fedex TNT. The idea the UK State will pay is a joke, its bust as it is.
- Andrew, London, 05/10/2009 22:04
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i'm a postman of long standing & i'm fed up with the media and mis informed people on what this dispute is about. firstly, it is NOT about pay. it's about fighting for a better service for the public..after all we ARE a public service.If we, as front-line workers except royal mails so-called modernisation plans, believe me the public would receive an even worse sevice than they have now.when was the last time you got your mail through your door at 07:30 in the morning? I get my mail at 2:00pm! so much for us posties laying about. how many of you would get up at 4am on a saturday in all weathers to get to deliver to you your beloved birthday gift.We the postman are losing money to provide you with a better & more reliable service, after all that's what we are..a Public service.
- Steve, london, 05/10/2009 17:58
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Sorry, when the rest of the country is in deep recession, with people in most other sectors on pay freezes / cuts, the CWU is demanding more pay for less hours?
Obviously we'd all like that - but surely a bit of reality needs to creep in? They're killing the postal system, which was already in a perilous state. I don't often agree with Bob from Cheam, but... he's spot on here. The more this strike goes on, the more work will go to other companies, and the less jobs will be available in Royal Mail. And the private operators certainly won't be on the same pay and conditions.
- Mark Lee, Vauxhall, 05/10/2009 16:58
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Sack Adam Crozier and then the recovery can begin (not to mention employees can perhaps get pay increases instead of lining the fatcats pockets) - why on earth was he emnployed after he screwed up the FA anyway?
- Am, Portsmouth, UK, 05/10/2009 16:28
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Nikki, please explain your problem with postmen quenching their thirst? Would you prefer they suffer dehyration? Or is it the alcohol content that bothers you? If so, why stop at postmen? Why not teachers, doctors, bankers, the list goes on of those who perform their duties while sozzled. Get real, woman! 
- Sarah Bradshaw, Enfield, Middx, 05/10/2009 15:59
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Bizarre but true - I ordered my own ticket for the Chelsea -v- Athletico Madrid game on the day they went on sale, 23rd September. Hasn't arrived yet. But the two extra I ordered on 30th September for friends arrived on Saturday. Can only assume that more recent items of post are being pushed through at the expense of items already held up by strike action.
I can also offer you 6 days for an appointment letter from UCH on the Euston Road all the way to N1...
- Blue Baby, London, 05/10/2009 15:44
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we get our mail every day, dont see anyone striking its just london posties and they are paid better than any other posties in england about 100£ more a week.
- Peter, cheltenham, 05/10/2009 15:42
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Aren't unions wonderful! Nothing like being held hostage by a bunch of over paid public employees.
- Trunk, US, 05/10/2009 15:30
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What people forget is the number of other occupations that will be badly hit if postmen are forced to work a full day, as many have second (if not third) jobs.
- Matt, London, 05/10/2009 15:03
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I have just spent 2 months in Colchester. The address I was staying at has received post every day and my friends think their postman is terrific.
- Mj, East Anglia, 05/10/2009 13:22
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I live in SW London and my mail has been severely hit by these strikes. I've put a stop to buying anything by post now as I'm still waiting for 4 parcels to arrive that were sent over 3 weeks ago. Christmas cards this year will be sent online to friends who have a computer rather than one sent through the post. If postal workers think they can sail through this one and still have the public on their side they can think again. With less revenue coming in it can only result in people losing their jobs. I shall certainly rely on Royal Mail less and less in the future.
- Ian Davies, London, UK, 05/10/2009 12:48
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Nikki - if you regularly see your postie with a beer in had, take a photo and email it to all newspapers + any blog you can think of. It's time to name and shame these lazy so and sos.
- Melanie, London, 05/10/2009 12:45
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I regularly see our postie wandering along, in uniform, with his cart, can of stella in hand. I'm utterly fed up with having to be paying for a first class service, but receiving, at the best, a third class one.
- Nikki, London, 05/10/2009 12:17
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I work in Chelsea, and you regularly see the posties sitting outside the Builders Arms pub, having a couple of drinks, early-afternoon.
Where do I sign up?
- Jana Miller, London, 05/10/2009 11:48
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No problems with postal deliveries in Morecambe Compound, EUSSR.
Time for peeps to move to sunny Morecambe!!
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 05/10/2009 10:58
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You have to chuckle at the attitude of the CWU members, we're in the middle of a recession, the Royal Mail is losing contracts hand over fist (they lost Amazon, their biggest client over a year ago) and the workers are still demanding less hours and more money. Still, I'm sure when they've bankrupted the company and are all employed by TNT on less money for more hours they'll be a lot happier. Good on those who are still working, my postie's been a diamond which is why we always buy him a Christmas present.
- Bob, Cheam, 05/10/2009 10:13
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