Post Facto

There still seems to be a few wildcat actions, which always gladdens the heart, but in the postal strike there's the prospect of a capitulation, which would be a terrible shame. One would assume that posties were one of the most liked and trusted sections of society - people that come to your house and give you stuff, even when a large proportion of that might be bills. Then again, the Fire services would be even more so, and I don't recall a huge wave of solidarity a few years ago. Even so, the wave of huffing Toryism that accompanied the Tube strikes seems to be absent over this. A couple of weeks ago in a Time Out survey, a majority thought Tube drivers shouldn't be allowed to strike. That's Time Out - even this long after it was any sort of critical voice, one would think its readership were a bit to the Left of Paul Dacre, but apparently not. So only slightly relevantly, here's a clip from Cavalcanti/Auden/Britten's GPO film Night Mail, which can be watched as nostalgic remnant of a time when posties and train drivers were idealised, which might well have been patronising, but seems hopelessly sweet in a world where heiresses and plutocrats are idolised and public sector workers ignored, except for when they have the temerity to defend themselves.