Q. During the month of December 2000 the stamps on
many of the letters and cards we received were not franked. Whether this is because of yet another computer problem or old-fashioned incompetence at the GPO, I do not know, As the glue on the back of the stamps is of poor quality, it is easy enough to reuse the stamps when a bit more glue has been applied. My wife objects to this practice on ethical grounds, but I think that it is a pity to waste good stamps. What do you say, Mary?
1-1.N., Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire A. Setting aside ethical considerations, the practicality of reusing stamps is questionable. A first-class stamp costs only 27 pence. The procedure of finding the envelopes with the unfranked stamps, carefully peeling one off, finding glue, applying it, pushing down the stamp, then having the glue squirge out over your hands so that you have to wash them takes at least ten minutes. This means you are costing your own time at only £1.56 per minute — hardly worth provoking your wife for — and proves the point that, even in small-time ways, vice is its own reward.
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