Exception
Though the new postal rates become effective at the end of next week, and though the Post Office is being criticised—rightly—for various inefficiencies, the picture is not entirely black. There is at least one service which is value for money. A colleague at the Spectator office was recently smitten by fiu and couldn't keep an appointment one evening. He knew where he could get in touch with the person he was due to meet, but it was impossible to telephone. What was he to do? Deliver a message by taxi? Send a telegram? My colleague thought of trying the Post Office. Sure enough, they operated a messenger service at the rate of a shilling a mile, irrespective of the wordage. To deliver a note from Fleet Street to Park Lane cost just two shillings. Hopelessly uneconomic, I would have thought. None the less welcome for that.
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