Monopoly money
OF the various standard falsehoods in business, 'There's a cheque in the post' is the most polite and, on the face of it, credible. It might even be pressed into service as an excuse for the next set of bank lending figures. How convenient to blame the Post Office monopoly, while deman- ding that the Government should lift it for the duration. The only trouble is that the monopoly itself is not credible. The Post Office has to compete to carry parcels, and cannot stop the kamikaze messengers who defy their fate to bring me brokers' circu- lars. Anyone may deliver a package so long as he does not charge less than one pound. , Who, though, but their customers are ever to know what the carriers charge? Who is going to say: 'Unless you charge me more I shall report you?' Who would care to mount a test case? The first class letter stamp (the new commemorative issue is for Edward Lear, laureate of nonsense) has just gone up to 19p, and perhaps the plan is to let it drift up to a pound, in the interests of competition.
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