QTV at the Post Office
THE POST OFFICE joins my list of British institutions which, like Lloyd's of London and the BBC, are said to be the envy of the world. Said, that is, by their supporters at home. These now include, by a majority in Cabinet, a Conservative government which was looking for something to conserve and hit on the Post Office as a good place to start. So the shadow of change is lifted from one of our largest retailers, with branches and counters all over the country. To me its most distinctive feature is the closed circuit television service which enables it to show commercials — its own, and other advertis- ers' — to people waiting in its queues. Nowhere else, not even in the banks, is queueing such a fact of life, and no other business has managed to cash in on the delays it inflicts on its customers by finding this additional way to annoy them. I expect that the world envies us no end.
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