The late last post....

In one of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven books Peter, the leader of the eponymous band, writes a letter to his grandmother. He posts it in the morning and it is delivered that same afternoon.

Contrast that with today when a first class letter is not always guaranteed to arrive the next day despite an ever increasing tariff.

In recent years one can no longer open the post before one leaves for work. Now the morning delivery is being abolished totally.

Under the new regime 60 per cent of post will not be delivered before midday and the first delivery will not be made before 10.30am.

The Royal Mail has already pushed back delivery times by one hour in the run up to Christmas. The organisation says that the changes are necessary because of a new EU green directive which limits the speed of the mail lorries that criss-cross the country during the night to cut fuel emissions.

Hmmm, my opposition to the EU is no secret but postal deliveries have been getting later and later - and more expensive. Is the EU statement just an excuse by an organisation that is getting worse and worse.