Second-class postal system means cards may already be too late for Christmas - Vladimir McTavish


Lots of people have stopped sending cards which is hardly surprising given the cost. The cards themselves are cheap enough. You can get a dozen good quality ones for under three quid, which is less than two first-class stamps. That’s insane.
Stamps used to be cheap back in the old days before the Royal Mail was sold off to some foreign billionaire and the Post Office became an evil organisation that threw innocent people in jail to cover up the incompetence of its own IT system.
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Hide AdThe original postage stamp introduced in 1840, the Penny Black, cost just one old penny, which is less than half of 1p. That’s an increase of nearly 2000 per cent in less than 200 years. As any keen philatelist will tell you, if you’re lucky enough to have an original Penny Black in good condition it could be worth as much as seven grand. And you’re never going to stick that on an envelope.
Incidentally, to clear up any confusion, I should point out that the term “philatelist” means one who is interested in philately. Philately is the posh word for stamp collecting, just in case any less educated readers thought I was referring to some kind of adventurous sexual practice.
I ought to further clarify that I am not referring to The Penny Black, Edinburgh’s legendary watering hole of the same name. Due to the terms of an ancient licence, it opened at five o’clock in the morning. This was so postal workers in the nearby sorting office could get a pint after coming off night shift.
It used to be a meeting place for hardened Fringe drinkers. After the last late-night venue had shut at 4am, people would head over to The Penny Black and be queuing outside at opening time. All of them were already hammered. Understandably, it could get quite messy. Indeed, I remember getting so drunk in there that I told everyone in the pub that I’d send them a Christmas card. Pints, and stamps, were much cheaper then. Cheers. Merry Christmas.