When Politics And The Post Collide.

Here is an interesting story that just came to the news.
I am looking forward to the follow-ups and how much truth there is in it.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK...ivering_Them

Interesting story. I find the "conscience clause" rather unusual, do they allow store clerks to refuse to sell shirts in colors they don't like?

Wow, what an interesting article, LB1!

I'm very impressed they were able to get the "conscience clause" in there. I'm even more impressed (or shocked) that management agreed to the clause! I would have thought mail delivery of any item that is legal and meets the requirements of the postal service would be part of the job description.

Either way, the "conscience clause" does not allow for the alleged dumping/discarding of the mail. Hopefully, the investigation will reveal what did or did not happen. It could be that the accusation of dumping is also "politics as usual".

I did read with interest that previously some postal workers refused to deliver some pamphlets. Apparently this is not an unsubstantiated accusation but a documented fact. I am curious as to why the workers are allowed to read mail belonging/addressed to others (and wonder if they were doing this on company time, or personal time?), or are bulk mailings done differently in the UK? In the US, all mail (including bulk mailings) have to have a valid address. You simply cannot give a batch of mail to the carrier and ask them to drop it off on every mailbox along the way. The postal workers here don't sit there reading through your mail as they sequence/deliver your mail (at most checking the address or checking to see if the stamp got cancelled).

While I may not agree with the politics of the BNP, it would trouble me to no end if I found out my mail carrier was reading my mail and censoring the delivery (not that there is anything in there to be censored).

[EDIT: I should have written -- "While I MAY OR MAY NOT agree with the politics..."]

khj, there are many bulk mailings of leaflets, political, marketing, etc, which are delivered by Royal Mail on a one-per-household basis. They do not require individual addresses.
I did not know there was a conscience clause. Whilst holding views that some in the UK find extremely right wing and controversial, the BNP are a legal political party who have several (actually I have no idea how many, but some!) elected MPs in Parliament.
Presumably the conscience clause does - or ought to- contain procedures as to how a consciencious objection is handled. And you're right, I'm sure this doesn't involve dumping leaflets in a garden!

(Edited due to inability to spell conscience!)

Thanks for the info on the bulk mail in UK, stampgal!

I've edited my statement regarding the BNP for clarification, as I know little about the BNP. It was not my intention to suggest that I opposed their politics/platform, but rather that my surprise was with the general issue of mail carriers being allowed to legally "not deliver" according to his/her conscience.

khj - and I've edited my bit about them too for clarification! All this neutrality is exhausting!
Moving away from the politics and back to bulk mailing, we get hit here with a double whammy of unsolicited marketing mail - the ones who get your address and send you junk, and the ones who just get their junk delivered to everyone!

If the BNP party did this themselves somehow it sure makes for prominent advertising and the old saying that any advertising is good advertising may hold sway here (or does now).

Whatever their politics, the party or any concerned citizens, I would think that expressing your opinion in the polls is the appropriate response. Dumping mail smacks of witch hunting and mob mentality to a certain extent.

In Canada we get a lot of political pamphlets and advertising / marketing postcards and flyers right down to the local specials at the grocery store, and it does not have an address on it.

Although lately I have noticed that some telephone company folded flyer advertising does have my name and address.

Wow. The Royal Mail are generating some interesting stories recently.
This one is a classic - Post Box locations to remain secret - http://www.metro.co.uk/news/861889-...n-top-secret

Last year I had called Canada Post to inquire about the location of the nearest mail boxes (post boxes) to me, as they had removed the one I had known about and used previously. A similar inquiry to the one posed in the UK in the above article.

I was only told that they did not have a list of locations. (Hmmm, at least that they were going to release to me.) Frustrating when you walk (slowly) and bus about and they keep taking away the post boxes that are located closest to you so you have to find others further away. I hadn't even said good-bye properly or mourned the loss of the old gal.

We still seem to have boxes in shopping malls and one in or near hospitals but none next to libraries, where I would think that people that would be reading (and probably writing) would enjoy having one. Maybe they could have a kiosk for supporting library functions that sold writing paper, books on calligraphy (fancy hand-writing) and stamps and envelopes. Location, location. Of course, the library does have many public computers accessible to one just be having a library card.

Perhaps I shall make a Google map of the ones I do know (and Post Offices). A project for the Spring.

It is amazing to think that it required an act of government - The freedom of information act - to wrestle this from Royal Mail.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technolog...on-postboxes

There are now a number of applications that make use of this data (for UK) similar to how you suggested Puzzler.

http://www.dracos.co.uk/play/locating-postboxes/

So, like the location of the mailboxes, I would assume that the location of all the undelivered/misdelivered mail is also a secret they are unwilling to reveal?