Impact will be heavy on small businesses

I HAVE great regard for our posty. Actually, that should be posties. Both the postman that delivers mail to the office and the postman that delivers mail to our home.

But I can’t help thinking that a postal strike isn’t just foolhardy. The Post Office has a great place in the heart of the nation. But the strike culture is going to affect us all.

Already there’s a backlog of post built up from localised action. Some of it will include cheques that provide vital cash for small businesses during this difficult time. Others important deliveries from small firms that rely on the postal system to make money.

You can only conclude that a strike is going to hit small businesses most of all. Especially as only 40% of the workforce has voted for the strike.

John Cridland, the CBI’s deputy-director general summed it up well I thought when he said: “After a very tough year, serious disruption to the postal service would present a real threat to those firms pinning their hopes on a pre-Christmas sales bounce.”

With a bit of luck, some commonsense will do the trick and avert the strike.