Scrounging papers ...

[snorkackcatcher]

Erm ... I don't suppose anyone has an unwanted copy of Tuesday's Guardian (9th October) lying about the place by any chance? Or failing that, the Times? The reason for this odd request is that I now find that both papers had an advert by the Communications Workers Union, asking people to support them, that I missed. As you may (or may not) know, I collect material related to postal strikes -- mainly the big 1971 one, but I have been trying to keep up with the press cuttings for the latest round of disputes and retain delayed letters that I've received ...

Local sourcing of the missing papers has sadly proven fruitless so far. It seems newsagents can't get back copies for love nor money. I had hopes of persuading the library, which used to keep a month's back copies, to let me buy them when they were thrown out -- unfortunately it appears that they keep them for a year now, because The Cutbacks means they can't always afford the microfiche versions. And although a friend gave me a copy of Tuesday's Telegraph, apparently the CWU didn't waste their money by advertising there. :)

So if you happen to have a spare copy around, or indeed a copy of last Saturday's' or Monday's paper ... um, could I have it please, pretty please? I'll happily reimburse the postage and packing costs ... ::plaintive look::

Comments

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I think I still have the Tuesday Guardian main section lying about, to which you would be welcome.

[snorkackcatcher]

Ah, bless you! That's a huge relief. (Apparently you can't even get back copies from the Guardian themselves, unless you can personally call round at their head office -- at least according to the woman on the desk when I phoned.) If you do have it, let me know your email address? (I'd rather not post my actual address publicly. :D)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I've checked, and I definitely have it. Do you want the whole section, or just the page cut out? I may also have Saturday's; do you want that as well if I have?

email address is catherinemck @ [warm]mail.com

[muggle-prof.livejournal.com]

Hope I'm not being too nosy, but I have to ask: is this collection just a somewhat unusual hobby or is there a deeper purpose to it?

[snorkackcatcher]

No especially deep purpose, no! Basically, I collect stamps -- or mostly 'postal history' these days -- and in 1971 there was a seven week all-out postal strike during which the then-monopoly was suspended to allow private operators to try their luck while the strike was on. Years ago I picked up a folder full of stamps and covers from one of these services cheaply at auction, and got interested in the subject -- as tends to happen, it 'just growed' into a fairly large collection on all (collectable or documentable) aspects of postal arrangements during strikes. Whether that makes sense, I don't know. :)

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Oh, my father was a postman during the 1971 strike. IIRC they even reported the fact of the "private operators" favourably on Blue Peter - my father practically boycotted the BBC for encouraging children to look favourably on scabs for ever afterwards.

It got pretty tough in spots - we were mainly eating potatoes from the allotment towards the end (given my mother's track record at cooking this was not entirely the hardship it sounds), strike pay being more of a concept than an actuality.

[snorkackcatcher]

That's the kind of story that isn't often told, and a salutary reminder, of course. I don't actually remember the strike, but for what it's worth at this stage (i.e. practically bugger all), looking back on the basis of the information I've found, the union's problem seemed to be more the executive's chosen strategy than the worthiness of their cause -- once they'd decided to go all-in (well, OK, all-out), they were always going to be in trouble if the Post Office management didn't fold quickly, and in the first few months in office of a new Tory government with an anti-union platform there was little chance that they'd even be allowed to fold. The passive-aggressive tactics that worked in the 1960s (go-slow, work-to-rule etc) might have been more successful, or something like this year's strategy where the union went for a series of stinging left jabs rather than exposing themselves by trying to land a knockout blow.

As for the private posts, from a collector's point of view they're mostly just fun, with a fascinating postal history side order of a bunch of local services trying to coalesce to give some kind of wider coverage -- like watching 18th/19th century international postal developments in microcosm and on fast forward. I'd probably feel a lot more ambivalent about them if they had actually provided a service that was particularly effective at strike-breaking; it's apparent that for the most part they were nothing like a proper alternative -- five times the cost, one-tenth of the speed, and about one-twentieth of the coverage. (The exception being creamed-off city centre and circular deliveries, of course, which is why I didn't much like the EU 'competition order' throwing deliveries open.)

Then again, what collectors collect can sometimes apparently be at variance with their politics -- another example that springs to mind is one lifelong Conservative who put together an amazing collection of the mails of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War -- but there you go, these things can still be interesting postal and historical episodes. I'll collect stuff from Edward Martell's 'People's League' and 'Freedom Group' of the 1960s, despite the fact that Martell himself was a somewhat nutty Monday Club-type right-wing extremist. I suppose on balance that it broadens the mind, or something. :)

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

We have some bits of last Saturday's Guarniad kicking around - do you know which bit and where, roughly?

(At work we've got the wildcat postal strikes, plus some electric bod at the LEA has cut the wrong wire and all the schools have no Internet or email. When the phone lines go down, I'll know Something is Coming to Get Us.)

[snorkackcatcher]

Heh. No internet? Doesn't that count as cruelty to children or something?

(And if you get any delayed mail coming into the school as a result of the strikes, I wouldn't mind the envelopes. Just sayin'. :D)

The only thing in last Saturday's paper that I found in the library was a short piece of about three paragraphs at the bottom of one LH page saying that the PO had cut a deal with the managerial union in their separate dispute, presumably on standard tactical grounds. (I'd seen it on the website, but unfortunately it was easily short enough to miss when I checked the paper last Saturday -- the website often has stories that aren't part of the paper.) It was a fair way in AFAIR -- possibly the financial section?

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

'Deal for white-collar postal staff'?

Main section, bottom of p42.

Do you want the whole paper, a four-page foldout, the page or what? We'll post it today if I can find my A5 envelopes.

Mind you, there is a postal strike, so I can't say when you will get it. Given the article subject, they should perhaps offer a Manager's Delivery as a special service?

[snorkackcatcher]

Er -- tell you what, cut it out from the four-page foldout with a fairly generous margin and just send that? It should fit in an A5 envelope then. According to today's paper, the brinkmanship may have worked -- they've now agreed a provisional deal of some sort!

Many thanks for this, btw, it's very kind of you. I know it's a rather oddball request, even by fandom standards. :)

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

Sorry to drag this out. Have you moved in the last year? I sent an Christmas card to an address with a 9 in it (she muses) - is that still valid?

[snorkackcatcher]

Yeah, still valid. :)

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

I'm very late seeing this, being behind with all things LJ, and it sounds as though you've got what you want anyway. But just in case, I've got Tuesday's Times with the full page ad in it, and it'll be with me till Monday which is dustbin day. ;)

If by any chance you do want it as well, you can email me at gilpin25.metamorficmoon@gmail.com.