thanks, I guess

I had wondered where those Entertainment Weekly magazines had gone. Granted, they do arrive via 3rd class mail from the US to save on postage costs, so I am usually about 4-6 weeks behind. I can live with that.

Still, I had not see a magazine in quite a while, but had simply not found the time to check it the reason. Low and behold, 5 magazines each from different weeks, arrived in today's mail. Then, I remembered.

The UK has been hit almost every week with a Royal Mail strike...most of July, August and September. Not every home, in every part of the UK are affected at the same time but the strikes are intermitttemnt, lasting only 2-3 days at a time. They occur so frequently, the media has pretty much stopped covering the subject. Whenever I go 2-3 days without mail, I assume, "Yep, there must be a mail strike."

So, why the arrival of so many magazines all at one time. A rolling program of local postal strikes that began in July has turned worse with a union's call for a national walkout. The strikes over higher pay and job security have already caused a backlog of 20 million letters and parcels - about a quarter of the Royal Mail's daily volume. It is not presumed many of these will never be delivered.

It mostly affects second class mail, uishc as personal letters and magazines. Wonderful!

So before you lash out at the US Postal Service...don't. It could be worse.