SIGNIFICANT SHORTS : Royal Mail's future at stake

As another postal strike went ahead today, the head of the Royal Mail warned its future was at stake. The managing director, Richard Dykes, who has just written outlining the latest offer to all the service's post workers, said rivals would not hesitate to exploit the disruption if it continued. Several local post services have begun since Ian Lang, the President of the Board of Trade, temporarily suspended the Royal Mail's monopoly on letters under pounds 1.

Meanwhile, magistrates' and crown courts could be disrupted next month if 2,000 administration workers vote to strike over a pay dispute. Members of the Civil and Public Services Association in the Crown Prosecution Service are being balloted on a week-long dispute in protest at a new performance-related pay offer. Louise Jury