Letter: The Post Office is worth a penny

Sir: Lord Joseph has obviously forgotten, considering how he has argued the opposite in his article ('Deliver us from the Post Office monopoly', 11 May), that the reason postal transmission passed out of private hands in 1839 was because the state could do the job better and for far less. On that occasion the minimum commercial charge was 4d, which the Post Office reduced to a uniform rate of 1d. Is it really necessary to turn back the clocks yet again?

Yours sincerely,

SLIM O'CALLAGHAN

Leigh-on-Sea,

Essex

11 May