Every London cyclist must have experienced it. The revving of a small commercial vehicle engine behind you and – whooosh – a red Royal Mail LDV van powers past. Like more passionate versions of White Van Man, Royal Mail drivers also seem to like to wrap their vans around lamp posts and all kinds of other obstacles – have a glance at the body work the next time one flies past you. I wonder whether DHL or CityLink drivers are so remiss?

So what happens once the mail has speeded to its destination? In my street at least, it seems it gets wrongly delivered. While I am all for equal opportunities when employing people, knowing the difference between 6, 8 and 10 would seem to be elementary for a postman. Yet once a week for the last month or so I have had to potter off down Villa Street to deliver letters that were wrongly delivered. It has not been that house numbers have been poorly written. The letters were just delivered to the wrong place. Those are just some of the 14 million or so letters that go astray. I wonder whether the threat of EU postal liberalisation might make them tighten up their act a bit?