Horror stories about the state of Royal Mail abound. But there is a good chance that these tales are not circulating in the form of a letter, stamped and mailed at a post office. That loss of market share lies at the heart of Royal Mail's problems: its operations are a shambles - not entirely its own fault - and the company is facing ever more competition it is not equipped to handle.

Good news, then, that after weeks of sporadic walkouts, the Communication Workers Union - a bastion of resistance to modernisation - has called off further scheduled strikes and sat down with management to reach a deal for 130,000 employees.