Although Adam Crozier, Royal Mail chief executive, accepts that the public are losing patience with the poor performance of the postal service, he points out that consumers are worse off in other countries. "We have the lowest prices and the quality targets are tougher."

Among western European countries only the Netherlands and Portugal have cheaper stamp prices in the lightest category of post, and in the 50 gram bracket the UK's price of 28p is the lowest. The cheapest stamp price in Germany is 55 cents (38p) and in France it is 50 cents (34p).