If postal workers walk out, they will deserve some sort of accolade for staging perhaps the worst-timed strike in history: in the run-up to Christmas, in the middle of a period of wrenching structural change in their industry, only months ahead of an election that could bring in an even less sympathetic government.

Not that this government has helped. Part-privatisation of Royal Mail, as last December's rather excellent Hooper report pointed out, was and is a necessity. But the electorally challenged administration deferred the sale in the summer, citing the state of the markets. Markets may have improved, but Royal Mail is disintegrating. Industrial action now threatens the very contracts that might have made it an attractive commercial property.