Last night I attended a speech by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson who outlined a new policy of boosting the UK economy though revamping how the government works and try to assist businesses to function in the current economic climate.

Most of it was fairly sensible stuff, if delivered in a rather dull monotone voice – but there were a couple of slight jokes.

Considering the media fuss going on right now about his plans to fix the Post Office – one was quite topical.

He commented that Tony Blair had once said that Nu Labour would have completed its modernisation when it has come to love Peter Mandelson.

Since he has been back in government, he has felt somewhat discomforted to find himself being liked by his parliamentary colleagues. So he decided to shake up the Post Office knowing that it would annoy the back-benchers and result in a return to the conventional loathing he is so used to from the Labour Party.

I read this morning that the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will ask its 250,000 members to approve a formal split from the Labour party if the shake up of the post office goes ahead.

His speech was video’d and will be available on the RSA website in a few days – but to be honest, it’s not that interesting to listen to unless you are really into politics or run a business, or like monotone dialogue.

Like them or loathe them – but at least Tony Blair and David Cameron sound interesting, even if what they are saying isn’t.

Last night was the last of this year’s free lectures at the RSA – and I am looking forward to next year with excitement. For the occasional dud (see above), the majority are really interesting, and being free to attend means even the dull ones don’t leave you feeling “out of pocket”.

Been a busy few days – went to talks this evening and yesterday evening. Considering that I normally work in the evenings, these nights out result in coming home and having to put in an extra hour or two before crashing.

Last night was a long planned wander over to the Post Office Archive for a talk about the infamous Post Office underground railway – more affectionately known as the Mail Rail. There was a showing of a 10 minute video made in 1987 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the railway – and then a talk about the Archive’s curator.

To be honest, he didn’t really say a lot I didn’t already know – but it was good to have a refresher course to remind me of what I knew.

However – he mentioned a report compiled in 1911 to promote the railway and it went into a lot of detail about the earlier pneumatic based post office railway. I didn’t know about that document and shall have to wander back to the Archive centre to have a read as it could be quite helpful for my own researches.

This evening though – I wandered along to the LSE in Holborn for an "in conversation" type talk with Cherie Blair, wife of our former Prime Minister. Cherie Blair is undeniably one of those people who elicit very strong reactions in most people. I certainly veer towards the "heads in hands in despair" opinion about her time when in 10 Downing St., but I have a lot of respect for her work as a lawyer and human rights campaigner.

Incidentally, I go to so many events where I am often one of the youngest people in the room, but this evening I was in a room where probably two-thirds of the people were younger than myself. Makes a change!

The first two thirds of the evening was basically Howard Davies of the LSE in chat with Cherie Blair and talking mainly about her life and anecdotes about being the wife of a national leader. In all, very amusing stuff and worth listening to – along with the odd bit of politics thrown in.

Who the heck voted Tony Blair as gay hunk of the week – although he was apparently quite flattered by the decision!

The final bit was questions from the audience, and we got a bit more human rights discussed, which was a very interesting to hear her views on. There was a book signing event afterwards, but to be honest, I doubt I would read the book if I had brought a copy, the reviews put me off a bit. I also prefer my political books to be by the politicians themselves.

Cherie Blair is one of those people who can command huge prices for public speaking – so it was a rare treat to be able to hear her opinions for free.

Despite some very tempting options, I’m going to try and avoid the lecture circuit tomorrow – I need a night off

Woes with the Post Office.

Today I had to make two trips to Royal Mail institutions – one to pay a “fine” of 6p on some postage, along with a £1 handling fee – then off the post office to send a parcel.

After navigating several scary road junctions I made it to the Post Office depot and located the counter where I can collect parcels and pay postage fines, I walked in to a bored looking queue of people waiting to be served. A strong aroma which I am worried may have been urine based permeated the small room and after paying my fine I was able to collect an A4 envelope which had just a small leaflet inside and a first class stamp on the front. Quite why I need to pay an extra 6p for that I just cannot begin to work out.

Whilst I was waiting though, I took time to contemplate the two warning notices informing me that from the 11th April 2005 – I will no longer be able to park my car in the car park. Oh, and I should prepare for the ID-Theft Week 2007, occurring shortly.

Anyhow – off to the post office to dispatch another item sold via eBay and whilst waiting in the (yet another) long queue – I noticed the video screen was wishing me a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. At least it wasn’t quite as out of date as the other Royal Mail venue – but it is possibly symbolic of the timeliness of their service now.

As a side issue though – why are customers required to go all the way to a sorting office to collect parcels, when they could go to the vastly more convenient Post Office instead?

Surely it is not beyond the capabilities of the Royal Mail to send all undelivered mail to the local mail Post Office and let people collect them there. It would be better for customers as the Post Office will have more staff to serve customers quicker (sort of) and also for all their problems – they are at least open sensible hours – unlike the sorting office which still seems to think opening on a Saturday is a privilege we should be grateful for.

Such a move would also drive more people into the Post Office, which tends to be better looked after than the shabby sorting office – and recalling that for the vast majority of people their only experience on the Royal Mail is the sorting office when they have to collect parcels that were delivered “while you were out” (or more likely, while you were sitting by the front door waiting), this has to be good for their brand image.

It just seems very antiquated to me.