Save Our Post Office from the Illusionists

Illusionist David Blaine spent 44 days suspended in a small transparent box over the River Thames a few years ago. At the time it seemed quite an impressive feat - what with no toilet or food and visits from the occasional drunk golfer taking pot shots at his 30 foot high home. Yet that was until I recently spend a day in a similar sized contraption in the picturesque Lincolnshire village of Langworth.

This was at the slightly less glamorous end of the spectrum helping out at a small post office earmarked for the chop. The cubicle in question was manned by 59-year-old subpostmaster John Handley, who spends 15 hours inside loyally serving his local community. There were no magic in the air but just a straightforward down to earth post office counter. Handley has been sitting there for almost a decade – and for the last five years has been toiling seven days a week without a holiday.

We kicked off the day at 4.30am to clean down the branch area and shop before the visitors began to arrive. Post Office bosses who have earmarked this branch for the chop were still soundly asleep content in the knowledge they can afford to pay other people to clean their floors.

Langworth post office is among that worryingly common breed of branch that is not only vital to the locals but also seems to turn over a healthy profit. There is no earthly reason for it to close down. Yet the Post Office has decided in all its wisdom to shut it after the obligatory ‘consultation’ where no one actually bothers to listen to the countless pleas.

I only spent a few hours inside the box. What I quickly learned is that Handley is no magician but a true inspiration who works tirelessly for little financial reward and no public recognition. The only smokes-and-mirrors slight of hand seems to be coming from the Post Office and Government who are forging ahead with these barmy closures.

Toby Walne

toby@walne.co.uk