We are now six days into the Oxfordshire postal strike and no solution is in sight. If the strikers ever had any public sympathy, it is disappearing fast. The grievances which led to the stoppage may be genuine ones, but the vast majority of people are past caring.

What they want and what we are calling for today is an end to a dispute which is costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, not just to the Post Office, but to people throughout the county.

It has got to stop and it has got to stop now.

What started as an unofficial dispute over new working practices in Oxford, has mushroomed into a Mexican stand-off in which 900 strikers will not go back until the threat of disciplinary action against the ringleaders is lifted by management.

Meanwhile, the poor old public are left to suffer once again.

Cheques, contracts, vital letters, cards and gifts are sitting unopened in their thousands. Even the identification of a man who died under a train last week is being held up because the results of forensic tests are stuck in the backlog.

What makes it worse is that this dispute does not even have the backing of the postal workers' national union.

Everyone has the right to strike, but if we're going to avoid the anarchy of the past, it has got to be done after a legally binding and properly organised ballot.

Locally, it's hard to tell what the union leaders response is. They've kept a low profile until recently, emerging yesterday to talk of a management witchhunt and protest that they are slaves to the views of the workforce. In other words, they've been as useless as a chocolate teapot.

This sort of unofficial action takes us back to the bad old days of the 70s .

If this is what the union movement of the 21st century is about, you can

keep it.

When this ends - and end it must - some serious questions have to be asked

about how the dispute flared up and Royal Mail management should not be

exempt from criticism. After all, it takes two to make an argument.

But the fact remains that this dispute is fundamentally wrong, both legally

and morally.

So let's cut out the rhetoric, get down to serious talking, find some common

ground and put the poor old Oxfordshire public out of their misery.

Not next week, not in a few days, but NOW.