What the hell is happening at the St Aldates Post Office? A friend of mine was queuing there for 40 minutes on Tuesday morning from 10.20am to 11am in order to post a recorded delivery letter.

Part of the problem was that only four of the serving tills were open during the first 20 minutes of her wait. But the slow movement of the queue was also explained by the fact that many people were jumping it. No fewer than four people overtook my friend and went to join pals who were further ahead in the line, waiting to pick up some sort of cash hand-out. When she protested, they offered the feeble explanation that a place in the queue had been 'saved' for them a ridiculous notion which would not be tolerated if the queue were supervised, as it really ought to be.

But another reason for the snail-like progress to the counter was apparent to customers once they reached it. Despite the chaos building up all around them, staff were busy trying to flog unwanted products like insurance and travellers' cheques to people who had only gone there for a stamp.

The closure of so many other post offices, including those in St Michael's Street and Little Clarendon Street, has obliged us to use St Aldates. When will it start providing a proper service?