Victor Waters

Pirates of Fleet Street Victor Waters

In 1970, in our own world, US President `tricky Dick' Nixon called out the US armed forces and National Guard to break a two-week strike by US postal workers. This was a dress rehearsal for the total cock-up he would later make of the Watergate cover-up. The `illegal' strike began in New York City and dragged in America's 210,000 post workers. The army made lousy postmen and the strikers won. A year later British postmen weren't so lucky. They struck for two months but when their union ran out of money everyone went back to work with nix. The average postie lost 150 quid during the strike; the Post Office lost 25 million pounds and a million commercial customers. The public was stitched up too. During the stoppage the government slyly slipped in a switch to decimal currency and the cost of postage stamps and many other small items was bumped up. But not everyone was a loser. A noble rabble of entrepreneurs took it on themselves to uphold Britain's proud traditions of private enterprise. Their endeavours kept the mail flying, floating and, very occasionally, dropping into letter-boxes. Unfairly dubbed `pirates' by some, they were truly privateers - working on Her Majesty's Service. And in the best traditions of their sea-going ancestors, they made a few bob wherever they could.