Shut that gate!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://standpointmag.co.uk/counterpoint ... royal-mail" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Go and shut the gate, darling" is a request that must be heard in countless houses just after the postman has been. Postmen almost always leave the front gate of a house open, and if you like it shut, someone has to go out and shut it. There are only a few postmen — usually brisk, cheerful men — who do it themselves.

This is not just a matter of a dog coming in and urinating on the flowers in the front garden. The postman's indifference to the gate is a graver matter. It is a matter both of courtesy on his part, and of duty. Courtesy speaks for itself, practised or not. Duty is what needs looking into here.

The privatisation of Royal Mail is now being investigated by Parliament, and there has never been a better moment for the service to introduce some changes. One change it should now make is to require of its postmen, as part of their duty under their contract, that they should close gates behind them. It would be a simple but not a trivial change. It would require a whole new attitude from the postman towards his work. No longer would that be just the utilitarian business of shoving the letters through the door. It would impose an enlargement of his concern from the letters to the person receiving them.

TNT, which has now started delivering mail too, enters the picture here. It has announced that it will pay its postmen by the speed with which they work. That can only make matters worse. A rapid change in its policy is needed from TNT too.

Making postmen close gates would of course be a case of enforced civility, and nowadays civil behaviour — like any other behaviour — is only thought to be "authentic", and therefore desirable, if it comes from the heart. But the heart is not good enough. The consequences of one's behaviour are also important. And if authentic impulses do not produce the desired result, then enforcement — in the shape of a work contract freely entered into by both parties — is not in the least reprehensible.

Moreover, a habit of doing something decently can come to embed itself in the heart. Indeed if, besides postmen, everybody in a job were strictly required by their terms of employment to act correctly in these small-seeming ways, what a great change might embed itself in the manners — and perhaps in the heart too — of the whole nation. Strait — and properly closed — is the gate that leadeth to the kingdom of heaven.

[Sidley]

[5plusbonusball]

Maybe we should invent a surcharge card like this on the back for moaners

[Sidley]

Fix your gates properly, not bodge it with lockjaw inducing rusty nails and wire. Ensure it swings smoothly without grating to a sudden halt propelling us head first over it. Clear the dog s**t and various other garden refuse and discarded children's detritus that impede our graceful progress to your front door. Treat us with a modicum of respect and we will be only too happy to close your f***ing gate, tug our forelocks and know our place.

Asshats

[datasaint]

Article written by somebody who's no concept of what a delivery round is like with 200 odd gates majority of which don't lock correctly and are rusty and the assumption posties have limitless time to fiddle about closing your gate that requires 10 attempts to do.

[GT85]

Fix your gates properly, not bodge it with lockjaw inducing rusty nails and wire. Ensure it swings smoothly without grating to a sudden halt propelling us head first over it. Clear the dog s**t and various other garden refuse and discarded children's detritus that impede our graceful progress to your front door. Treat us with a modicum of respect and we will be only too happy to close your f***ing gate, tug our forelocks and know our place.

[NWpostie]

I fvcking hate Victor Meldrews

[Lounge Lizard]

Standpoint is a monthly British cultural and political magazine. Its premier issue was published in May 2008 – the first launch of a major current affairs publication in the UK in more than a decade. Standpoint is based in London and was co-founded by Daniel Johnson, Miriam Gross, Jonathan Foreman and Michael Mosbacher; Johnson is its editor.
The magazine describes its core mission as being "to celebrate western civilisation", its arts and its values – in particular democracy, debate and freedom of speech – at a time when they are under threat. The magazine is broadly centre-right in orientation, but aims to include a "broad church" and to capitalize on the realignment of political attitudes in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The magazine has sought to revive the art of the essay in Britain, calling itself a response to "a market swamped by the journalistic equivalent of fast food".

[visigoth]

""Go and shut the gate, darling" is a request that must be heard in countless houses just after the postman has been. Postmen almost always leave the front gate of a house open, and if you like it shut, someone has to go out and shut it."

Well, not necessarily. You could simply shut it the next time you HAVE to go out. Or even tie some rope to it, feed the other end through your letterbox and pull it shut as & when. In your case though, don't do either of these because, clearly, you don't get out enough.

"There are only a few postmen — usually brisk, cheerful men — who do it themselves."

Implying that women are neither brisk nor cheerful is just plain insulting.

"Strait — and properly closed — is the gate that leadeth to the kingdom of heaven."

It's customary to capitalise "Heaven" -- assuming you're referring to the Almighty's gaff (that's enough parsing ).

[bustedflush]

Crikey that's me at 15 with my evo-stick!! Where d'ya get that photo from?

[secluder]

Old thread I know.

Postman don’t ‘have’ to shut the gate. I’m a retired postman that always made a point of closing the gate of a property if it was closed when I delivered, but I heard others within my office talk about not having the time to close a gate. My current experience is that the postman isn’t closing the gate to my property, which in itself isn’t the end of the world, but combine this with the postie chatting on the phone and starring you out when you open the door to close the gate means one thing to me…

No £20 Christmas tip like the postie last year!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

[toonshola]

Those customers who insist on putting a tight chain around a gate that requires a crowbar to open it in the first place, WHY?! What purpose does this chain have other than piss off the postman. Bastards.

[twoloops]

I had a great big heavy high solid wooden gate with a metal ring handle which took a good slam to shut it, until a cat bolted through it just as I slammed it shut, thought I’d decapitated it

[twoloops]

Shut that gate

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[scoobydo79]

A refuse to deliver for people with letter boxes at the bottom of the front door