A few weeks ago my postman in a state of some excitement asked me if I had seen the previous day's paper. It seemed his picture was on page 5. Naturally I hurried off to a wee shop in the search of a copy and indeed they had one left. I suspect they always do. I wanted to share the picture with you because he has featured a few times in this blog and now thanks to my new toy, a digital camera, I can do so.
I expected an individual portrait recording some heroic chess exploit or postal honour, but it was a crowd scene. Admittedly he stands out because it's a small crowd. They are demonstrating in defence of the public services but as the caption points out, that particular Saturday evening they had competition in the shape of the world cup and a French rugby final.
Discussing it later I had to correct his impression that workers in the UK eat in soup kitchens and that there is no minimum wage. He accepted that but it proved impossible to budge him from the view that it is somehow unnatural or immoral to sell stamps and bread in the same shop.
[Acknowledgements to La Montagne for the picture].