Three local post offices are threatened with closure in Walthamstow, one at 619 Forest Road, one at 228 Chingford Road and another at 29 Orford Road. I can see no justification for closing the ones on Chingford or Forest Roads. Local campaigns, of quite differing character, will be launched to defend these Post Offices, as well as others (already well under way) in Leyton and Leytonstone which are also under threat.

The one on Orford Road will be defended by its articulate and somewhat out-of-touch local residents, who will have unequal access to the media. This will be well supported. Being a middle class lot, they should never, ever, suffer when sacrifices are to be made to their quality of life, which the poor couldn't make for them. Heaven forfend, they may even end up using the same facilities as everyone else. No doubt some social workers who pretend to be on the radical left will find some ideological mumbo-jumbo to wrap this self interest up in. (I am willing to predict they will try to posture themselves as defending all the Post Offices and we will at some stage hear a call for 'solidarity' between the local campaigns. The Orford Road lot will be prepared to sell out other campaigns for Post Offices, such as the socially essential one on Forest Road, if needs must). Also expect howls from every politician who can get their face in the papers, LibDems blaming Labour, Labour blustering and then pretending to blame Europe or greedy capitalists - anyone other than themselves. Some Tories may even decide to push their faces to the fore. Looks like there's going to be a fine old row. Interestingly, it may not be one the wheeler-dealers running the council want to fester. Maybe, despite the council being broke, they are planning to take the post offices into public ownership like Essex County Council wants to.

Ken Livingstone will beat them all, trying to place himself at the vanguard of pensioners' protests in the hope that this will help him in time for the mayoral election. He will make sure that he is not to blame when, sometime afterwards, his efforts will be seen to have have failed- the usual trick is to launch some ill-fated legal action at rate-payer's expense and then make the judiciary look like the baddies. The judges will tell him that the courts aren't the place to resolve this kind of dispute. Other contenders for public office will all be adding their pennies worths when they can to get round to it.

Fortunately, our wonderful Post Office at the St James's Street end of the High Street does not seem to be facing the axe. Yet.