I’m outside the Post Office having just bought Royal Mail tamps in Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland. That’s the UK.
Stamp on the right is valid for anywhere in the UK: I can send my cousin a birthday card in Brighton for (yes, extortionate IMHO) 85p.
In the background you’ll see a hill. That’s across the narrow water of Carlingford Lough and it’s the the Republic of Ireland*. To send my cousin who lives in Omeath (which is less than a mile away as the crow flies) a birthday card I need the stamp on the right: an international tariff. £2.50.
Surely Royal Mail and An Post, or the Post Office and An Post can cook up something better than this rip-off?
*Why don’t I deliver it by hand? It’s about a 25-mile round trip via Newry until they build the bridge.
