A 12% rise in the price of first class stamps has caused panic-buying amongst the letter-sending public, with forecourt queues countrywide as customers clamour to top up with cut-price postage at their local garage. Rumours of stamp shortages have compounded the problem, with hundreds of customers fighting their way into post offices demanding several books of stamps at a time.
Accusations of unfair sales of 'old' first class stamps at the 'new' price have resulted in unrest in several corner shops throughout the UK. "The stamps I bought were acquired by the shop several months ago," said one disgruntled pensioner. "I should be able to pay the old price for them."
The rise is the third to hit letter writers in the space of several years and has many written communicators outraged: "I'm outraged!" said Doris Steems from Newport. "They're charging me forty-six pence for a first class stamp now. Forty-six pence, I ask you! All that money just for someone to collect my letter from the post box outside my house, take it by hand to a local sorting office, sort and distribute it from there overnight to a national hub and then onwards to the distant local office, all in time for the personal delivery to the door of the recipient early in the morning on the following day. It's shocking! How can they justify such an increase - I remember when it used to only cost a penny!"