![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/e2ac308650e9eb88d720f3a51eea7fa5.jpg\")
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Bernard\u2019s Good Record <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by John Freeman<\/em><\/p>\n A fairly good record, says the manager. How could anyone who knows Bernard doubt him? He says if he finishes his round early, He waves his phone. From next Monday, he says, More strikes? Nothing planned. Another ballot. More and more I feel Perhaps some child with an imagination Bernard\u2019s Good Record by John Freeman A fairly good record, says the manager. It\u2019s a very good record, Bernard says. Off for two weeks after Christmas this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":640,"featured_media":15109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/640"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
It\u2019s a very<\/em> good record, Bernard says.
Off for two weeks after Christmas this year
and<\/em> last year, a pattern, or coincidence?
Coincidence, says Bernard just as firmly,
I broke my ankle last year, falling over
a step on a customer\u2019s property.
And this year I\u2019ve had a chest infection.<\/p>\n
Or seeing him, in the last couple of weeks,
back at work but looking very poorly,
imagine that was put on for effect?
He couldn\u2019t catch his breath, had to stay in bed,
as he told us when we saw him at long last.<\/p>\n
that half an hour\u2019s banked by the management,
so that when he\u2019s got a heavier load
than usual he can\u2019t claim overtime.
And they\u2019re giving him a larger round, he says.
It\u2019s just impossible to do in the time.
He\u2019s taking on an extra village next week.
He\u2019ll do the best he can, and what\u2019s left over
he\u2019ll deliver on the following day.<\/p>\n
they\u2019re going to watch us all through the round.
Like now, they\u2019d notice I\u2019ve stood here, not moving,
for ten minutes, they\u2019d see a yellow dot
getting larger. We\u2019re allowed forty minutes
for a break, and I never use all that,
I take twenty. The other twenty I spend
talking to customers. People are worried,
but I say, play by the book, do the job,
and they can\u2019t touch you. We\u2019ll see how it works out.<\/p>\n
I tell him that in Australia, or so
a friend there writes to me, letters won\u2019t be
delivered anymore, they\u2019re losing money.
And there was me, she says, imagining
it was a service. Bernard isn\u2019t laughing.
That could happen here. He says Royal Mail
is considering outsourcing letters
to another company, it\u2019s a plan
under discussion.<\/p>\n
what I\u2019m bearing witness to with Bernard
is the slow death of an institution,
of a golden thread that has run through life,
with all its troubles, for two centuries.
Those of us who knew it will regret it.
the young won\u2019t miss it and won\u2019t care, mostly.<\/p>\n
will catch an after-echo, as we hear
of a gone world with linnets and skylarks,
lapwings, butterflies, hedgehogs and crickets,
and feel uneasily how sad it is,
before getting on, as we all must, knowing
that if we stand still thinking about things
or talking for too long, a growing circle
round a yellow dot in our internalised
line manager will bark at us, hurry up.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"