What Alan Johnson thinks

As with so much else, Our Man is not happy with how the postal strike is developing:

Publicly, he is not saying. Privately, he has been heard to mutter about "the Andy Gilchrist school of negotiating".

In 2002, Gilchrist was leader of the Fire Brigades Union, a popular group of state employees who went on strike with public backing and lost.

Johnson is right.  Nothing is achieved by megaphone diplomacy.  The pubic rhetoric has to stop. With Mandy having lost credibility, AJ should do his bit behind the scenes and persuade the two sides to talk to Acas.

The Times is right.  There is no alterative to Alan Johnson becoming involved in an attempt to resolve this dispute.