Britain will go through a second consecutive week of postal strikes this week.

Postal workers will be laying down their tools on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, during the latest stage of hostilities between Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) leaders and Royal Mail’s management.

Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson have both spoken out against the strike, but have also tried to prevent overly-politicising the dispute. They have called on conciliation service Acas to be brought in to negotiations.

Royal Mail says current measures to increase efficiency are required to deal with the decline triggered by the advent of the internet. Unions say they do not object to modernisation