… commented my host at lunch the other day, “is that they’ve just had it too easy for too long.” He was paying and I held my peace. But inwardly I was seething.

I’ve been on strike about half a dozen times in my life, and not once did we win. A pay-rise rarely recouped the money lost by standing on the picket-line. In my experience strikes are acts of desperation that bring out the worst in people.

Last week a friend whose son is a postman sent me a fascinating article from the London Review of Books giving a side of the Royal Mail dispute that you don’t hear about. Written by Roy Mayall (geddit?) it can be found on www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n18 and I commend it to anyone curious about the other side of the story.

The posties haven’t the faintest chance of winning this fight, of course. But the way they’ve been exploited is disgraceful.

Most of the industrial disputes…

… I’ve seen were ones I covered. The most memorable was a wildcat strike in London’s docks. I was a Defence Correspondent - far too lofty for such mundane matters - and due to meet someone at Henley for a leisurely Regatta champagne lunch.

But first, natty in blazer and flannels, I popped into ITN to check the post before heading west. Big mistake. “Ah, a reporter!” cried the Home News Editor. “Get down to dockland right away; the strike’s about to collapse.”

“Love to go, Peter,” I said, “but I’ve got an important defence story.”

“Yeah, I can see that,” he replied. “Now, get down there quick.”

So I went. I couldn’t have been more conspicuous if I’d worn a tutu. Even the crew were embarrassed. Eventually, venturing down towards the sports-ground where a mass meeting was being held, a stocky minder stopped us and produced an evil-looking cargo-hook filed to a gleaming point.

“You Press?” he asked. Clad as I was, I couldn’t convincingly claim to be anything else. “Why don’t you push off before I shove this up your nostril?” he asked me, (using slightly more aggressive words). I pondered this and then said, “Good question, why don’t I?”

Not the finest moment in my career, admittedly. But since the alternative was sharing Jack Nicholson’s nasal experience in “Chinatown” it was one of those times when discretion was the better part of press freedom.

Like I said, strikes bring out the worst in people.