A few years ago I did own some shares in Royal Mail (RMG) on the basis that (1) it could be managed better as a private company rather than a state owned one and; (2) its property ownership in places such as the Nine Elms site in south London offered it the scope to even further improve its alright net cash position. Anyhow, I made a bit of money but lost interest in the shares at/around the 600p level in 2018. For many obvious reasons (fewer letters, worker angst and growing competition in the parcel business), the Royal Mail had a shocking couple of years after that, meaning by June last year I noted that its new chair Keith Williams had a big job going forward. And he certainly did but – as shown by the near tripling of the share price since – I doff my hat to him.

Royal Mail (RMG) really should be renamed Royal Wail by long-suffering shareholders. Today's full year to the end of March numbers are unsurprisingly in two parts, although the gap between pre-Covid lockdown and the last few months is not as wide as seen by other corporate names. If only this could solely reflect a necessity, utility-style, business at the heart of our national life...