Campaigning against a decision of the bureaucracy is never easy. If it were of course, at least one of the purposes of having Members of Parliament would disappear.

But this week, the Post Office broke new ground among public bodies in demonstrating either complete internal confusion or deliberate public two-facedness.

I heard from a Post Office official by telephone on Monday 10 December that one of the three sub post offices which I had been campaigning to save, Stamford East (Ryhall Road), was indeed going to be reprieved – one of only two out of the total 77 under threat of closure in the East Midlands. Of course I was grateful for that. And there will now be a great deal of celebrating at that end of my constituency.