In the meantime the man ordered a third skip and when it was returned it included a large quantity of Royal Mail bags, a garden incinerator and items of semi-burnt mail.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Wales | South West Wales | 40,000 post items found in skips

As a result, they will stop worrying about the contents of their e-mail bags.

ECONOMIST: www.democracy.com

They shouldered mail bags for the first time and we had to find a new way to refer to mailmen.

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In this more civil conversation, an idea by Mr Shurtleff, the attorney-general, has been gaining favour (although he, too, is getting bags of hate mail for it).

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"The new equipment - large and small trolleys and small vans - also reduces the risk of injury to our postmen and women from carrying heavier mail bags, " the spokesman added.

BBC: trolley

Over time, politicians grew increasingly cynical about people seeking to influence them one way or the other: if they wanted to know what their constituents were thinking, they called in the pollsters and ignored their mail bags.

ECONOMIST: www.democracy.com

"We are not used to seeing our soldiers coming home in body bags, " said Nick Dawes, editor of the Mail and Guardian newspaper that is asking some of the toughest questions of the South African authorities.

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The sodden contents was then put into 'apology bags' by staff and forwarded within 24 hours, according to a Royal Mail spokeswoman.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Wales | Christmas mail dumped in woods

But they exert a voodoo power over politicians: last month the Daily Mail ran a campaign urging tighter controls on the use of plastic bags and Mr Brown instantly signed up.

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The mail, which was dated September 2001, was found dumped in bin bags by an off-duty postman as he retrieved a football.

BBC: NEWS | UK | Wales | Christmas mail dumped in woods