New British Home Secretary is Ex-Postman

Britain's Khaleej Times On Line reports, "A former postman who left school aged 15 with no qualifications, Alan Johnson, named Friday as Britain’s new Home Secretary, is seen as a possible successor to Prime Minister Gordon Brown."

Johnson [shown here] worked as a postman in 1968 and became the youngest ever general secretary of the Union of Communication Workers in 1992, aged 42 according to the article.

Denis MacShane writes in an article titled Can Alan Johnson deliver for Labour? in Britain's Telegraph, "The point about Alan Johnson is that he has his feet on the ground. Maybe it's because he was a postman, that unique British job that puts someone in daily contact with every corner of the realm, 'bringing the cheque and the postal order/Letters for the rich, letters for the poor/The shop at the corner, the girl next door' in the words of Auden's homage to one of the few public sector workers still seen as serving the nation and not their own sectional interests."

He goes on to say, "Johnson will be 60 next year but still looks younger, fresher and nicer than many much younger cabinet colleagues. He is everything quite a lot of the modern Labour Party is not. This postman is still knocking at our door."

To read the entire article, click here.