Protect our postcodes

To satisfy our demanding new masters, the satnav and the Amazon delivery drone, we are asked to dispense with postcodes because they are not deemed to be a precise enough indicator of location. But what would be the cost? There would be no postcode lotteries to whinge about, only “geographical variations in service quality and delivery”. We would no longer know the most expensive postcode in the country to buy a house, or the most popular breed of dog in our postcode. It would become pointless to envy neighbours across the road who happen to live in a more salubrious postcode, or be able to explain why W13 borders W7 and W5, and not W12 and W11. Times change and postcodes are recoded. But labelling locations in this way has a practical and cultural function. It would be a shame to stop.