On Mon, 8 Dec 2008, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 22:31:43 on Mon, 8 Dec
2008, Andrew Heenan remarked:
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Essex, IG1 1DD
Town Hall, 128-142 High Road, Ilford, Outer Mongolia, IG1 1DD
Neither of them are correct. Both of them would get delivered correctly.
One has additions which are helpful (to the public if not the Post
Office's automatic sorting machine), the other is comedy.

Incorrect, actually.

Since the day that Tony Benn introduced postcodes, adding the 'county' has
been a waste of ink. It's utterly redundant to the sorting process and the
postman on his round.

So what you meant to write was "Correct, actually". The additions of either
Essex or Outer Mongolia not helping the Post office's automatic sorting
machine.

But for people who live the other end of the country, and haven't the
faintest idea what "IG" stands for, adding "Essex" is quite helpful, and
adding "Outer Mongolia" is puerile comedy.

As i pointed out, it could also be very unhelpful. At least with Outer
Mongolia, you know it's wrong, and will have to look it up, but with
Essex, you might be fooled into thinking it really is in Essex, and start
tootling off town the A134 in largely the wrong direction.

But okay, let's rule out Outer Mongolia as silly. I'm happy to do that.
Presumably, you would then accept, on the grounds of helpfulness you've
outlined, that writing "London" would be better than "Essex"?

tom

--
The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday
thinking. -- Albert Einstein