Mike Graham has claimed that Christmas has been 'ruined' for 'thousands of people' due to rats allegedly crawling over packages at the Royal Mail depot in Filton. The TalkTV presenter appeared on the channel yesterday (December 14) to discuss the current strikes taking place, taking aim at RMT leader Mick Lynch amid rail strikes.
The broadcast commentator then turned his attention towards the postal strikes, before ranting about the 'mountains' of Christmas packages being held at Bristol. Last week, a Royal Mail worker told Bristol Live that the piles of letters and parcels had started to attract wildlife, including rats and foxes, to the Filton site.
During his rant about the postal strikes, Mike included footage of the 'mountains' of post at Royal Mail in Bristol, and slammed the striking workers for being the reason why children may find rodents in their Christmas presents this year. Mike said: "This is the main Bristol depot in Filton you can see pictures of here - there’s hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and possibly thousands of packages.
Read more: Royal Mail parcels and letters piling up at Bristol Mail Centre
"And, the problem is, not only are they sitting out as they are there, they are being exposed not only to the elements but also to foxes and to rats. Now, I don’t know about you but if you live in any kind of urban section of this country you will know that there are foxes absolutely everywhere and one of the worst things that foxes do is they leave behind evidence of their presence, if you know what I mean."
Mike then claimed that rats crawling over, and getting inside, parcels was a 'health emergency'. He said: "Rats carry diseases with them and they carry something in particular called Weil’s disease, and if they urinate on packages, those packages may also be transmitters of disease. This is a health issue, ladies and gentlemen. You might even call it a health emergency.
"What if you were to open your package your Christmas present over the Christmas period, maybe one of your kids opens up a new teddy bear they’ve been sent by Granny, but inside the teddy bear there’s a rat that’s managed to burrow its way in and is staring out at you?"
The journalist then paused to do an impression of a rat. "Rats," said Mike, "They’re not pleasant creatures I’m afraid, and they carry disease. What if you have a hamper being delivered, and I know not everybody can afford to get hampers but if you can… what if a rat had somehow buried its way into the bottom of the hamper?
"You open the hamper at the top end and there it is again, the rat staring out at you. Might have chewed through all the chocolate eaten all the cheese. I mean, there’s nothing worse. This, I tell you, is what will ruin people’s Christmases.
"Once you get a rat in the house... you won’t be able to get them out. This is serious, I’m not joking. Some of you might think there’s more serious things going on. No. This is Christmas and it’s a period of time when families want to get together but they can’t travel, families want to spend time with each other but they can’t heat the house.
"Families want to have a decent time together after two years of terrible Christmases because of the way that the government ran the Covid lockdowns - now we've got rats in our Christmas presents thanks to Royal Mail and thanks to the striking workers - brilliant. Can’t tell you how ridiculous it all seems."
At the Filton Royal Mail depot, containers pictured at 7pm on Monday had not moved by midday Tuesday. A total of 10 days of strike action has been planned by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), with more than 115,000 members walking out in the run up to Christmas.
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