Postman Pat linked to prisons minister

Postman Paul? Paul Goggins MP comes clean

Prisons minister Paul Goggins has admitted his family's links to one of the stars of children's TV.

Mr Goggins shares his surname with the bespectacled post-mistress from the Postman Pat series.

He confessed this was no accident when Radio Five Live's early morning listeners demanded to know the truth about his name.

Apparently the government minister's uncle, Edmund Googins, was a teacher in Manchester at the same time as Postman Pat creator John Cunliffe.

"They were both teachers in the city and knew each other well. I think it highly unlikely he just made the name up from scratch, but took it from my uncle's name," Mr Goggins explained.

The MP for Wythenshawe and Sale West told of how he used to read the stories to his own three children.

He continued: "When I make school visits the children still recognise the name."

Pat and politics

Postman Pat has been one of the BBC's most popular children's shows since it was launched in 1981.

But this is not the first time the gentle tales of rural life have been touched by politics.

Beast Banks post office in Cumbria - the inspiration for that created by John Cunliffe - closed in June 2003.

And Royal Mail stopped using the genial Postman Pat in their merchandising four years ago, claiming he no longer represented their "corporate image".

Yet Paul Goggins' cartoon counter-part's catchphrase, "Ee it's a bad job", would probably find currency in the Palace of Westminster.