a letting-down of the side by the post office

Question

Father despised the telephone with a passion beyond all belief. He vies the thing – “the instrument,” as he called it – not just as a letting-down of the side by the post office, but as an outright attack on the traditions of the Royal Mail in general, and the use of postage stamps in particular. Accordingly he refuse, point-blank, to use it in any but the direst of circumstances.

What’s the meaning of the yellow block?

Clive · Accepted Answer

The telephone system in Britain used to be run by the post office. The post office is/was called 'the Royal Mail'.

If you let down the side, you do not do what is considered correct by good people like yourself.
It's a rather old-fashioned idiom.

Here's the idea.
The Post Office introduced the telephone system. Father felt this was a bad thing, and that people should just continue to write letters and use stamps.
Father felt the Post Office was not doing a correct thing. They were letting the side down.

Clive

a letting-down of the side by the post office

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