a a8 hour strike in a long running dispute about pay, jobs and conditions. royal mail said it had made its best and final offer to staff and accused unions of holding christmas to ransom . unions say the offer on the table would spell the end of royal mail as we know it. the head of the rail union the rmt, mick lynch, is having his first meeting today with the new transport secretary mark harper. earlier this week the rmt announced dates for a series of a8 hour strikes in december and january. the talks are taking place at the moment. 0ur tranport correspondent katy austin is there. what is the latest on those talks, katy? that s right. the transport secretary mark harper is meeting with the rmt s mick lynch in the building behind me. it is not part of the official negotiations in the rail dispute at mark harper also has a meeting set up with the tssa union and the leader of aslef, the train driver union. however, the meeting with mick lynch today has acquired