There cannot be that many things in national life to celebrate for those who still worship the Norse gods.

Pagan druids and their followers might gather at Stonehenge every solstice, but there is no special national holiday to celebrate either Odin and those who live with him in Asgard, the home of the gods.

But now, after years of being ignored, the Odinists and those who still look to Norse mythology for inspiration and guidance, have finally got something to smile about.

The Royal Mail is to issue a ‘pagan’ stamp next month, depicting the Norse god Thor, the hammer wielding god of thunder and protector of mankind.

Admittedly it forms part of a set of stamps commemorating Marvel Comics superheroes – of whom Thor is one, enjoying his own comic series and film spin offs – rather than the original figure of Germanic mythology.

But the Odinist Fellowship are pretty pleased all the same.

They are a registered charity that exists to “promote the original old religion of the English people and the native faith of the northern lands”, so they naturally welcome any celebration of Norse mythology.

The Odinists – who worship at a Grade II listed former almshouse in Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire, dating back to the Tudor period – are so pleased they aren’t even complaining that the Thor shown in the stamps is the one created by an American comic publisher rather than the traditional depiction of him.

People who live in the more isolated countryside should be encouraged to follow the American example and install a post box at the end of their drive and collect their letters themselves, John Gummer, the chairman of the influential Committee on Climate Change has said.

The Conservative peer, who sits in the House of Lords as Lord Deben said people in the countryside should be “encouraged to do something ourselves” in an effort to reduce the cost of delivering rural post.

The Committee on Climate Change which gives advice to both the Government and Parliament on setting and meeting carbon budgets and on preparing for the impacts of climate change has been chaired by Lord Deben since 2012.

It would be people such as himself, he said, who lived in the country who would be particularly at risk if there was “any diminution in the strength of the universal postal service”.

His comments came as peers pressed the Government to ensure that the privatised Royal Mail continued to deliver to everyone in the UK for a standard price.

Royal Mail shareholders who took part in its recent flotation could see the income from their shares hit 8.5pc next year, City experts say.

This is because the dividend paid by the company in 2015 could rise dramatically thanks to its ability to generate cash from its business.

Many investors were encouraged to buy Royal Mail shares by the attractive dividend on offer. At the flotation price of 330p a share, the dividend yield was forecast to be 6.1pc. If the dividend jumps as much as some City analysts expect, their income should be even bigger next year.

Even people who buy at today’s share price of 587p could expect a healthy yield of 4.8pc in 2015 if the dividend rises as predicted. Today’s buyers should receive 3.5pc for this year.

The government will this week formally announce its plan to sell off the Royal Mail in the most contentious privatisation since British Rail two decades ago.

Vince Cable, the business secretary, will make a statement to the House of Commons formally kickstarting the sale of the 497-year-old postal service.

Cable’s statement – which is expected on Wednesday but could be delayed until next week – will set out details of the sale, expected to come via a £2-3bn flotation on the London Stock Exchange this autumn.

The statement will set out the terms under which 10% of the shares will be granted to postal workers. The public will also be encouraged to buy shares in an advertising blitz along the lines of the “Tell Sid” campaign that encouraged the £9bn sale of British Gas in 1986.

The formal announcement of the sale to MPs in parliament comes amid mounting outcry from postal workers who have taken to an open top bus to protest against the “great British flog-off”.

Billy Hayes, general secretary of the CWU, which represents more than 100,000 postal workers, warned the government: “We aren’t going to let Royal Mail be sold. We are going to fight every step of the way. A strike is certain.”

Hayes warned the government that the union was already planning industrial action that could include rolling strikes this autumn and members would formally meet to vote on strike action on 31 July.

Royal Mail has reported a 60% increase in pre-tax annual profits to £324m, as the government prepares to sell off the 497-year-old postal service in the most ambitious privatisation since British Gas in 1986.

The company, which ministers hope to float on the London stock exchange within a year, said its pre-tax profits in the year to the end of March 2013 increased to £324m from £201m a year earlier. Sales, which were boosted by a 30% rise in the price of first class stamps to 60p, increased by more than £500m to £9.3bn.

The chief executive, Moya Greene, said: “Our strategy is delivering. The transformation of Royal Mail is well under way.”

Speaking publicly about the privatisation plans for the first time, she said a sale of part of the business would allow Royal Mail to “combine the best of the public and private sectors”.

She promised that the sale would not affect Royal Mail’s universal service obligation to deliver to every address in the UK six days a week for the same price. “We are honoured to provide the universal service to more than 29m addresses across the UK,” she said. “[It] can only be changed by a vote in both houses of parliament.”

Greene pleaded with her staff, who have rebelled against the sell-off plans, to “continue to drive our business forward as we seek to realise our collective objectives”.

This article explains why the sell off has returned so significantly to the current agenda: “It’s been lost in the post for a while, but Royal Mail’s £4bn privatisation project finally looks like an imminent delivery. Yesterday the group dispatched first-class half-year results to the Government’s doorstep: hitting Britons with stamp price hikes of up to 40 per cent helped Royal Mail to post a 12 per cent jump in half-year, pre-tax profit to £115m. That was despite an ongoing decline in the number of letters in the average postman’s daily sack, which fell 9 per cent to 6.8 billion in the six months to 23 September.

The service instead cashed in on its May increase in stamp prices, when the cost of a first-class stamp rose from 46p to 60p. And the company which delivers Amazon’s goods continued to benefit from surging online shopping: revenues at its parcel businesses grew 4.6 per cent to £2bn.

But a major reason for the transformation in Royal Mail’s finances has been that the Government took over its giant pension fund, which saw £28bn of assets and £38bn in liabilities transferred to the state, and meant there was no equivalent to 2010-11’s £292m deficit payment. The taxpayer got a raw deal on that transaction: a short-term boost to the country’s national accounts will trigger heavy liabilities in the future.”