Great Britain 2024 Stamp Programme - Predictions and winners

My thanks to the 21 people who sent their predictions, some regular readers of the blog, and some members of the Stampboards forum (some are both). 

The entries were a mixture of:

- actual predictions of likely subjects; 

- a wish-list of things that might be included but that Royal Mail were unlikely to include;

- a list of anniversaries in the hope that some might be included;

- total spoof (I hope) suggestions

- a mix of these.

Of the 15 stamp issues on Royal Mail's programmme more than half (8) were not predicted by anyone! Leaving aside the obvious Christmas issue, that's 8 out of 14. 

 Of the remaining six, the most popular prediction was for the 150th anniversary of the birth of politician and wartime leader Sir Winston Churchill which eight people predicted.

Next was the Centenary of the first British Commemorative Stamp (4 people), Dogs (3), and Dungeons and Dragons (2).

There were many suggestions which I considered as definitely worthy of a stamp issue, even if Royal Mail couldn't find room in he programme. 

Most notable of these is the bicentenary of the establishment of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, suggested by 5 people. I think it was a mistake not to include the 70th anniversary of the first broadcast 'Shipping Forecast' in the Weather issue next month (suggested by 4 people as an anniversary to be marked). One suggestion was to have a remembrance of civil disasters such as Hillsborough and Grenfell: while I think a National Day of Remembrance would be a good idea, I don't think the subjects could sensibly and sensitively displayed on stamps.

If only we were marking British cultural personalities and notable anniversaries we could have included, among others: the bicentenary of the National Gallery, 75 years of NATO, Detective fiction (Wilkie Collins Centenary), Alfred Hitchcock, Clarice Cliff, Oscar Wilde, the RSPCA, the Normandy landings, athletics, etc. Three people suggested issues on similar 'green' themes: sustainability, environment, global warming or climate change.

Under Politics people mentioned the First Labour government, Margaret Bondfield, Welsh Assembly, creation of Metropolitan Counties, establishment of the Brexit Party (5 years), Ramsey Macdonald, the Welsh Assembly, and the likely General Election. Whilst we have had politicians before, and doubtless there are other politicians who would rank along with them, but such is the state of United Kingdom politics these days, that there is really no possibility.

Some people obviously did a lot of research for anniversaries, but the inclusion of non-British events or people was optimistic to say the least: Abba, Edward Hubble, The Big Bang Theory (tv programme), and others. Some suggestions relied heavily on past issues – maybe so that I could say “we had that before” if it turned out to be true!

Nobody predicted more than 3 issues accurately. Of these D in The Netherlands and AL both suggested a further 5 which I thought could and maybe should have been marked. Three more people recorded four subjects which I thought were justified. Two people were accurate with only two predictions but both produce 7 really good unadopted ideas as well.

I also gave 'commendations' to two people for the inventiveness and/or humour of their ideas. One of them predicted nothing accurately and made no 'worthy' suggestions, but produced a good list.

It would be good to reward everybody who took the trouble to enter, but sadly that is not the case. I shall be writing to the six mentioned for their addresses to send a prize for their suggestions.

Commendation goes to MM for this innovative and humorous programme:

I’m going with some of the “one-day only” issues and the treasure hunt.  

- New Years Day (01/01/2024)

- Burns Night (26/01/2024)

- Chinese New Year (10/02/2024)

- Valentine’s Day (13/02/2024 - £15.00 face value set of six alternative designs guaranteed before 08:00 am

- so that cards can get there before school starts. Special £100.00 limited edition offer to have a red rose delivered alongside the card)

- St David’s Day (01/03/2024)

- Mothers Day (09/03/2024 - £20.00 face value set of six alternative designs guaranteed before 09:00 am Sunday delivery. Special £150.00 limited edition offer to have a bouquet delivered alongside the card)

- St Patrick’s Day (17/03/2024)

- Spring Equinox (20/03/2024)

- St George’s Day (23/04/2024)

- Fathers Day (15/06/2024 - £20.00 face value set of six alternative designs guaranteed before 09:00 am Sunday delivery)

- Autumn Equinox (22/09/2024)

- Halloween (31/10/2024)

- Guy Fawkes (05/11/2024)

- Remembrance Sunday (10/11/2024)

- Armistice Day (11/11/2024)

- St Andrew’s Day (30/11/2024)  

- I’m going to suggest 30/03/2024 for the treasure hunt issue as that would make March particularly crowded. Normal embargo rules would apply which would then make March a total nightmare for everybody.

- We could maybe leave the General Election issue in as a floating set as nobody knows yet when it will be.

And then there is this from WB who wrote:

Really enjoyed coming up with this - the challenge was to go for the (faint!) dividing line between definite spoof and daft, but just the sort of thing that Royal Mail might indeed be stupid enough to attempt to unleash on us...

2024 Royal Mail Stamp Issues- 2 issues per month

January - Reality TV-featuring catchphrases and stars from various reality TV shows

January - Winter Olympics-special stamp to be produced for each British gold medallist

February - Centenary of 1st Labour government-featuring each Labour leader/Labour slogans

February - Music Greats-Taylor Swift

March - Comic Book Heroes-Batman

March - Seasons of UK(Spring)-views from locations around the UK in Spring

April - Cryptocurrencies-stamps priced in both sterling and bitcoin values

April - Artificial Intelligence

May - Premiership clubs-stamps contain QR code linking to offers from that club*

May - Entertainment-Big Bang Theory

June - Music Greats-ABBA 50th anniversary of winning Eurovision Song Contest

June - Seasons of UK(Summer)-views from locations around the UK in Summer

July - Olympics-special stamp to be produced for each British gold medallist

July - Paralympics-special stamp to be produced for each British gold medallist

August - Famous Brands-stamps contain QR code linking to adverts from that brand*

August - Drill and grime artists

September - Seasons of UK(Autumn)-views from locations around the UK in Autumn

September - Disney characters

October - Nonbinary Issue-Non binary personalities-introducing pronoun tags+

October - Nonbinary Issue II-Non binary flora and flora-introducing pronoun tags+

November - YouTube influencers-stamps contain QR code linking to that influencer’s channel*

November - Artemis II launch

December - Seasons of UK(Winter)-views from locations around the UK in Winter

December - Winter Festivals-celebrating Kwanzaa,Hanukkah,Yule and Solstice

 

There is a long list of other suggested topics which have not already been on stamps included:

Orwell's 1984 (75), Bagpuss (tv) (50), Greenwich Time Signal (100), London Eye (25), Eurotunnel (30), Zulu (film), Gay Weddings (10), PO Tower (60), BBC Belfast (100), Band Aid (10), New Year's Day public holiday (50), BBC2 (60), Golf in England (100), Ben Nicholson, Bronte Sisters, Rosetta Stone (225), Match of the Day (tv) (60), Ceefax (50), Death Penalty abolition (60), Sir Stanley Spencer, Vagrancy Act of 1824 – images of city streets, Great Storm of 1824, The Good Beer Guide (50), Neurodiversity Week, First Municipal Fire Brigade (Edinburgh) (200), Food (150 years of Coopers Oxford Marmalade), Fantastic Fungi, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (film link), British Scientists, Gustav Holst (150), UPU (150), Motorcycle Ice Speedway, Folk Museums, House of the Dragon, Town Halls, other historic buildings, Folk Museums, Open University (50), Pizza Hut in UK (50), Tony Hancock (100), ferries; modern transport; public houses and inns, Howard Carter (150), Arthur Quiller-Couch (80), Benny Hill (100), Charles Laughton (125), Sir Edmund Halley, Sir William Siemens, Oxford/Cambridge Boat Race, Monty Python, Royal Houses from 1066 not prevously included, Burmese War (200), Harry Grundell Matthews death ray (100), Mallory & Irvine (100), DH Comet (75), New Covent Garden Market (50), Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (100), Eileen Argar (125), first royal broadcast(100), 30th February Harry Mountbatten – Windsor renounces all ties with the UK and takes US citizenship; 31st September GB Govt announces the end of British Summer time and all that clock changing. 

 

This has been an interesting exercise, and I am amazed at the number of different subjects suggested. I would have liked to have illustrated this blog, but there is no simple way to do that which is not very time-consuming: I didn't ask contributors to illustrate their answers.

It is not an exercise that will be run again, as it took rather more time than I expected.

I hope all readers find the results interesting and I look forward to your comments.

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