đ´ó §ó ˘ó łó Łó ´ó ż The Commonwealth Games, Glasgow, Scotland.
23 July - 2 August 2026 - No stamps.
It appears that the 2026 Commonwealth Games hosted by Glasgow are to be the first held in the United Kingdom not to be commemorated by Royal Mail with the issue of postage stamps though recently Royal Mail has issued a large number of thematic issues - military aircraft, moths, waterfalls, ducks, castles ete etc without any good reason to do so apart from the possibility that such subjects are deemed to be popular with the public and depicting them might just result in people who do not collect stamps buying them and consequently contribute to RM profits and equally they might just start collecting stamps (faint chance).
The problem for these Commonwealth Games - the 23rd - is that nobody really wanted to host them because of the expense of it all, as well as nobody really caring about them. The 2026 Games were to have been held in Birmingham but the city brought forward its hosting of the Games to 2022 at a rather late stage because Durban in South Africa which had been chosen to host the Games withdrew from doing so in March 2017. Birmingham was bankrupted - twice - a year or so after the 2022 Games - though, at the time, the Games were generally enjoyed by the city’s residents. The city’s main inheritance from the Games were bankruptcy, a new sports stadium, an Athletes Village which was not ready in time to host the athletes and still remains largely uninhabited and ‘Ozzy the Bull’, a vast machine in the form of a bull now housed at the city’s New Street station, admired by arrivals at the station and loved by the citizens.
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| Ozzy the Birmingham Bull |
Birmingham’s hosting of the Games left a void for the hosting of the 2026 Games and this opportunity was generally greeted by the cities of The Commonwealth with a wall of indifference. Eventually the Australian state of Victoria stepped forward into the breech and became the host apparent for 2026 but concerns about the costs led it to withdraw in July 2023, just 15 months after it was awarded the Games. Subsequently, the former Australian host city of Gold Coast in Queensland took on the challenge and then thought better of it and withdrew its offer and eventually the former host of the Games, Glasgow, took on the role of host once more with the Scottish government agreeing to host the Games on 17 September 2024 with financial backing from Commonwealth Games Australia, clearly not leaving much time for preparations for the Games.
As well as being ignored by Royal Mail, these are the first Games not to be shown free-to-view television in the United Kingdom. Perhaps they will be called the Orphan Games.
Regardless, we hope the Glasgow Games are successful. Up to 74 countries and territories are expected to participate with Togo and Gabon being present for the first time.
As curmudgeonly old Royal Mail will not be releasing postage stamps to commemorate the Games, here’s a set of 4 designs and a miniature sheet containing all 4 designs to make up for this philatelic shunning of the Games. They were created by Gemini AI, the whole process taking about 7 minutes.
The six previous Commonwealth Games held in the United Kingdom were all commemorated by the issue of postage stamps - be it the Post Office or Royal Mail -
The 6th British Empire and Commonwealth Games held in Cardiff (3 stamps),
the 9th British Commonwealth Games, Edinburgh (3 stamps),
the 13th Commonwealth Games, Edinburgh (3 stamps),
the 17th Commonwealth Games, Manchester (4 stamps and 1 miniature sheet)
the 20th Commonwealth Games, Glasgow (6 stamps) and
the 22nd Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham (8 stamps).
Finally, here’s some of the teams parading in to the stadium at the 2022 Games. Note that Ozzy The Bull is keeping a close eye on the proceedings -
