314. New Universal Mail United Kingdom Stamps.

  Nine new booklets, each of 5 stamps, have been added to the Universal Mail United Kingdom  website. Numbers UK0072 to UK0079 are listed as "Bespoke" booklets and no. UK80 is from the "England" series. The new booklets are all illustrated below and generally depict popular tourist sights although UK0080 contains 5 different stamps showing English icons - an English Bulldog, a game of cricket, a pint of beer, seaside deck chairs and a cream tea. Perhaps, these are not the most original of images but they seem to be appropriate for use on tourist postcards:-

UK0072 St Paul's Cathedral

UK0073

UK0074 Stonehenge in Colour

UK0075 Stonehenge in Black and White

  I imagine that Booklet UK0076 should be popular given that its designs feature tourist sights relevant to the former popular music group, The Beatles, and enthusiasts of the band may well wish to add the booklet to their collections of Beatles memorabilia:-

UK0076 The Beatles

UK0077 Oxfordshire

  Collectors of ships on stamps will also be interested in obtaining Booklet UK0078 which contains 5 stamps on the subject of King Henry VIII's flagship, the Mary Rose:-

UK0078 The Mary Rose

0079 Chatsworth House, Derbyshire

UK0080

UK0080 Cream Tea

UK0080 A pint of good English beer.

  The first set of stamps from the now privatised Royal Mail to be issued in 2014 will be a set of 12 stamps which will depict "Children's Favourite Television Programmes". Notably they will all be first class values although Royal Mail promised to produce more 2nd class stamps during 2013 - something which they singularly failed to deliver on. Furthermore, the production of a set of 12 stamps suggests that an even greater total of stamps will be produced in 2014 if 12 value sets become the norm in preference to 10 value sets. Oh dear, Royal Mail just keeps piling on the pressure!

Dougal from The Magic Roundabout - originally a French programme.

  This first set will be issued on 7 January 2014 and will be popular among the mail-sending public although since one so rarely sees commemorative stamps used on domestic mail here in Britain, it is likely that the general public will not even be aware of what has been produced.