🇬🇧 In Blogs 674, 672 and that of 16 January 2012 I have written about the stamps issued by various host countries in the past to commemorate their holding of the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM). In recent times every host nation has released philatelic items to commemorate the two-yearly CHOGMs This philatelic tradition has now come to an end as Royal Mail, the principal postal service of the The United Kingdom which will host the next CHOGM in April next year, has not included such an issue in its new issue programme for 2018 and an enquiry about the possibility of asking Royal Mail to issue a set of stamps to the Commonwealth Summit Unit of The Cabinet Office confirms that Royal Mail will not commemorate this important international event which is to be held at Windsor and London.
The main reason given in the Commonwealth Summit Unit's reply which I include at the head of this piece is that the issue of planning and approval for a special stamp issue can take up to 2 years to carry out though if this process had begun when it was first announced that The United Kingdom would host CHOGM then preparations for such an issue would have had ample time to have been completed for such an issue to be released when the meeting will be held. Furthermore we know, don't we?, that it doesn't really take anywhere near as long to prepare a special stamp issue if the will is there to release a set of stamps - think of the Murray Wimbledon tennis victory miniature sheet or the England wins the Ashes issue or the Olympic gold medal winners stamps.
I suspect too that it won't take 2 years for Royal Mail to come up with an issue to commemorate the wedding of Prince Henry Of Wales which has just been announced to take place in May 2018 also in Windsor and which is likely to sell like hot cakes.
It's a pity that the government isn't tuned up to the benefits of the use of stamps to publicise Britain's position in the world in the way that China and Russia, for instance, are and then use its influence to persuade Royal Mail to issue such stamps.
🇰🇮 The Kiribati postal service issued a set of 6 stamps on 14 October 2017 on the subject of Local Flowers. This is a quite attractive issue but really doesn't amount to much more than a photograph of a flower with the Kiribati coat of arms added along with a little writing. It looks to me as though the designer was Derek Miller. Rating:- ***.
🇬🇩 News from that much loved philatelic agency, IGPC, which is based in Beijing and New York. Four stamps with the name of Grenada printed on them will be "issued" on 17 December 2017 as a Christmas issue. All four depict "Old Master" paintings which, I suppose, is fair enough. Rating:- *.
🇬🇾 Further publicity from IGPC includes illustrations of other products which are to be released. Three stamps appear to come with the name of Guyana printed on them and depict Second World War posters of the United States which seem to me to have nothing to do with Guyana. I presume that there are other values in the set. Rating:- 0.
🇬🇩 It would appear that IGPC also plans to issue a similar set with the name of Grenada printed on the stamps that make up the set. Again this issue appears to have no relevance to the country whose name appears on the stamps. If stamps are to be issued with relevance to the Second World War then it would be best if they featured the role of Grenada and Grenadans in the war and not random subjects entirely about The United States. Role:- 0.
Also publicised by IGPC are 6 stamps depicting foxes (Vulpes Vulpes) which, as far as I am aware, are not found in Grenada and have no relevance to the island. It's a jolly little set but, really, why would Grenada want to depict that particular species on its stamps? Rating:- 0.
🇱🇰 Sri Lanka Post issued a pair of stamps and 1 miniature sheet on 26 November 2017 to commemorate Christmas. This is a colourful issue designed I presume by children and suitably cheerful for use on Christmas mail. Rating:- ***.
