2951. 🇳🇦 Chameleons Featured On Namibian Miniature Sheet.

 

New issues -

🇳🇦 Nam Post, postal service of Namibia -

8 May 2026 - Chameleons of Namibia - 1 miniature sheet containing 2 different stamps. Designed by Helge Denker & lithographed. Rating - *****.

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

14 October 2026 - pure speculation, but the proposed issue for this date remains “TBA”. Those interested in history will recall that the date is the 960th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings when the last English king of England, Harold II, fought Guillaume le Bâtarde, the Duke of Normandy, for the English crown and was killed, possibly by being shot in the eye with an arrow, at the Battle of Hastings.

  This year, the Bayeux Tapestry, a monumental work of embroidery 70 metres in length and 50cm high  and depicting 58 scenes, produced in England possibly on behalf of the Norman Duke’s wife, Mathilde, in the years after the battle and subsequently taken to Bayeux Cathedral where it was housed for centuries and is now normally housed in a bespoke building, the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux in Bayeux, has been brought  back to England for the first time in 900 years and is on display in the British Museum for several months.

  The return of the embroidery to its homeland for several months is an important cultural event for the English and very worthy of a stamp issue. Perhaps therefore the TBA issue of 14 October will feature the Bayeux Tapestry and commemorate its return to England. Unlike the World Cup the Bayeaux Tapestry has finally made it home. Let’s hope the English do not have to wait 900 years for World Cup to arrive back in the Sceptred Isle although, according to the song, it appears to be perpetually “coming home”.

  Scenes from the  Bayeux Tapestry were depicted on the set of 8 stamps (a setenant strip of 6 plus two  singles (6d & 1/3d)) designed by the genius David Gentleman, issued by the British Post Office in 1966 to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings:-

  The end of the story is missing on the Bayeux Tapestry and so Guernsey Post released a set of 6 stamps and a very interesting miniature sheet printed on combed cotton inscribed Alderney which depicted likely scenes from the missing ‘final panel’. These had been featured on a real three metre-long embroidered ‘tapestry’ produced in Alderney. These were issued on 28 May 2014 and the collection included a prestige booklet sold for £14.44.

  Guernsey Post also released a set of 6 stamps and 1 miniature sheet, again inscribed ‘Alderney’,  designed by Nick Watton on 14 September 2016 to commemorate the 950th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. The front cover of the presentation pack depicted William being crowned on 25 December 2025.

  The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) postal service issued a single stamp depicting the Battle of Hastings in 2010 as part of a set depicting important battles in British history (Diego Garcia is a strategically important US-British base hence military-themed stamps seem appropriate).

  And let us not forget the postal service of France’s single stamp released in 1966 to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings.

2894. 🇮🇴 BIOT - “The Reports Of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated”.

 

Chagos Islands To Remain British.

It was announced on 10 April 2026 that  the British Labour government had given up its attempt to cede the British Indian Ocean Territory which includes the Chagos Islands of which Diego Garcia is the most important (in size and as a vital strategically important US Airforce base) to Mauritius and then pay over time more then £30 billion to lease back the base (see Blogs 2888, 2876, 2872, 2842, 2876, 2728 and 2580). 

This followed criticism of the plan by United States President Trump who described the plan as an “act of total weakness” (which was humiliating for the hapless British prime minister, Starmer, who had spent well over a year kowtowing to Trump in the hope that a successful foreign policy would rescue him from domestic unpopularity) and the running out of time for the parliamentary bill which would enable the sovereignty of the islands to be transferred to Mauritius.

Meanwhile the transfer had been strongly opposed by the former inhabitants of Chagos and their descendants who had been expelled from the islands in the early 1970s and who had formed a Chagos ‘government in exile’ under ‘Acting First Minister’ Misley Mandarin who had landed with a small group of ‘Chagossians’ on île du Coin and set up a camp there and begun restoring the buildings and graves of their ancestors on the island. After Starmer’s government attempted to remove them, the Supreme Court of the British Indian Ocean Territory (yes, such an entity really does exist) ruled that the ‘resettlers’ could not be expelled and so Misley and his group remain on Île du Coin.

The British government remains keen to carry on with its transfer of sovereignty but for the moment the plan has been ‘shelved’ and any wise government will probably recognise that any revisiting of it will cause it more trouble than it is worth.

Hence, from the philatelic point of view, the BIOT remains a potential philatelic entity even though the UPU has ruled against BIOT stamps and if the resettlement of the islands continues then we may well see postal facilities being set up there and an eventual resumption of stamp issues.

The news of the British government’s climb down as reported in The Times and by the BBC -

New issues -

🇸🇬 Singapore Post -

27 April 2025 - Joint issue with Japan, orchids - 2 stamps possibly issued in a miniature sheet containing one of each stamp. Lithographed. Rating:- *****.

2888. 🇮🇴 New Stamps For The Chagos Islands.

 

New issues -

🇮🇴 British Indian Ocean Territory - 

1 April 2026 - ‘Our home, Chagos’ - 2 stamps, previously issued commemorative stamps with overprints and surcharges applied. The overprints include the addition of ‘CIIIR’ under the cameo of Queen Elizabeth II and the items thus become the first stamps of the reign of King Charles III to be issued for the BIOT. The issue coincides with the recent resettlement of the Chagos Islands by a number of former residents and descendents of residents in the face of resistance from the Starmer government in the United Kingdom which wants to hand over the islands to Mauritius along with over £30 billion to enable it to rent back the United States airbase on Diego Garcia. On 13 March 2026 the Supreme Court of the BIOT ruled that the Chagossians could not be lawfully removed from their settlement on Île du Coin. The resettlers are led by their interim Head of Government, Misley Mandarin.  

Rating:- *****.

2876. Commonwealth Day 2026.

 

Commonwealth Day

The annual Commonwealth Day ‘celebrations’ take place this year on Monday 9 March (the event traditionally takes place on the second Monday of March).

Every year there is a new theme - in 2026 it is “Unlocking opportunities together for a prosperous Commonwealth”.  This year finds relative upheaval in The Commonwealth with Mauritius having broken off diplomatic relations with its Indian Ocean neighbour Maldives because the latter will not support the former’s attempt to take the British Indian Ocean Territory off the hands of the United Kingdom together with more than £30 billion. Though the hapless British prime minister, Starmer, has signed a treaty with Mauritius, its journey through the British Parliament has stalled and the corrupt Mauritius government,  badly in need of the British money to balance its budget, is threatening to take the United Kingdom to court over its failure to handover the money and the islands.

  Meanwhile, Starmer finds himself in more trouble because of his initial failure to support Trump in the Middle East War and Britain’s failure to take swift enough measures to help to defend former British protected states and present allies in the Gulf - Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait as well as the British Sovereign Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia which has implications for the security of Cyprus. What Trump hasn’t said about Starmer is anybody’s business.

  Elsewhere Pakistan is effectively at war with its neighbour Afghanistan though Guyana is looking safe from invasion by its neighbour Venezuala now that Trump has kidnapped the Venezuelan despot, Maduro, and removed him from office.

Regardless of all this, Happy Commonwealth Day!

New issues -

🇬🇧 Royal Mail -

27 March 2026 - Definitives in new values to cover increased overseas rates - 3 stamps, £3.60 (‘purple heather’), £3.80 (‘aqua green’) and £4.60 (‘sapphic blue’). Code - M26L MAIL. Rating:- ****. These stamps are described and illustrated in the always invaluable online Norvic Stamp Blog.

Meanwhile, if you feel that you have not already spent an adequate amount of money on Royal Mail products, you may wish to consider purchasing the latest little temptations recently added to the Royal Mail internet site. Or you may not.

2874. 🇧🇿🇼🇸🇫🇯 Belize, Samoa, Fiji, Middle East War.

 

New issues -

🇧🇿 Belize postal service -

2025 - Previously issued definitives with surcharges applied 80c on 15c, $1.50 on 60c, $3 on 10c and $5 on 25c. These are the best illustrations I can presently provide and are taken from a post on Stampboards by superftg, based in Guangdong in China. Rating:- *****.

🇼🇸 Samoa Post - 

6 November 2025 - Birds, joint issue with the postal service of the Chinese People’s Republic (see Blog 2827) - 2 stamps. Further information on the Samoan part of this issue as reported by superftg (see above) on Stamboards - the issue was lithographed by Government Printing Samoa and appears to be rouletted. Steven Zirinsky reports that the stamps are sold ungummed.

🇫🇯 Fiji Post -

4  February 2026 - World Stamp Exhibition, Dubai - 3 stamps. Previously issued stamps overprinted and surcharged. Rating:- *****.

The above set is now being offered on the internet site of the Spanish dealer Princestamps who attended the Dubai exhibition but it appears from a notice on the site that his return home has been delayed because of outbreak of the Middle East War and the Iranian regime’s attack on the United Arab Emirates. Good luck to him in returning home and a thought that there may well be a number of future philatelic consequences of the conflict.

The British government’s delay in allowing allied aircraft to use British bases including Diego Garcia and the subsequent Iranian regime’s attack on the British sovereign territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia highlight the importance of British Indian Ocean Territory remaining a British Overseas Territory and, potentially, continuing as a separate philatelic entity.

🇯🇪 Jersey Post -

23 March 2026 - Passenger vessels - 8 stamps, price £19.87), 1 miniature sheet containing all 8 stamps (19.87) and 1 prestige booklet costing an incredible £34.74. Total cost - £74.48p! Designed by Martin Mörck and lithographed by bpost. Rating:- 0.