A response from Royal Mail

A few weeks ago, I wrote this letter to Royal Mail.

I am pleased to say that Royal Mail have replied, so I am sharing the response here.

Firstly, I'd like to thank Royal Mail for taking the time to respond.

Secondly, I think there is some useful information within this letter especially about the history of commemorative stamps, timescales, the role of the Stamp Advisory Committee and the fact that you can send suggestions to the Stamp Programme manager. I knew some of this but not all of it.

But I am still not sure they really understand my concerns. I understand that "not every stamp will appeal to every customer". I know that Royal Mail and the Post Office are not the same company. I also understand that it can be a challenge to "achieve a well-balanced and varied programme" - in fact, one of my points was that the programme isn't well-balanced and definitely not varied enough. My main points were not about the uninspiring programme but how Royal Mail is making stamp collecting difficult for your people and should maybe take a look at what other countries are doing.

It is interesting that Royal Mail says that "postage stamps are primarily a receipt for payment of postage" because I wrote in my letter that "special stamps" seem not to be designed with postage in mind. They seem to be primarily a way of making money for Royal Mail. I asked what the point is of creating so many stamps that go nowhere near Post Offices and the nearest I got to an answer was "maintaining a sustainable and commercially viable programme is essential for Stamps & Collectibles to continue operating". Basically, they're saying they need to create so many stamps so the cash keeps coming in, so not exactly "for payment of postage". As they say, Post Offices aren't obliged to use "special stamps" and most don't bother, so what is the point of 16 issues a year when 8 would be more than enough? There's nothing in the letter to say that anything is going to change. I don't think Royal Mail seems very interested in the views of philatelists either. But what I noticed most was that they didn't respond to my point about ignoring young collectors, which makes me wonder if they have any ideas at all to get young people collecting.

I am grateful Royal Mail replied but the letter seems to say that Royal Mail wants to keep things as they are. I am not too surprised, but maybe I will send a few ideas to the Stamp Programme Manager. What would be good ideas for Royal Mail stamps for 2028?