As far as newspaper headlines go, can you really get any more absurd than this one from the Sunday Express?
The Royal Mail, as far as I know, has no powers whatsoever to “ban religion”. They’ve simply decided that, this year, they’ll mostly be providing Wallace and Gromit stamps instead of the usual Christian designs.
Those who would prefer to affix a more traditional Christmas stamp to their envelopes this year can still do so, as:
A Royal Mail spokeswoman said: “We have distributed tens of millions of the Madonna and Child stamps to go on sale alongside the Wallace and Gromit stamps.”
There will, no doubt, be some Christians who are upset that their choice of Christmas stamp this year is somewhat limited, but do you really think such a scenario warrants such a bizarre headline as this one?
(Unless you’ve come across my post from there, Tabloid Watch has some more on this. Roy Greenslade also has more about this here.)
Daily fail accused the PO of 'stamping out Christmas' in 2006 http://istyosty.com/13g
Look at these stamps from 2004 by Raymond Briggs: http://www.norphil.co.uk/2004/xmas04.htm
And look at this, an email conspiracy theory from 2007 caliming "the Royal Mail have instructed staff not to sell religious-themed Christmas stamps."
Here's some pictures of the first UK Christmas stamps, one of which has a smowman on, and one with a king/magi. http://postalheritage.org.uk/exhibitions/onlineexhibitions/christmas/stamps
Perhaps The Express has realised it can't get away with another 'Council bans Christmas' story this year, so they've decided to drag up another old myth that the PO is banning religion. Tragic.
This is nothing new – the Royal Mail have been doing secular/religious themed stamps for alternate years for quite a while now.
So one year you'll get religious stamps, then the next you get the non-religious ones and the Express throw a fit again.
Even the Mail haven't got this one wrong this year, and the comment voting is refreshing:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1313817/Wallace-Gromit-appear-Royal-Mail-Christmas-stamps.html
Could I just pop back and apologise for the dreadful outbreak of typos in my post above? Thanks. :)