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Should Such A Virtually Unknow Person Have Been Honoured In Such A Way?

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anotheoldgit | 09:58 Tue 16th Apr 2013 | News
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2309694/John-Archer-Afro-Caribbean-elected-public-office-London-honoured-alongside-Lloyd-George-new-set-stamps.html

Many have criticised the fact that Baroness Thatcher is to receive a Military Procession funeral, I wonder what the reaction would have been if she had also been further honoured by having her image on a postage stamp, at least she would have been more fitting alongside other British famous faces, than a Mr John Archer?

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aog, I think you'll find they don't put people on stamps until well after they're dead. Plus it would be difficult to stop Big Ben every time someone posted a Thatcher stamp.
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Question Author
Gromit

/// I wonder why AOG chose the Afro Caribean gentleman as the odd one
out? ///

Not only me I would think, but if most of the participants of a general knowledge quiz were to be shown those stamps, I would think that they would know all those well known persons, if not by their image but they would certainly know of them by name.

But I am afraid most would never recognise or know of Mr John Archer.
Jayne, so if a stamp was issued commemorating Baroness Thatcher as the first woman Prime Minister, would that be sexist?
Just taken a straw poll of the black people (4 so hardly representative) in the office and they don't consider it racist to commemorate a 'first' for a person of colour, especially not when it was so unusual at the time.
What an odd post, AoG. I cannot imagine for a moment there been a huge gnashing and wailing of teeth were Thatcher to be selected as a head on a stamp, since that would not be costing the country anything.

As for the people they have selected - Read Gromits link- They were selected at least in part because they have an anniversary this year. And as SP has said, I am sure that somewhere down the line, Thatcher will feature on a stamp.

I would imagine that more than a few of them will be unrecognisable to vast swathes of the UK population. I am prepared to bet oh, at least a fiver that only a very small proportion of people would recognise Mary Leakey, fewer still would understand the significance of her work.

So its part celebratory, part educational - and knowing who was the first person of Afro-Caribbean descent to hold office in London is interesting - I wonder if that makes him the first person of Afro-Caribbean descent to hold public office in the UK too?

JJ raises a point - about tokenism - but given that the set is to celebrate those with anniveraries in 2013, I think that issue is covered.

They are not selected as being the 10 most representative or the 10 greatest Britons of all time- they are being self selected as being 10 great britons who have an anniversary in 2013....
I'm up for a Thatcher stamp if only to annoy the left.

Spit on it all you like brother Gromit, by saying that it obviously has done the trick and wound you up. Nothing like lefty baiting, they rise to it so easily.
If you showed a picture of Mary Leakey to 100 random people in the street before today, when she had a commemorative stamp issued, I am prepared to bet that you would not get above single figures who recognised her - I would not have been surprised had no-one in such a straw poll recognise her.

Mary who? Would be the reaction, closely followed by well she looks a little bit like Mrs Smith down our road, followed by paleo-what? whats that then?
Question Author
Gromit

/// A Thatcher stamp could prove puzzling. Which side to spit on. ///

Apart from your usual disgusting and offensive nature, you are also completely out of touch with modern ways, stamps are now self adhesive.
AOG

Now this is very strange...I remember quite clearly you asking why people were 'going on' about Barack Obama being lauded as the first African American President, asking why it should be such a big deal.

Are you now saying that Margaret Thatcher's election as the first female PM should be recognised as a big deal???

Is that not a little contradictory?
AOG

How many faces did you recognise on the stamps...without looking at their names?

Do you also see the point about the anniversaries?
Yet another example of PC pandering.

Whoever he is/was he means nothing to the vast majority of people in this country, no doubt they had to do a pretty exhaustive search to try and come up with someone who fits the PC bill.

Theres thousands of other far more deserving Brits from our history and culture who should/could go on stamps before this nobody.
Absolutely ridiculous
Question Author
Mary Leakey famous enough to have a Google Doodle created for her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTyossJqHmI
And your point?

Only those who have had a google doodle are deserving?

Does not alter my point. Very few people will ever have heard of Mary Leakey. Very few people in the general public will care much about her achievements, significant as they might have been in her particular field.

So this collection is not about automatic face recognition,
The name vaguely rings a bell. I think it's arguably far more shocking that we have had to do such an "exhaustive search" to come up with anyone who isn't White British that had an influence on our history.
aog, bide your time. Lady Thatcher will be commemorated on a stamp at some point, perhaps as one of a notable British women series, perhaps on the anniversary of some date in her life, who knows?

Our stamps nowadays are like the cigarette cards of old, with production of themed sets. Gone are the days when the only special stamps were to commemorate fifty or twenty- five years of the monarch's reign or the 1948 Olympics and the like. I'm expecting "British Butterflies" , "Notable Jockeys" or "Famous Racdehorses and their Colours", as in the times of Ogdens cards. These frequent issues make money for the issuing authority. The presence of Mr Archer, in an anniversary set, is of no great significance in itself, and there is a reason for it.
jim360

The stamps recognise Britons who celebrate a significant anniversary in 2013.

There are certainly more famous black Britons, but they a) are still alive and/or don't celebrate an anniversary this year.

AOG - without looking at the names, how many on the stamps did you recognise?
Question Author
sp1814

/// Now this is very strange...I remember quite clearly you asking why people were 'going on' about Barack Obama being lauded as the first African American President, asking why it should be such a big deal. ///

Because it always seems to be the first Black etc etc. as in this case the first Afro-Caribbean elected into public office, there are many Asians who reach high office, but for them it is rarely shouted from the rooftops, with such regularity.

Is there any need to highlight such things, should we grant other's the same prominence, what about the first Chinese, the first Polish, or first Lithuanian etc etc?

Question Author
sp1814

/// AOG - without looking at the names, how many on the stamps did you recognise? ///

To be honest six, but I have heard of them all except Mr Archer.
Oh, OK - thanks for the clarification sp.

The golden age is when this no longer matters. It does now, because racism, sexism, etc., are still issues. Only when they disappear for good can we stop marking such "firsts", as they will then be trivial. But right now, they are not - the glass ceilings and all that.
the only thing i've noticed on stamps these days is the missing price ... probably because there isn't room

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