YOU don’t have to be a churchgoer to understand the frustration and anger of the Dean of Blackburn and his colleagues at the lack of religious Christmas stamps.

In a society where the majority of people do not regularly attend church services it would be unreasonable to expect the Royal Mail to only produce new stamps at this time of year that have a religious theme.

But a ratio of just two new Madonna and child stamps against six new secular stamps containing pantomime dames and other characters is the wrong balance.

Particularly if, as church leaders believe, the Royal Mail did not intend to issue any religious stamps at all until protests were made.

Everyone knows Christmas is a hugely commercial festival but without its religious basis there would be no excuse for celebration.

The Dean is urging people to write to MPs and ask them find out who in the Royal Mail is to be “held publicly accountable” for a decision he believes leaves people without a proper choice.

It will be interesting to see how many feel strongly enough to act because in our commerical world only pressure from customers will force the Royal Mail to rethink.