What is the Brexit Stamp Collection?

Oh there are plenty of other things you can call Boris Johnson, a repertoire that has now grown thanks to digging done by Adam Bienkov. But on this occasion this blog is not chiming to the melodious infamy of Johnson's self-importance, instead it's the substance of the miserable article (above) from your snoreaway currant bun: the Brexit stamp collection.

You can see for yourself. The Sun are "campaigning" for a commemorative edition of stamps to mark Britain's exit from the European Union. After all, if Game of Thrones can have a set, why can't Britain's emancipation from eurocrat tyranny command its own in celebration of our freedom? Margot James, postal minister and one of the few relatively sober Tory MPs has rejected the idea as "divisive". She should have gone the whole hog and called it idiotic.

There is, of course, absolutely no demand for this set of ridiculous stamps (even though a tasteful alternative design is available). Just as there was no demand for blue passport covers, which you will recall never existed, to replace the red one introduced by the Brussels-loving Margaret Thatcher. Yes I'm sure there are some Sun readers who'll lap it up. Here not only do we have a REMOANING minister who tried thwarting plucky, independent-minded Brits in the referendum, she is shamelessly carrying on her BETRAYAL OF THE PEOPLE by refusing to issue a pack of novelty stamps. An outrage I'm sure you agree, but one that taps into the Britain's-so-hard-done-to sentiment The Sun have proved adept at whipping up in the past.

Some red meat for its more deranged readers, then. Is that all? Not quite. We know newspapers are on a downward spiral, and few things please me more to see The Sun's readership collapse faster than an under-cooked souffle. As they pitch downward to deserved doom, editors of Tory litter tray liners find themselves scrabbling for continued relevance, to demonstrate to their organisation, their readers, and to the clubby world of the Westminster lobby how they still possess power, that they continue to count. The stupid blue passports campaign was one such Sun stunt, and lo Theresa May duly caved. It's The Sun wot won it, yawn. The stamps are in the same vein, and will probably acquire the PM's backing in due course. So now the Mail, Express, Star, and Telegraph bigwigs enter the world's shittest arms race to come up with something else - renaming the Eurostar? Bringing back pounds and ounces? Talk loud to a foreigner day?

What then is the Brexit stamp collection? A tawdry and cloyingly desperate stab at relevance, one fully symptomatic of a fastening madness before destruction offs The Sun and its ilk for good.