HC Deb 19 February 1964 vol 689 cc1197-8
39. Mr. Emrys Hughes

asked the Postmaster-General if he will print more stamps with illustrations from other plays by William Shakespeare in connection with the 400th anniversary.

Mr. Mawby

No, Sir. My right hon. Friend will, however, be issuing two Shakespeare air mail letter forms, one of which will feature further illustrations from Shakespeare's plays. Details of these designs will be published shortly.

Mr. Hughes

Is the Minister aware that there seems to be general approval that the Post Office has discovered William Shakespeare but that there is a certain amount of criticism of the design of the stamps? Is he not carrying his well-known prejudice against Scotland too far by boycotting or banning Macbeth? Would he consider doing justice to Scotland by bringing Macbeth into one of the new supplementary issues he proposes making?

Mr. Mawby

In fact, very high tribute has been paid to the design of the stamps by all sorts of bodies, including the Council for Industrial Design. As to the choice of subjects, I must be quite ignorant, because I did not associate not using Macbeth with being anti-Scottish. I can assure the hon. Member that was not the reason why we did not include Macbeth. We had many subjects to choose from we could choose only six; and so we did.

Mr. John Hall

Is there not a play which it night be suitable to commemorate, perhaps some time later in the year, the title of which escapes me but which has something to do with labour lost?