The UK in a Stamp

This second class Christmas stamp says quite a bit about the UK on this St Nicholas’s day 2022:
* it’s an image which relates to the “Christmas story”, which I am glad to see. Recent results from the last census show that Christianity is for the first time a minority religion in the UK, largely because of the large increase in people reporting no religious belief.
* stamps still show the late queen’s head profile, and may do so for some time. There is no date for Charles III stamps to be released. Charles III will need some skill in navigating the monarchy through the challenges ahead.
* stamps now have attached bar codes which will apparently allow for additional services when using the Royal Mail App. Personally, I’m not interested in additional digital services, I just want the letter to get to its destination.
* a second class stamp now costs 68p, a first class stamp 95p. It’s now expensive to post a card. I suspect many will be reducing what they send through the post.
* I see that Royal Mail now advises us to post second class stamps by December 12th to stand a chance of getting to their destination by Christmas. Postal workers will be on strike for some days leading up to Christmas, as will rail workers, nurses and many others. We haven’t written any yet, we’d better get our act together.