May 1 – Philately Will Get You Nowhere

HAVE you ever considered how spooky it is being the Queen? Everywhere you turn you see your own face staring back at you: portraits hanging in every public building, on bank notes and coins, and of course on stamps.

In 2002 the Queen decided she had perhaps had enough of monopolising the post and so decided the relax the rule that, royalty aside, no living person could be featured on a Royal Mail stamp. And the first of her loyal subjects to be honoured in such a way? David Beckham and Michael Owen.

The two England stars had their fizzogs gracing 22p and 26p stamps respectively, issued today in 2002 by the Isle of Man to coincide with the World Cup.

Stamp expert Peter Jennings said: “I received a tip-off that the Queen had relaxed the old convention regarding living people on stamps.

“I am absolutely delighted. I have campaigned for this for several years. It is now time to scrap the convention altogether and include living people on Royal Mail stamps.”

Now to less scholarly pursuits than philately. We all know Joey Barton is an avid reader, but stamps probably aren’t his cup of tea. Thuggery is of course, as he was proving yet again on this day in 2007 when he laid into his Man City teammate Ousmane Dabo in a training ground dust-up. The Frenchman afterwards said the attack had left him “disfigured” but Barton denied all when charged with assault.

On August 2, Barton’s spokeswoman said: “Our client, Joey Barton, was today charged under … the Offences against the Person Act in relation to a training ground incident which occurred on May 1 this year. Joey strenuously denies the charge and welcomes the opportunity to clear his name in the public forum.” Just note a couple of words in that statement, “strenuously denies the charge”.

Fast-forward to June 30, 2008 and Joey had done a full 180 and admitted the assault in court. The court heard that Barton punched Dabo up to five times, leaving him unconscious and covered in blood on the ground. Barton was given a four month suspended sentence for his troubles.

And finally to some football. He is surely the best footballer currently kicking a ball in anger on the planet, and how Barcelona seems like the perfect home for Leo Messi.

A young starter, Messi became the third-youngest player to represent Barcelona when he was given his competitive debut in the local derby against Espanyol in 2005 and on May 1 that year he became the youngest ever scorer for the famous old club when he netted against Albacete. And it was only beaut as well…