Taking Liberties

A few weeks ago I stayed at a hotel in Oxford. In the bathroom, stuck to the wall above the bath and the towel rail were ugly and ostentatious signs warning guests that both the rail and the bathwater might get very hot. Frankly, I would have been annoyed if they hadn't. I stayed in another (very posh) hotel in London last week and the bathwater was, at best, luke warm. Perhaps I should have been warned about that, too.

Anyway, this is Britain today - a country swamped with signs warning us of every peril under the sun. The most offensive are those that order us to behave in a certain way, even if we're not committing an offence. Recently, I used a public loo and above the handbasin was a sign that screamed: NOW WASH YOUR HANDS. As it happens, I usually do - but that sign made me want to rebel and do the exact opposite.

Simon Richards, director of The Freedom Association, touched on this issue a few weeks ago on The Free Society blog. Today, Joe Jackson takes it a bit further. According to Joe, who is currently on tour promoting his new album:

In my hometown, Portsmouth, I saw NO SMOKING signs in bus stops and car parks, and no less than five signs in a phone box ... It was the same story in the rehearsal room just outside town where we prepared for the tour. The signage screamed at us even in the toilets. DO NOT THROW PAPER INTO THE URINALS. I wonder how many people go into a cubicle to get some paper, use it for God knows what, and then try to stuff it down a hole into which it obviously cannot fit. Meanwhile, in the cubicle: PLEASE FLUSH THE TOILET BEFORE LEAVING. Now, I’ve known to do this since I was maybe three, but perhaps I’m unusual.

Full article HERE.