So this morning, when flicking through the Telegraph I found myself alternatively chuckling and raging about a number of signs that have been photographed and collected by the Manifesto Club. Attention Please is a book of “unnecessary, absurd and patronizing safety warnings in public space” and include such gems as a Norwich sign that warns that a flowerbed is under surveillance from CCTV, a reminder in Edinburgh that climbing into a bottle bank can result in death and a proclamation of the bloomin’ obvious in London that ‘seats may become wet.’ It’s not just in cities. One picture showing rural Buckinghamshire at night is completely black except for an illuminated sign that declares, ‘Street lighting not in use!’

 

Safety signs where they’re needed are fine and dandy and responsible and necessary, but aren’t we in danger of swamping our cities, towns and yes, even the countryside with nannying signs.

 

"This collection of cones, safety tape and caution notices, which hang like Christmas decorations, provides no useful information about hazards,” says Josie Appleton, the convenor of the Manifesto Club, "Instead they are only an excuse to regulate public behaviour.

"Ordinary people doing ordinary things – walking, taking the escalator, getting on a train – are viewed by the authorities as downright liabilities, in need of instruction and guidance. These signs represent the way in which, for officialdom, the public itself has become a hazard."

 

So, it appears I’m not alone in my dismay about such ludicrous warnings. Not that there seems much of a light at the end of the tunnel (and if there were, it would probably only be a sign advising you to watch out as its dark in the first place). Even in our family caravan, which we recently purchased down in South Devon has fallen foul of such mollycoddling. The park-managers insists that we pop a sticker informing potential holiday-makers that ‘The water may be hot’ on the shower door. I despair.