Election posters and Chesterton’s Fence

Posters must be erected at a height of not less than 7ft and must be no more than 15ft at their highest point. My son is 5 ft 8 inches. The photos speak for themselves.

I would just add one caveat: these examples are of one candidate’s poster incorrectly placed, but other candidates are available.

It’s amazing what kind of abuse this sort of post brings out

“The pettiness of this post is unbelievable! All the rules and this island need dragged out of 1900 into 2018, sadly there seems to be a number of folk happy to sit in 1900s still even now!”

“What an entertaining Saturday afternoon you must have had , you really know how to let your hair down eh. I bet you had a clip board to note down all the heights.”

And all because people who comment have never learned the lesson of Chesterton’s Fence.

This is a rather famous philosophical parable by G.K. Chesterton, and it goes like this:

“In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”

“This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense. The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street. Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable. It is extremely probable that we have overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if something set up by human beings like ourselves seems to be entirely meaningless and mysterious.”

I cite Chesterton’s Fence in my defense of the above photo.

In other words, there are reasons behind the height restrictions. It is not some stupid person making up rules for the sake of it. Indeed, anyone who thinks that has a very strange idea about how most rules are made.

Sadie Rennard, the Constable of St Saviour, said that the St Saviour Honorary Police did send out a warning about this: One reason is that a badly placed poster can block someone’s vision.

A correspondent has told me that two of Kristina Moore’s posters have been removed for this very reason: “The one at the car park between La Haule and Beaumont was a particularly daft one – blocking vision from the exit towards Beaumont.”

And so, like Chesterton’s Fence, we come to the reason for the rule. For motorists, it is visibility, for pedestrians, they can be an unseen obstruction.

Perhaps getting off the bus in the dark – and there are not street lights everywhere – these stick out and could be hit. It is not nice to bang your head on a solid piece of wood which is virtually invisible when your torch (if you use one) is usually shining more downwards. So there is a sensible reason for it. It's not just random nonsense dreamed up by a bureaucrat.

Dublin which has similar guidelines says:

It has been our experience in previous elections that numerous complaints have been received from motorists and pedestrians in relation to safety issues associated with election posters. Our own staff have also raised a number of concerns. The main issues relate to the following:

1) Posters that are obscuring the visibility of traffic/pedestrian signals and traffic signs. Many of the problems are caused by posters that are erected on poles adjacent to signals or signs

2) Posters that are below head height or resting on the ground. These posters can cause obstructions on footpaths and are particularly hazardous to the visually impaired.

I’ve seen some people with visual impairment in St Brelade. In this time when we should be paying more attention to disability perhaps we should not be quite so fickle about dismissing height of posters.

Perhaps before people sound off about what seem to them like stupid rules, they should do a bit of homework first, to find out why the rule, like Chesterton’s Fence, is in place after all.

Jersey's Guidelines, in detail, say the same:

"Posters should be erected at a height of not less than 7ft, so as not to endanger pedestrians or impede vision, and no more than 15ft at its highest point."

And also this one:

"Posters and banners must not be attached to safety critical street furniture such as traffic light poles, directional information/regulatory/warning sign poles, or pedestrian barriers. Pedestrian barrier locations deemed safe for the erection of banners have already been allocated for such use."

Sadly the contenders for the Constable of St Mary, including the sitting Constable, have flouted this rule.