The suggestion this week by the dashing Neil McNeilis that all political posters should be banned in the city during next year’s local elections is one that will be welcomed in all sectors — especially as it will mean that there won’t be any pictures of red-faced jowly councillors glaring down on all those sailors who will hit town next year for the Volvo Ocean Race.
The move will mean that posters won’t be left up for months fluttering in the post-eelction winds when their owners will have forgotten about them in the joy of victory or the lows of defeat.
Environmentalists will welcome it too — it has long been mooted by the Greens and others, but news of this will have the starving newspaper owners dancing in the workhouses. Indeed, watch to see if this idea is pushed as being a noble one by the print media who know only too well that the publicity-hungry candidates and their hard-earned (claimed ) cash will be pushed in to their wake by the move.
You see, if they can’t use postering or flyers, they can’t go to the radio either for advertising as the broadcasting sector is still prohibited from taking political ads — a restriction that is the source of much angst when fatcat radio owners meet the Minister every so often. And that law is unlikely to be changed in the near future.
So the bould Niall could yet be the hero of the printing classes, even if his call has already caught one potential local candidate unaware.
The man who shall remain nameless already has his posters done up on screen, minus the party surrounds as he does not yet know if he will be with a party or independent.
Line up, line up, anyone for the last few ad spaces now.
