Why Don't People Put Political Posters In Their Window Any More?

Two days from the election I found myself driving along the south coast between Worthing and Hastings. I saw very few houses displaying political posters. If you are interested, I think on actual dwellings it was about even between the three main English parties. There were no Greens. The Conservatives as usual did very well on fields. But while I wasn’t too bothered by counting up the tally, it did make we wonder why the tradition of putting your political persuasion in your window is dying out.


I don’t agree with the suggestion in an alarmist article in the Daily Mail. According to this the problem was that Tories are scared to put up posters because they are afraid of Labour thugs targeting their houses. Needless to say like so much in the Mail it was a deliberate distortion to blacken the reputation of perfectly decent people. Quite apart from anything else, given how far apart the posters are any malevolent person would need to be pretty patient just to find the posters in the first place. And even if the Tories are worried - how come Labour and Lib Dem posters are just as thin on the ground?

 I think the real reason is that it is another one of the unpredicted consequences of the Internet. If you want to display your opinions - and why not? - the quickest and easiest way to do it is to add it to your profile on Facebook and the like. This has the advantage that you can not only fly your colours, you can actively try to win people over to your side. In fact a lot of people seem to devote a lot of effort to online activism. It seems that much of what used to go on down the pub as well as what used to go in the windows now happens over broadband.

I think this is all good. Admittedly not every keyboard warrior has the skills you’d ideally like a crusader for their cause to possess. And it is easy for healthy political debate to descend into a slanging match. But I think that overall the dialogue is healthy and valuable. I have learnt a lot, especially from people whose views I don’t agree with. It is often a bit of a shock to find that something that you regard as so self evidently the case is not accepted by other people. So all in all, I have a bit of nostalgia for the days when you could tell an election was on by the extra colour in the windows. But overall I think progress is being made.