Three weeks ago we had a promotional poster put up in Bedford Post Office. The design – which has been widely admired – is here. We booked the space for 12 months, to take us past the May 2015 general election, and were planning a series of poster designs. This morning I happened to visit the Post Office, and noticed the poster had been taken down.
I contacted the agency with which we have our contract. It seems the poster was taken down after a woman complained about it this morning. We’ve emailed Sarah Cox, the Editor of a local paper – Beds. on Sunday – asking her to publish the poster design in her paper, and we’ll invite the woman who complained about the design to explain exactly what her objections are.
Justice for Men & Boys 
Someone was offended eh. To quote Stephen Fry, so fucking what. For context, here’s the rest of the quote:
“It’s now very common to hear people say, ‘I’m rather offended by that.’ As if that gives them certain rights. It’s actually nothing more… than a whine. ‘I find that offensive.’ It has no meaning; it has no purpose; it has no reason to be respected as a phrase. ‘I am offended by that.’ Well, so fucking what”
I think if more people treated feminists this way the world would be a much better place.
I’ll keep an eye out in my local Post Offices and McColl’s stores for any political posters and if I see any I shall forward you evidence so you can go back to your advertising agency and tell them that the no political posters policy doesn’t exist.
I have to say that having looked at the poster I can’t see any reason why it would cause offence. I can see why it might annoy some people by contradicting their beliefs, especially those of a feminist persuasion, but having your belief challenged is not, contrary to feminist doctrine, offence.
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The claim of “offence” is being used in attempts to shut down debate on a number of subjects. In a mature democracy, which I would like to think Britain still is, it should be possible to have an informed discussion on any subject.
I hope you manage to get that excellent poster put back on display.
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It’s a fair bet that the woman who complained, was guilty of alienating her children from their father after divorce and didn’t like being reminded of her loathsome, spiteful behaviour.
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Why not file complaints (or get a woman to file complaints) against every ad/poster in the post office and get everything automatically taken down? It might draw attention to the issue. Just an idea.
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firstly,how could anyone complain about children’s right to have/see the father ? Secondly,how could anyone complain about a father’s right to see his child?
Thirdly,why would an agency under contract take down a poster which doesn’t violate the law ?
Taking it down because of one woman’s complaint shows that the current society is not really democratic anymore,that men’s rights are clealry secondary to women’s,and even children’s rights are secondary to women’s rights. Appaling state of affairs… Why should men continue to put up with this scenario? treating women in a gentlemanly fashion is one thing,but allowing it to completely subvert the society is quite another. men need to apply the brakes both to feminism and gentlemanly manners. Both have now gone too far.
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Mike, seriously, you need to fight to get this poster put back up and raise public awareness in the process of doing so – this is a disgrace. I would inform local radio and TV channels and hopefully a positive outcome will come out of this in terms of raising awareness of your party.
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