Unnecessary, absurd and patronising safety warnings

The Manifesto Club has published Attention Please, which it describes as "a photobook of unnecessary, absurd and patronising safety warnings in public space, submitted to us by members of the public over 2008-9".

The campaign group's website goes on:

The collection contains submissions from all over the world, and also from individuals including the Turner prize-winning artist Grayson Perry.

Images include: a sign outside a Sussex beach reading 'Caution - uneven surfaces'; an official smoking area in a Walsall supermarket car park; a Krakow tram's ban on music and ice-cream; a warning outside a Tooting cemetery that 'all memorials have the potential to harm'.

The Manifesto Club is publishing ‘Attention Please’ in an attempt to expose, and (we hope) shame the officials who put up these signs. At present, it seems that there is never a good reason for officials to not put up a safety sign.

We’re calling for a reversal of the burden of proof: it is the person unrolling the safety tape who should have to prove why a particular sign is necessary or helpful. If it isn’t, it shouldn’t be in public.