Static And Glow: Parliament’s Strange Neon Row

When vintage neon signs London Crashed the Airwaves

It sounds bizarre today: in the shadow of looming global conflict, MPs in Westminster were arguing about neon signs.

Mr. Gallacher, an MP with a sharp tongue, stood up and asked the Postmaster-General a peculiar but pressing question. How many complaints had rolled in about wireless sets being ruined by neon signage?

The reply turned heads: the Department had received nearly one thousand reports from frustrated licence-payers.

Picture it: listeners straining to catch news bulletins, drowned out by the hum of glowing adverts on the high street.

Major Tryon confessed the problem was real. The snag was this: there was no law compelling interference suppression.

He said legislation was being explored, but warned the issue touched too many interests.

In plain English: no fix any time soon.

Gallacher shot back. He pushed for urgency: speed it up, Minister, people want results.

Mr. Poole piled in too. If neon was a culprit, weren’t cables buzzing across the land just as guilty?

The Minister squirmed, saying yes, cables were part of the mess, which only complicated things further.

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Seen through modern eyes, it’s heritage comedy with a lesson. Back then, personalised neon signs London neon was the tech menace keeping people up at night.

Jump ahead eight decades and the roles have flipped: the menace of 1939 is now the endangered beauty of 2025.

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What does it tell us?

Neon has always been political, cultural, disruptive. It’s always pitted artisans against technology.

Second: every era misjudges neon.

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Our take at Smithers. When we look at that 1939 Hansard record, we don’t just see dusty MPs moaning about static.

Call it quaint, call it heritage, but it’s a reminder. And that’s why we keep bending glass and filling it with gas today.

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Ignore the buzzwords of "LED neon". Authentic glow has history on its side.

If neon could shake Westminster before the war, it can certainly shake your walls now.

Choose craft.

Smithers has it.

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