Madam, - It is two days since the first round of voting for the French presidency took place. The posters of the various candidates have already been removed.
The job was relatively simple, given that posters can be placed only on designated temporary hoardings outside voting centres. Each candidate is allotted a numbered space of approximately four square metres on his or her own hoarding at each centre.
Yesterday and this morning, the local authorities made the rounds of the voting locations and removed those hoardings which won't be needed for the second round, and also removed the posters of the remaining two candidates; these will doubtless be replaced by fresh posters in the coming days.
It strikes me that such a system would have enormous benefits if applied in Ireland. These benefits: the removal of the pre-election blight of posters on lamp-posts; an end to the soggy mess that they become when they're not removed quickly; reduction of the expense involved in their printing, their hanging and their removal whether by the politician's staff or by the local authority; elimination of any safety hazard or inconvenience for the maintenance people who must work on these poles.
Thus there are financial benefits (fewer posters needed), environmental benefits (ditto), and aesthetic benefits (the sight of some of our politicians, face twisted into their version of a smile, rather undermines the beauty of our country lanes).
Is it too much to expect that the Government would consider putting into place a relatively small change which would result in such significant benefits? - Yours, etc,
NIALL MORRISSEY, Rue Lepic, Paris, France.
Madam, - Politicians who put up posters before an election has been called does not break law, according to Limerick City Council (The Irish Times, April 25th).
How about banning posturing politicians before, during and after elections? - Yours, etc,
PATRICK O'BYRNE, Shandon Crescent, Phibsborough, Dublin 7.