Britain’s Glow Problem: MPs Debate Wireless Interference

The Day Westminster Debated Static and Glow

It might seem almost comic now: in the shadow of looming global conflict, Parliament was wrestling with the problem of London neon wall art shop interfering with radios.

Mr. Gallacher, an MP with a sharp tongue, stood up and asked the Postmaster-General a peculiar but pressing question. Was Britain’s brand-new glow tech ruining the nation’s favourite pastime – radio?

The reply turned heads: around a thousand complaints in 1938 alone.

Imagine it: the soundtrack of Britain in 1938, interrupted not by enemy bombers but by shopfront glow.

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

He spoke of a possible new Wireless Telegraphy Bill, but admitted consultations would take "some time".

Translation? Parliament was stalling.

The MP wasn’t satisfied. He said listeners were getting a raw deal.

Another MP raised the stakes. If neon was a culprit, weren’t cables buzzing across the land just as guilty?

The Minister squirmed, basically admitting the whole electrical age was interfering with itself.

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Looking back now, this debate is almost poetic. Neon was once painted as the noisy disruptor.

Fast forward to today and it’s the opposite story: the menace of 1939 is now the endangered beauty of 2025.

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So what’s the takeaway?

Neon has never been neutral. It’s always forced society to decide what kind of light it wants.

In 1939 it was seen as dangerous noise.

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Here’s the kicker. When we look at that 1939 Hansard record, we don’t just see dusty MPs moaning about static.

That old debate shows neon has always mattered. And that’s why we keep bending glass and filling it with gas today.

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Don’t settle for plastic impostors. Real neon has been debated in Parliament for nearly a century.

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

Choose craft.

We make it.

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