Unwelcome mat

Like many people, I don't like being spammed, getting junk mail or being interrupted during dinner by somebody trying to flog double glazing. I was therefore pleased, when searching Milton Keynes Council web site for something unrelated, to find that they were giving away free window stickers to residents who didn't want to be pestered by cold callers.

When the stickers arrived, I found the wording quite, shall we say, direct. The first bit, in red, got all legal on the doorsteppers' collective asses:

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008

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Then, the sign told them to go away:

The Residents of this property do not want uninvited traders to visit this property.

Then, in large, unfriendly, letters it made it clear that the resident really means it:

Please leave and do not return.

If you do not leave and/or if you return, you may commit a criminal offence.

Crikey. The wording was so in your face* that I nearly had second thoughts about putting something like that in the window. But I did, and I haven't seen many cold callers since.

*not to mention the final sentence being slightly ambiguous, although in context it's pretty clear that 'you may commit a criminal offence' is a caution, not an invitation.