Normally Westminster is snooze city. Budgets, real neon signs policy jargon, same old speeches. But one night in May 2025, the place actually glowed — because they argued about neon. Ms Qureshi herself lit the place up defending glass-and-gas craft. She blasted the plastic pretenders. Her line? LED strips for £30 don’t count. Clear argument. Neon is culture, not some strip light fad. Stockton North’s Chris McDonald who bragged about neon art in Teesside.

Cross-party vibes were glowing. Then came the killer numbers: barely two dozen artisans still working. Zero pipeline. Skills vanish. She floated certification marks. Save the skill. Even Strangford had its say. He dropped stats. Big bucks in glow. His point: neon is a future industry. Closing the circus was Chris Bryant. He made glowing jokes. The benches laughed. But underneath the banter, he admitted neon mattered. He nodded to cultural landmarks: Piccadilly Circus.

He said glass and gas beat plastic. Where’s the beef? Simple: plastic strips are sold as neon. Trust disappears. Think Scotch whisky. If those are protected, signs deserve honesty too. This was bigger than signage. Do we erase 100 years of glow for LED strips? We’ll keep it blunt: real neon rules. The Commons got its glow-up. Nothing signed, the fight’s begun. If they’ll argue for glow in Westminster, you can back it at home.

Skip the plastic. Bring the glow.