OUR city has long been a campaigning city.

In fact I’d say there’s nowhere more political in the country than Brighton and Hove. Rarely a week goes by when there isn’t some form of petition thrust under your nose either in person or online.

Some are populist, such as the Falmer For All campaign for the community stadium. Some are slightly more contentious such as the counter protests for Palestinian liberty / Israeli solidarity.

And some are just downright weird, such as the Hove “pastafarian” who wanted to wear a colander on his driving licence picture. Or the genuine suggestion to run a cable car from Devil’s Dyke to the seafront to alleviate congestion on the A23. Indeed, there are more causes in Brighton than in a World War One textbook.

Only this weekend there were a number of examples of this. As well as all the wide-eyed political hopefuls knocking on your doors, there was a homeless camp in the centre of Brighton's Old Steine. And just up the road in London Road’s Emporium a group of feminists gather for Woman Up! It was billed as a free event of debate and discussion about furthering the rights of women.

As well as a host of political speakers, taking the platform was 16-year-old Brighton College student June Eric-Udorie. She’s received great acclaim in some camps for her successful campaign against the Sussex Police rape prevention poster.

For those of you who’ve had your heads buried in the sand for the past fortnight, this was a picture of two girls enjoying a night out. The posters posed the question, “Which one of your mates is most vulnerable on a night out?”

It goes on, “The one you leave behind”. The outrage from June and others was that it advocated victim blaming, rather than railing against those committing the crimes. For a week the debate rolled on.

And then, faced with a 1,000 strong petition, the force crumbled under the media pressure, saying it would withdraw the poster. Well I’ve had a long look at the poster and I just don’t get the protests.

Now it may be that I need to wear a colander on my head as protection against flying missiles for saying such a thing. But honestly, I just don't get it. For me, the poster gives the simple message that there’s safety in numbers. There’s nothing controversial in that. Any concerned parent, guardian or friend would give the same sage advice. After the poster was withdrawn, former Tory MP Ann Widicombe claimed to do this was complete tosh. In fact I’d go further – it was the wimpiest U-turn I’ve seen for years. Why were the potential concerns around victim blaming not picked up by the bods overseeing the campaign?

If they did consider it fine then why the sudden about turn?

I mean, it’s only a thousand people who kicked up a fuss. More people than that signed a petition to Keep The Level Green.

More than five times that number want to see Preston Park cycling track restored. More than 15 times that back the bid to restore the Hippodrome as a place for live performance.

Sussex Police appear to have lost their backbone and forgotten what they are supposed to do: keep people safe. The last few months have seen a number of horrific incidents on our city’s streets.And if this campaign went some way to stopping just one of these incidents then it would have been money well spent.

But instead it’s been ruined by a handful of well-meaning campaigners and a few thin-skinned police chiefs seemingly more worried about their own reputations than that of the greater good.

As one influential member of the police force said to me, just how many rapes have those petitioning against the poster actually prevented?

It looks like the General Election has turned all those holding power into limp lettuces. Katy Bourne, the elected Police and Crime Commissioner for our county, made tackling sex and domestic abuse one of her priorities.

But instead of doing something positive about it by running this campaign, she instead spent this weekend joining the anti-rape poster campaigners and addressing the Woman Up! conference. I’m not saying the two facts are linked. But when public officials are listening to the baying noisy minority rather than doing what’s right for the silent majority then perhaps we should start thinking about renaming public services.