Lightning conductor at Whitworth Road Cemetery

I was at a funeral in Swindon and spotted this lightning conductor on the chapel. I was surprised when I first learned that an important job of a lightning conductor is to make a lightning strike less likely. If a negatively charged cloud appears overhead, it will repel the free electrons in the metal of the lightning conductor down into the earth. This will leave the tip of the lightning conductor positive. Charge is very effective when concentrated on a small point because it increases the nearby field strength. This means that the tip is able to rip electrons from air atoms, leaving them as positive ions. These positive ions are then repelled upwards by the positive tip. When the positive ions hit the negative cloud, they reduce its charge making a lightning strike less likely. However it is dangerous to try to replicate this by holding up a metal spike in a thunder storm. Is that because the route to earth through the human body has a much higher resistance? I will have to think about that.