Londonist Rants: Fireworks

SallyB2
By SallyB2 Last edited 196 months ago
Londonist Rants: Fireworks
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Londonist is not normally anal or prohibitive about stuff. Hey, we can do nipple tassles with the best of them. And we are utterly dismissive of most of Nanny Government’s patronising dictums. But today we are all up tight….about fireworks of all things. We must confess to a decidedly school-marmly attitude to the things.

Sorry ‘n’ all if you’re having a party tonight – we don’t want to dampen your fun or anything. It’s just that we think that the general sale of fireworks ought to be banned.

Londonist loves pyrotechnics and lets out great child-like whoops at good displays (when no-one is looking of course). But in the wrong hands anything more explosive than a sparkler has the capacity for such extraordinary damage and destruction that they really shouldn’t be available to the public.

It is not just about kids hurting themselves when lighting the touchpapers, but also about youths hurting and terrorising the rest of us with running firecracker battles, lobbing rockets through car windows and letter boxes and letting crackers off anytime and anywhere.

The controlled sale of fireworks has failed - there still seems to be a ready supply, and so it is time to cut that supply off. We are not alone in this belief – most recently busy bee Val Shawcross has said exactly the same. The only alternative is to keep all boys (aged 5-20) on a leash from mid-October to mid-November.

OK – we feel better now we’ve got that off our chest. Right, off you go to an organised display and enjoy yourselves.

Piccie courtesy of rocketeer’s flickr photo stream.

Last Updated 03 November 2007