Opinion : Is it time to outlaw bonfire night?

Thankfully Halloween has passed, without a single trick or treater visiting my home it was a very quiet affair this year.

Judging from the amount of Halloween themed items still left for sale in many town centre shops it looks like very few people engaged with what has become a festival of doing wrong to fellow citizens.

Now there is a short run up to bonfire night this coming Saturday 5th November 2016.

Sadly in some parts of Wycombe every night is bonfire night, including lovely summer evenings when some anti-social members of society think its perfectly acceptable to light up a bonnie while others are outside enjoying the evening.

Having a bonfire at this time of year can be useful to help dispose of the leaves, branches and other left overs from the garden.

Of course many people who have bonfires on November 5th aren’t keen gardeners, instead they are burning old tyres, plastics and other non-organic materials rather than taking them to the dump at Booker.

I have even heard of residents in the Castlefield area burning the interiors of motor vehicles which they are preparing for banger racing. I guess this makes a change as usually the folks in that part of town aren’t so selective and usually it’s the houses that are being set on fire.

Do they not realise the dangers of the chemicals rising up in the smoke coming from the non-organic rubbish they are burning?

We hear so much about firework safety but what about bonfire safety?

In this age of namby-pamby health and safety measures it puzzles me as to why the powers that be haven’t outlawed bonfire night.

This year, as in other years, yours truly will venture out into the grounds of my ancestral home late in the evening on bonfire night.

The sky will be speckled with the sight of fireworks exploding in the distance while the air will be filled with muffled sound of bangers being let off and sirens as the emergency services rush to the aid those who have been foolish.

It is worth risking ones health just to celebrate the incompetent Guy Fawkes who managed to bungle the gunpowder plot of 1605 and was executed for his failings?

I just don’t see why fireworks are still part of society when there are so many better uses for the money wasted on them. People who can afford to literally set fire to their money must be very lucky indeed.

Of course organised displays for charity are perfectly acceptable indeed surely it’s better to take young children to a properly organised display rather then fooling around in the back garden?

Firework displays are for young children not teenagers or adults with a worrying desire to set fire to things and cause explosions.

What do you think?

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