Fireworks really aren’t such a whizzing idea

So here it is yet again.

It’s that awful time of year when it’s quite ok to let bombs off in your back garden at any time of the day or night.

It was bad enough when it was just Guy Fawkes Night, but now we have Diwali for added misery.

Last night (Monday) I cycled with a friend back from Windsor to Maidenhead along the Jubilee River.

It’s usually a pleasant night time ride.

But this time it was like riding through a war zone.

I noticed even the birds were stressed and were flying around, even though it was pitch black.

This nonsense will go on at least until November 5.

What the hell is wrong with our MPs? When will you finally ban the sale of high explosives to the general public?

Organised displays are fine and give people a lot of fun, but it cannot be right to sell high explosives to all and sundry to explode when and wherever the fancy takes them.

How often have you been just about to fall asleep after midnight when suddenly all hell breaks loose and wakes you while you wait for the next block of explosions.

Fireworks are also used in demos.

People throw them at the police.

They are sometimes used to intimidate people at that awful American import, Trick or Treat.

All kinds of animals including dogs, cats and particularly animals like horses, who are outside, are massively stressed by these massive explosions.

Some even have to be put down.

But that’s ok isn’t it?

Because it’s Hindu culture, it’s British tradition.

I once appealed in person to my then MP,

Dominic Grieve, to ban the sale of fireworks to the general public, but he said it was tradition.

In the case of Guy Fawkes it remembers a bloke who was hung drawn and quartered for trying to blow up parliament over 400 years ago.

What’s more, any new law to prohibit the sale of fireworks to the general public would actually be easily enforceable - unlike the existing law that profits the times when they can be let off.

In the past it wasn’t so bad because fireworks simply were nowhere near as loud as they are now.

These days they literally sound like bombs.

I’m going to copy this to our local MP, Theresa May. If you feel as strongly as I do, please also write to her.

MALCOLM STRETTEN Boulters Lane

Maidenhead