Tuesday 28 October 2008

F*** fireworks fun

Nanny's war against fun on fireworks night continues apace.

For years now we've been banned from buying anything that goes BANG!

And this year we're being all but banned from being able to buy them at all -- you have just four days to stock up, and even then there's age restrictions, and even restrictions on buying bloody sparklers. (Visit Nanny's website for the intrusive news.)

No wonder the youngsters are deserting the traditional benison of bonfire night for the siren song of Halloween.

As they say, the ultimate result of trying to shield people from the effects of folly will be to fill the world with fools.

7 comments:

FAIRFACTS MEDIA said...

I plan to get some for election night.

Anonymous said...

I already have some for election night - I stock up every year and keep quite a few because you never know when you may want to use them to celebrate something, or if you'll even be able to buy them the following year.

Stock up big this year, it may be your last chance. If they restrict them too much we'll all have to make our own from the great designs you can find on the internet - and will end up with more injuries from people who made something really, really stupidly dangerous because they couldn't buy something that was only a little bit dangerous.

Anonymous said...

Its a shame you can never find enough Labour/Green MP's to pile up and set on fire - they are made of wood you know, just like ducks which is why they float like very small rocks....

Anonymous said...

I remember the home-built fireworks (hard to forget anything so spectacular). They were known as pipe bombs. Some people built really big ones- should have called those grenades.

And then there were the acetylene bombs. They were loud. Really, really loud. Crikey, they were loud.

Still, it was all good clean fun. No-one got hurt.

LGM

Madeleine said...

Some of my best childhood memories are around watching fireworks and the fun of late night BBQ's and friends.

I do wish though that the idiots who cause harm through improper use would be thoroughly held to account.

Only 2-3 years ago our neighbours son narrowly missed burning his house down by aiming a firework into a large, dry tree next to his house. We helped to put to the fire out - I blogged it at the time as I was flabbergasted at the response of the fire chiefFireworks Remain Unbanned.

Then just yesterday my daughter arrived at pony club to ride her horse and found one of her friends distraught. Someone had let fireworks off in the paddock where the horses were on Sunday night, the horses had gone crazy with panic and her friend's horse tripped and fell smashing the bones in his face into little pieces and injuring his leg. He is now either facing the vet's lethal injection or a long and painful and expensive recovery - its still not sure which way is the best way to go - and the poor owner and the other kids at the pony club are devastated.

What drives me mad though is that instead of throwing energy into finding the culprits and prosecuting them and making them face the harm they have caused everyone just calls for a blanket ban! It is ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

Madeline

that is the usual story

it is far easier to take the soft option and just ban things than it is to really get stuck in to the morons who show zero regard for others

laziness and indifference - that is all it is

SF

Anonymous said...

NZ is pathetic.

You should have seen Delhi last night on Diwali.

For 4 hours, looking in any direction, the sky is lit up huge, big bastard, window rattling fireworks.

We're talking *big*. Skyrockets that explode with a spark cloud as big as a 6 story building. I ain't never bought fireworks this big.

I told some of the guys here that fireworks were pretty much illegal in NZ. I can't quite describe the look on their faces, but it was a cross between seeing an alien, and watching your beloved pet die.

Enjoy your sparklers.