November 6th, 2007

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Mixed Bag
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Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November…On Video

Life is stranger than art. “Put off by the mountain of paperwork and regulations set by council chiefs”, the good citizens of Devon celebrated Guy Fawkes night crowded around a, uh, video of a bonfire:

Around 2,000 people turned up and paid £2 a ticket to wave sparklers and munch hot dogs in front of the UK’s first ever virtual bonfire. Club president Paul Crabb, of Ilfracombe, Devon, said the night was “twice the fun with half the hassle”.

Paul, 38, said: “We always used to have a bonfire but in the end it got too much. We were expected to fill out form after form.

“The number of bits of paper you have to wade through to hold a bonfire is just insane. I thought the idea was to light a fire and have a laugh - but the council are all ‘risk assessment’ and ‘liability’. All the fun went out of it.”

You couldn’t make that up. Mark down another win for our overly-protective and litigious society.

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Comments: 3 Responses so far

Andrea >> Start a consulting business
November 6th, 2007
2:00 pm

My family stopped having Guy Fawkes for similar reasons. Also, being chased one too many times by a spinning pinwheel firework may have turned us. :)

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Metro
November 7th, 2007
1:34 pm

Not sure I’m with you there Darren.

It seems to me that those who most decry our “overly litigious” society are in fact the first to sue when their own particular ox is gored. Or when their own particular small child falls into a bonfire, due to the pushing of a 2,000-person crowd.

Despite the difficulty and hassle of having to actually fill out a form to do so, many English towns seem to have celebrated Guy Fawkes night without having to go high-tech.

[Reply]

WCG
November 7th, 2007
6:43 pm

I understood that wood burning was banned in Britain because of smog. As in, smoke + fog. Isn’t it an environmental regulation that’s the cause of all the paperwork? That sounds reasonable to me - I’ve never myself been in a killer smog inversion, but I hear they’re not fun. (Granted, conditions have vasly improved since the Industrial Revolution :)

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