As my poor dog sits cowering in the corner, flinching at every bang, I have got to ask, isnt it time this stupid past time was banned? Why do we allow, in this day and age, the sale of explosives to celebrate the foiling of....well, a terrorist plot!? I was even born on Nov 5th - always hated them - and could never understand why people like them.


And it's not just my dog - in the countryside where I live there are livestock, horses, cats and also numerous young children who hate them. Okay, if they are not completely banned, at least control and limit them so that there are not so many bloody displays in every pub and peoples back gardens all over the place.
And limit it to just November the 5th!!!

Couldn`t agree more.
I`ve just got home from work and the dog was quaking in the kitchen and don`t forget after the Nov 5th celebrations we get the "leftover firwork" party `till New Year. Grrrrr.

I hate the damn things and strangely enough there was very little last night in my area of West London anyway.

Usually at this time of year it's chaos.

It's only the 4th. Perhaps I speak too soon.

The huge fire prepared right next to our local church is madness and far to close to trees and the building itself. At the very least I feel the brickwork will mark.
How many more fires have been prepared like that and what sought of tragedies will we befall because of this odd tradition tonight as a result?

Each of my dogs has hated fireworks, but they've also cowered at the sound of air breaks and motorbikes.

I have always liked fireworks, but I do think there are too many displays scattered over several weeks. I'd be in favour of free use of them on 5th November and New Year. Other than those dates people should have to seek permission from the local authorities and not be permitted to use them after 10pm. That would be reasonable control.

I'm definately not in favour of banning everything that is not 100% popular. There'd be nothing left but silence - until someone moaned about that too.

I love fireworks, and even my small home town put on an excellent display on Friday. Maybe they should be confined to a limited number of organized displays, but at least so far this year, I get the impression that there haven't been as many random fireworks going off as in previous years.

I take the point about animals being scared. I used to have a cat who was petrified. Firework technology is evolving with the emergence of silent or low noise fireworks, so perhaps that is the way to go.

We could ban or restrict the sale of fireworks to the general public, a bit like certain drugs are banned or restricted. Doesn't get them off our streets though, does it?

No real interest in the things myself...but..well here in ukraine they let these cheap and dangerous chineese made one off all the time.
My flat is near a resturant that manages to let them off at least twice a week.Also they're everywhere you go.
Still my cat here doesn't bat an eylid,nor do the numerous street cats/dogs that are everywhere.
Answer is that familiarity breeds contempt.Britain has some of the harshest firework laws in the world.Even Gibraltar lets them go at any time.Just restricts the sale to items that have met the safety standards.
Perhaps if they could reduce the damn noise,and leave the pretty lights? Just an idea.

I did speak too soon; 8pm and West London is ablaze with the exploding bloody things.

I can't even go to bed early!

Well, to be fair, it is the proper Fireworks Night date. It's still quiet in my sleepy corner of Derbyshire so far. Hopefully you'll get some peace tomorrow evening.

I would conceed to just having displays on November 5th, but its when displays happen several days either side of this date I get annoyed.

Great idea about making noisless ones - maybe let them off to music? My dog loves music! In desperation, the other night my wife and I put headphones over his ears and played Miles Davis (he seems to like jazz) at low volume. It seemed to relax him - however they can still feel the explosions so it wasnt worth the bother again.

At 9.55 pm last night, I was struck by the urge to buy a chocolate eclair and had to leave the warmth of the house to do so.(!)

On arriving the just about to shut corner shop, community officers had been called to supervise the rather intimidating group of teens failing to buy fireworks, for obviously no other reason at all than walk around throwing them late at night on the estate.
Whilst I do agree, keep them to November the 5th if we have to keep them, the above example is just the sort of silly and dangerous behaviour that has to be stopped.
Anything could have happened and did not in this case.

Just add ny 2p here.

In Hemel Hempstead, there was so many private displays that the air was heavy with sulphur smoke and pets were going mad. The fireworks all seemed the same - shoot into the air, then *BANG*. Where is the variance?

I went to an 'organised' display, however it was MORE dangerous than letting them off myself. First warning of what was about to come was cheap rockets that did not have the power of flight, and after a lazy, fizzing arc came back to earth....then BAM! The stars shot out sideways across the ground. Then we had fireworks of unknown type that just blew up onto those lighting them and some that shot across the ground in a random pattern. The air was dense with smoke. Someone mentioned that it resembled the first day of the Somme out there...

Then we got to the large fireworks that were the size of small barrels. These worked OK, BUT the audience started to get distresed when hot ash and embers started raining from the sky onto them. The cordon being too close and the following wind conspired. It was hard to breathe with the acrid smoke now engulfing the spectators. The crowd started to push back from the front lines and there was the sound of crying from the little ones. Torches flashing in the smoke looked like light sabres, and the combination of loud overhead bangs, coughing, crying and glowing hot embers put me in mind of Pompeii. I thought I would never say this, but I have now gone off fireworks.

RT

Around here it sounded like a war zone and the sky was full of colourful flashes. My cat lifted her head a couple of times from her nap but mostly ignored them. Surprisingly none of the spent rockets landed in my garden. It seems most people round here chose the official day to have their displays, and it was all over by around 10pm. No reports of injuries or trouble.

A pretty good bonfire night.