[kirklancaster]

This is Tuesday the 3rd of November. We have taken the dogs for a walk, fed them and had our own evening meal, and settled down to watch 'American Sniper'. The world outside our home was cold, dark and peaceful, the world inside it, warm, lamp-lit and peaceful.

Just 10 minutes into the film, the peace was shattered by commercial grade fireworks being set off without pause for the next 2 hours 10 minutes.

These were NOT the standard domestic mix of display fireworks, rockets and 'bangers', but 30 to 40 repeater violently loud bangers and really large skyrockets which each culminated in multiple sonic bangs.

Our poor dogs were inconsolable - terrified - and our conservatory roof was continuously littered with descending and still smoldering fragments from the exploding sky rockets.

I'm sorry, but it is NOT Bonfire Night for another 2 days and if past years are anything to go by, this ignorance will continue tomorrow through the day and night, ditto on the 5th, and for weeks afterwards.

It is now time to BAN ALL fireworks except for organised COMMUNAL BONFIRES, and to restrict ALL bonfires to the 5th of November - Bonfire Night.

I KNOW I was young once, and enjoyed Bonfire Night AND fireworks - I STILL do - but the world has changed. Fireworks have become more sophisticated, much larger, more powerful, and many times more loud, and people have more money in their pockets to purchase them in number.

People are also many times more ignorant than decades ago, and less respectful of other people or their terrified pets, and the letting off of fireworks now far exceeds just 'Bonfire Night'.

The great irony is, that - like Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide, the ignorant bastards who carry out this assault on our right to enjoy our homes in peace and quiet, would not know who Guido Fawkes or Robert Catesby were if they rose from the grave and bit them.

I'd be interested in any of your views.