I watched some kids t’other day, buying fireworks in one of those shops that normally does other things, then suddenly gets draped with a ‘fireworks sold here’ banner around this time of year.

In the first place, they were obviously kids, and the shop keeper shouldn’t have been selling them fireworks at all. I’d imagine they were worried about the premises being attacked, and bricks and other missiles shattering the shop windows if they refused.

I continued watching the kids as they went straight to a side street and started letting them off. As usual, these loud explosions caused sleeping babies to wake and start crying and startled dogs to start barking.

Maybe one way of cutting down kids having fireworks would be to say they must be bundled and sold in multiples of (say) £50 lots. Being allowed to sell individual bangers and so on is what contributes to the problem, surely?