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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To hate the UK for allowing fireworks to be sold in shops?

108 replies

MummyOfHnS · 30/10/2011 22:06

Sitting in my house right now and all I can hear are fireworks being set off all around me. Scares the living daylights out of me, and of course my kids are sleeping!!

I love going to organised events so it's not the actual fireworks that do it you see, it's the potentially very irresponsible hands they could be in!

Why are they even allowed to be sold??? AIBU!?

OP posts:
Pandemoniaa · 30/10/2011 22:58

As someone who does pyrotechnics, I can assure you that there is a world of difference between the sort of stuff I fuse up at this time of year and the really very tame (but good fun for all that) fireworks sold in shops. Of course people have accidents with fireworks but actually, you can do yourself a great deal more damage with a whole list of readily available, household appliances - and that's before you get started on "substances" and the many and varied accidents one can have with perfectly legal compounds.

Banning the sale of fireworks in shops is just plain unnecessary. Especially since really decent bangers of the sort that are usually complained about aren't sold as fireworks anyway...

Original poster
MummyOfHnS · 30/10/2011 23:01

Thefallenmadonna - my local bowling club also sets fireworks off to mark the end of the fayre but there not professional fireworks setter offers (lol)
I'm talking about those events held at 'majn' locations, ticketed entry, thousands of people attend, surrounded by staff of all sorts, police, ambulance, safety officers etc...surely it's not just Scotland who hold these :-/

OP posts:
Pandemoniaa · 30/10/2011 23:05

Ermmm, can I just say that there's no such thing as "not professional fireworks setter offers"? Everyone working with the category of fireworks that are used for displays that the public will attend has to be properly licensed. So even if your main occupation is not that of "professional setter offer", you can't wander in off the street with a dark lantern and burning match and offer your enthusiastic but entirely untrained services.

(In reality, all our setter offing is done electronically these days)

LoopyLoopsPussInBoots · 30/10/2011 23:11

I absolutely agree with you, not so much for safety reasons, but seeing how they freak out my cats, I can't imagine how the wildlife must feel.

The last straw was my friend's 2 year old being hit by one at a house firework party we went to.

Original poster
MummyOfHnS · 30/10/2011 23:14

Pandemoniaa thanks for clearing that up for me, I did think it would be rather odd that anywhere who would charge for a display which is advertised to entertain the general public would not be trained to do so but assumed by PP that this may be the case in some smaller events (such as the bowling club, her sons scouts)

OP posts:
TheFallenMadonna · 30/10/2011 23:14

Pyrotechnics! Much better. Sorry - I think it sounds like an ace job!

JLK2 · 30/10/2011 23:16

I used to be terrified of fireworks, even as a teenager, which was embarassing. Now I'm not so bad but I do hate it when loud bangers go off unexpectedly. I think they should be restricted to organised shows on the weekend closest to November 5th and on New Year's Eve.

FruitChute · 30/10/2011 23:20

YANBU. The less tight the controls the more easily they get into the hands of kids. Where I grew up kids used to light and throw them at each other/passers by for fun from September til after new year. As a result I'm really nervous of them now. I've noticed in recent years that they don't seem to be selling them until a couple of weeks before bonfire night though which is better imo.

MrsRetchingBloodAndGuts · 30/10/2011 23:23

YABU I'm looking forward to the Catherine wheels I'm going to buy to go on my tree, makes my bloody month it does.

Kladdkaka · 30/10/2011 23:25

I love fireworks. We have a big display in our back garden each year. I'm not sure if the setter offers count as professionals or not. They are the chemistry professors from the local uni. It's a bit sad really. Instead of an accompanyment of 'ooooh' and 'ahhhhh' we get 'magnesium sulphate in that one' and 'cadmium with a teaspoon of ionite there'. :o

MrBloomsNursery · 30/10/2011 23:27

Why the hell do people want to make everything complicated with stupid pathetic rules? Let people have some bloody fun for once.

For goodness sake, if you're in your bloody house the chances of any fireworks let off by irresponsible hands, coming through your window and landing up your arse are VERY VERY SLIM. REST ASSURED, YOU ARE NOT IN ANY DANGER

Surely after hearing the first firework, you'd automatically expect more, instead of shuddering at every "weeeeee pop".

pigletmania · 30/10/2011 23:31

YABU bah humbug!

SquirtedPerfumeUpNoseInBoots · 30/10/2011 23:36

Just to correct the ^ about the situation in NOrthern Ireland. Until very recently, the general public could not buy fireworks, only sparklers. Growing up here we only ever saw fireworks at organized events.

Now, you can buy them in a shop if that shop has a licence to sell them and you also have a licence to buy them. A licence costs £30. Our Assembly money making, because of course anybody can now get their hands on them. Nobody needs a licence. As a result, we now have them go off at random locations at random times and lots of tv advertising about how dangerous they are.

Pisses me off no end. I'd rather go back to them not being available at all.

omnishambles · 30/10/2011 23:38

Fun? FUN? Ban all fun - fireworks and halloween and the whole bloody lot of it. And Christmas.

FruitChute · 30/10/2011 23:41

I think people can have fun at organised displays without people having to walk the streets in fear of having fireworks thrown at them. If you live in a nice area you will really have no idea.

Whatmeworry · 30/10/2011 23:54

Cotton Wool society.

GypsyMoth · 31/10/2011 00:03

Not many agree with you op!! Seems YABU!!!

rockinhippy · 31/10/2011 00:17

YABU - lighten up Wink

or get a job with H&S & go help spoil what little fun & opportunity to think for ourselves & use common sense we have Grin

nomoreheels · 31/10/2011 04:14

I bloody hate them. We get people setting them off every night throughout October & most of November. Scallies round our area love to set them off sideways so they shoot down the street, last year one hit the front of our house. And some youths set some off under a car & it burned down. Believe me, they get in the wrong hands a lot round here...

ragged · 31/10/2011 04:48

They were banned in shops where I grew up about 35 years ago!
I find it a bit shocking, too, but mostly concede they seem to work safely enough. Still refuse to buy them for DC, though.

mousesma · 31/10/2011 05:01

YANBU I've got no problem with organised displays but I dread October-November of every year when the local idiot kids get fireworks and lob them at each other. They seem to be going off every night from mid october to mid November.

I used to work next door to a council estate where the residents used to fire rockets from their balconies at the neighbouring blocks balconies in a tit for tat battle in broad daylight.

Maybe there could be a halfway house where residents could get a permit from the council to buy fireworks so they could check the venue for letting them off is suitable?

somewherewest · 31/10/2011 05:08

I don't know the details of the law, but fireworks still aren't available to the general public in the Republic of Ireland (and we're usually much more relaxed about elf'n'safety). We don't do Bonfire Night so it isn't such a big deal, but we do light big feck off bonfires everywhere and anywhere at Halloween.

Thzumbazombiewitch · 31/10/2011 05:17

yeah, move to Australia. One of my greatest sadnesses about being here is that we'll never have the back garden fireworks parties that I remember with such fondness from when I was a child, unless I take DS back to the UK in November (and apart from the fireworks, why would I?)

They have an age restriction on the sale of fireworks already in the UK - I suppose it would be a good idea if people had to fork out for a licence to buy them as well, would save a lot of randoms. But they can still nip over to France, go to the supermarchés there and bring back illegal fireworks, like strings of bangers which can't be bought in the UK. Might slow 'em down a touch though.

DaisyDaresYOU · 31/10/2011 06:36

Yanbu.I remember when dps mate organised a firework show,just as dps mates lit a few a fence fell down on them and they started shooting different directions.Its very hard to run away from darting fireworks with a baby in a pram and one just missed my dps ass.I just watch them out of the window now.We are alot safer that way

Serenitysutton · 31/10/2011 06:54

Pandemoniaa I am so jealous. That's my dream job, absolute dream job. You are so lucky.