To think the London NYE fireworks were an excellent FU to Farage and Tommy Ten Names?

[triumphantantelope]

The NYE fireworks always get me a bit emotional but this year I think it was up there with the 2020 covid ones. The message was beautiful and ran through the whole thing. The way they got the EU stars in, the dig at the mini roundabout painters and flag hangers.
I’ve lived in London my whole adult life and I felt the display reflected it perfectly.

Funded from ticket sales and sponsorship, so there’s an appetite for it.

I’ve already got this in my constituency- reform spent tens of thousands putting flags up lampposts.

.

There’s saying ‘presented by mayor of London’ and then there’s projecting your face on to a building 😂😂😂😂

It’s always the Mayor’s fireworks. It’s organised fr9m his office. Were you upset in 2013 - the example below?

Is London closed then? I’ve not noticed, what with organising a weekend visit there next month…

Maybe @SBGM247 saying the inclusive fireworks were out of touch with the country? Since I don’t think they are, I’d have to conclude that her area isn’t inclusive.

It made me laugh. Maybe it’s social media and seeing multiple it’s the mayor’s fireworks posts.

It is so obvious why people increasingly kick off every year now about the London NYE fireworks. Which is why the message of unity is so important.

What national identity was destroyed please? And what’s the new one? I feel I should be told.
Not come across this idea?

Don't come. We're gated and locked. Due to all the stabbings, the sharia law, our national identity slipping away before our eyes... It's terrible here.

I asked @Dappy777 the same question @cardibach , but no answer yet.

My DH and I commented on this when we watched the NYE fireworks at midnight (on the tv). It’s not the time and place, and it felt like propaganda, especially the bit about mums of a specific religion saying ‘merry Christmas’ as an example of what London is about. I thought that was an odd statement and directed at making a political point.

2025 was a shocking year for terrorists of a particular religion committing atrocities in the UK and Bondi, and Christians being murdered in Africa. The comments in the fireworks felt flippant to me, kind of a minimisation of the concerns much of the public have regarding hatred and extremism coming from a particular religion. And the flags were an attempt to dismiss or minimise the flag protests which are aimed at raising concerns regarding migration, particularly illegal migration and the use of hotels for asylum seekers.

I know I’m overthinking this all a bit, but in the context of the year we had in 2025 if did feel like pointed virtue signaling and a kind of telling off directed at those in the UK with concerns about religious extremism, problems with assimilation and the use of flags as a protest against too much migration or illegal migration.

I didn’t like the overlays either, but otherwise loved everything else about the fireworks.

I don't recall that at all - I'm sure that vision of Boris would have haunted me on many a lonely night.
I just had a quick scoot through the 2013 BBC coverage and couldn't see it though. Maybe it was outside the main display?
It was the feeling that Khan was preaching at me during a firework display that I helped pay for and that should not be political, that got my goat.

As a celebration of England and of the UK - and of London, it was superb. A bit long as always but still, fabulous.

I don’t remember that either. On that note I don’t recall the fireworks being politicised, are they now?

Reading the posts it seems some are happy for them to be a FU which suggests yes, pissing people off tends to get voting outcomes as backlash, but perhaps the op is reading too much into it.

Mums of a specific religion? You can say Muslim mums just like the narrator did.

I cannot say having the serial adulterer having his photo on a building in 2013 upset me at the time. The fact that so many people did not see how bad a London Mayor he was, and then his successor helped enable Jeremy Corbyn to become Labour leader who appeased anti-semitic comments by some Labour members, is more upsetting.

I would be happy with no fireworks, or at least the ticket charges covering all costs.

It is. See above.

I went to the fireworks last night (so paid towards their cost). I liked the speech, it felt very much like the ’spirit of London’, openess and tolerance. Of course it’s political, as are other campaigns such as ‘London is open’. There is also a short film I saw in the cinema trailers recently made by the Mayor’s office also focusing on diversity. Given that there are now regular attacks on London as being a place with ‘no go areas’ and ruled by sharia law (including trump being unchallenged on GB news) I think it’s good we have some messages that counter this

I agree that we absolutely shouldn't tolerate persecution. But the idea that we shouldn't tolerate intolerance is very problematic isn't it? It's completely circular. We see that perfectly illustrated in our current politics. For example, the left don't wish to tolerate anti-immigration rhetoric, because they see it as intolerance of migrants. The right don't wish to tolerate anti-zionism, because they see it as intolerant of Jews/Israel. Some think gender critical views are intolerant of transgender people and others think gender ideology is intolerance of women.

Who decides what is not tolerated?

In my opinion as a society we need to decide what should be illegal and we should tolerate everything else. Cut out all the sneering at people you disagree with and cut out the tribalism. I also think cultural events like fireworks need to be strictly apolitical.

I remember it, for the exact haunting you describe.

I’m not sure i think it is an FU. I think it’s a statement of unity. Some (on both sides) might see it as an FU I guess. But is the message of unity bad in some way? Something we should disagree about?

I did see it which is why I posted I laughed.