Just had an email from the government Petition Site regarding the outcome of a petition I signed to ban public sale of fireworks, and restrict firework use to licensed public displays only.

Obviously there are a lot of people who feel the same as I do - at least 100,000 of us - because the issue will be debated in the HoC on 26th November. I hold out very little hope of anything changing, but at least the issue has been put on MPs' radar. Sadly, I expect them to come up with the old "The majority of the public use fireworks sensibly and responsibly" chestnut, but they wouldn't say that if they had to endure the equivalent of the opening barrage of The Battle of The Somme for the best part of a fortnight every autumn.