Opinion
The party's almost over, kids. It looks inevitable that fireworks will be banned sooner rather than later, and don't go blaming this Government either.
I know it's fashionable to label the Clark Government "the fun police" and the enforcers of a nanny state.
And many believe that Helen
has personally set out to remove all those fun things in life, like hooning around in cars at 15, getting pissed at 18, and slapping your kids when you're a parent.
But it appears that John Key doesn't think much of celebrating the day that old rogue Guy Fawkes nearly blew up the English Parliament either.
He says a ban on fireworks is bound to happen, given that the support among his colleagues for the sale of firecrackers is slipping away. Which wouldn't mean the end of fireworks displays - just that people won't be permitted to indulge their inner pyromaniac in their own backyards.
Still, the ban hasn't happened yet and maybe, over the next couple of years, if fireworks fans can keep their crackers to themselves and no babies are burned, horses are harmed or dwellings damaged, then maybe there would be a rethink.
But that would mean a return to accepting personal responsibility and I think we're probably a generation or two away from that.
