Guy Fawkes Night

When I started typing I had no idea where this was going to go, so an unexpected entry here!

This weekend many of us watched bonfires and fireworks lighting up the sky.
    Tamworth Borough Council put on yet another fantastic free outdoor event with tens of thousands watching a superb display, this event was re introduced by then Councillor Bruce Boughton who fought for its return as a safer way to enjoy the celebration and bring communities together.

It was whilst I was stood watching the fireworks I wondered how many people there have thought about what they are celebrating and how much tradition has been maintained and how much has been lost.

  On the 5th November in Great Britain we are celebrating a foiled terrorist attack on parliament which was religiously driven. Guy Fawkes was found guarding explosives under parliament to kill the then king James I and replace him with a catholic king. Once Fawkes was caught the people of London celebrated by lighting fires and not to long later the day was made a public holiday.
   Now we have fireworks and a bonfire but some tradition is ebbing away like the penny for the guy, I vaguely remember doing this once or twice. dress up a guy put it in a wheel barrow and walk the street knocking doors asking for cash. it seems this has been replaced with trick or treat, I might have to push my kids to bring that back next year.

     In the past this celebration has been used as a way of promoting sectarianism but fortunately these days are over in relation to religious divide but not all sectarian activities on November the 5th have ended. This weekend we would have read the news of anti capitalist protests in London, (I must add I do not have a problem with peoples right to protest) we read that there had been a number of arrests during the protest and prior to it starting police had requested people remain well behaved. Protesting is a great way of bringing attention to your cause and this years seemed calmer than in the past but i wonder how sensitive or over sensitive we have become to protests. November the 5th has been used in previous centuries for protests between class divisions particularly in Guildford etc and this is what we see to an extent in London.
I am aware of Anonymous and their adoption of the Guy Fawkes mask but they just didn't fit into this blog aside from the role they play in protests, like many other groups.

  And then we have the towns that burn  effigies, I have to say whilst i would find it quite offensive and scary if someone had chosen to burn an effigy of me. I do find it slightly amusing that CNN and other US news channels are reporting "England is burning trump effigies". it is interested though to look at the other effigies of famous people that have been voted on and burnt in the past.
watch CNN's video here


 So I wonder how much of a conflict in 'tradition' we have on Guy Fawkes night and is there a place for all elements to celebrate in their own way.
      I do hope there are two things that I will push, bring back the public holiday (for the right reasons its a long way from august to christmas) and bring back penny for the guy. Lets make sure we enjoy what we have and keep traditions alive.

The country leaving the EU maybe delayed due to processes on the line

The saga continues around triggering article 50 and Great Britain leaving the EU, this week (as has been the case since the start of the year) the headlines have been dominated by Brexit and a legal challenge.

I have spent most of the week ranting that we had the referendum in June and the government must now implement the exit from the EU. We had a referendum and the result was to leave, since there there has been attempt after attempt to delay or derail our exit.  I voted to remain but the result is to and now want to see all efforts to get our position straight and leave the EU.

  So for the week I've been moaning about the increased legal challenges to our political decisions and this years seems to have had more than others. We had a referendum, we decided, end of story get on a deliver.


And then this morning it struck me the decision of the judges for a parliamentary vote is in fact the right process. We are Great Britain and we have our ways of doing things and we do them properly.
In June we voted in a referendum which gave an indication and i would say an instruction to our Government to leave the EU. It wasn't until this morning that I realised no decision has been made, this choice has not gone thought the governance that our nations decisions have to go through and that is through parliament. The systems we have are the systems that make Great Britain the place it is and until parliament have voted we do not have a sovereign decision. we have to have a decision made by our elected decision makers and they must act in the way they have been instructed by the population, each constituency had a count and so the results are there for each MP to consider as well as the final result.

So this should be simple albeit a pain in the arse.

1. Government get a plan together with a prospective offer,
2.  put it through parliament, 
3. Mp's listen to the referendum result, Don't look for bits of detail to try and delay the inevitable, don't tie this up in scrutiny all that can be done as negotiations take place on individual matters
4.  get article 50 triggered so negotiations can begin. 

Happy Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Solstice

Halloween and the half term break is over so back to school go the kids. This year they have spent the whole break doing crafts based on Halloween and last night had some friends round to have fun and eat.

Do remember when Halloween was just about carving a pumpkin or a group of small kids dressed up going trick or treating with innocence and under the supervision of an adult, earlier I was reminiscing about one neighbour coming out onto his roof and throwing stuff down onto us at his door, I think it was flour. We would then all go to the organisers house and evenly share our gatherings.
I even remember carving swede rather than the pumpkin made popular by the Americans.

Today is I created a box labelled "Halloween" and containing the decorations of this year,  this will go with the ones labelled "Christmas" which will come out in a few weeks with Christmas only 53 days away and so our festive decorations collection grows. A week of crafts and Family time distracting away from phones tablets, social media and computer games

I have pondered Christmas decorations out of season for a while and with the exception of the efforts of hobbycraft I feel we let other festivities down.  This year we created a Halloween wreath for the front door, in a few weeks the Christmas one will be there and a few months later the bunny shaped Easter Wreath we made this year will go up, then the door will be bare till Halloween again. WELL UNLESS I GET MY WAY!

With my family I am going to have decorations up 4 times a year and would love others to join in, let's get crafty and get some decs up. Christmas, Easter, mid summer solstice and Halloween let's celebrate these with feasting decorations and a wreath on the door. For the Christian element the latter 2 are All saints and St. John's day,

When I were a kid (this blog seems to have a lot of my memories of childhood) we used to go to Cornwall for the same fortnight each year and on summer solstice we'd park at the side of a country road, clamber through gourse bushes and up a damp hill where we'd find a stack of wood and sometimes tyres. From here we would look along the coast , searching and waiting in anticipation to see the distant flicker of flame from the next beacon, this was the sign for the builders of the fire we were at to light ours and so the signal was passed on as the sun set on summer solstice .

So less all do it, challenge for 2017 4 wreaths on our front doors
Christmas, Easter, summer solstice and Halloween,

Let's do this!!

Just need a wreaths hash tag