Remember, remember the 5th of November, the gun powder treason and plot.
I know of no reason why the gun powder treason should ever be forgot.

As we gaze into the sky and cry ‘ooo’ and ‘ahhh’ tonight, and see the flickering shadows and cinders as the pyre burns and the guy turns to ash, I wonder what ought to be going through our heads? Is Guy Fawkes night the grounds for any more serious reflection, or just fun and toffee apples?

I’m a big fan of Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta, a brutal meditation on a fascist Britian which is under constant threat of terrorism and pandemic infection… and the Christian Supremacist government that frightens the population into believing it is only vehicle for salvation.

Guy Fawkes night is really a celebration of the protection of democracy – the gunpowder plot to blow up parliament was foiled – and of the brutal burning of the Catholic perpetrator, Guido Fawkes.

But history is pretty clear that it was a stitch-up – and the ruling powers used the event to stir up religious hatred of Catholics, thus consolidating their own power.

Perhaps then, in the light of recent political news in the UK – Nick Griffin’s BNP sweetening the fascist message again, government advisors being sacked for speaking the truth and politicians drawing power to themselves in the name of democracy, when democracy is precisely what we aren’t getting – in the light of all this, perhaps tonight we should take to the fields and parks and scream and shout in awe of fire and explosions in burning lament.

Burning lament for continued discrimination, continued undercurrents of racism and fascism. Burning lament for the parlous state of our democracy. The powers that be will want us to just eat sweet apples and be blinded by the light. But tonight, perhaps we should turn our minds to more serious action, and commit to making sure that the complex lessons of the 5th of November are not forgotten.