Now I'm not normally one for the line that for every nuisance we need a new law, but with fireworks I'm perilously close to calling for a complete ban.

I cannot imagine any circumstances in which letting off an explosive charge, however much fun it might be for those doing it or watching the spectacle, does not harm another. I suppose if, like the Barclay brothers, you own a private island out o sight and sound from any other inhabitants then maybe.

But for the rest of us, pets and children get scared - I know several dogs that turn frankly neurotic if they hear just one from miles away, and if they are out on a walk they scarper and risk being knocked down if you can't catch them before they reach the road. Tonight I've lost four hours' sleep because some bastard let one off near my window and I woke up like I was living in Baghdad or somewhere to find that several more were being let off, including one that set fire to a waste bin into which it had been thrown. Presumably the perptrator had no real idea as to whether it would simply start a fire or blow the bloody doors off and maim someone with them.

Despite what I thought were some tightening up of the regulations about when it was permissible, or anti-social, to let them off, this past week has seen several in Oxford at one, two, three and even as today four in the morning. And they are next to impossible to police - it only takes one to wake everyone up for miles around and the chances of pinpointing where it came from unless you are very quick and very local are zilch.

Maybe it is time only to allow licensed displays to even purchase any but the most innocuous "flash and fizz" type ones. Why does anyone think it is their right to hurl explosives that make loud noises into the air over our heads at any time of the day or night?