How progressive ideology hijacked the festive season

Fireworks at New Year are the purest distillation of the spirit of frippery. All Sadiq Khan had to do was give ‘em the old razzle dazzle. There is no higher meaning to these colourful explosions, no significance to the spectacle beyond the fun of communal cries of ‘ooh!’ and ‘aah!’ Fireworks are quite enough – more than enough – in themselves. You can leave it to the bangers to do the job; adding anything else on top is not necessary. Appending a civic lecture to a firework display is like adding tripe to a trifle. 

But Khan, like all the grim municipal fun sponges who run and ruin almost everything nowadays, can’t just sit back and let any harmless pleasure follow its well-established course. We were not left in any doubt as to who had granted us this spectacle, which kicked off with ‘The MAYOR OF LONDON Presents …’ in huge showbizzy letters, reminiscent of The Benny Hill Show, as if he had dug into his own pocket to grant his subjects this boon of bangs.