MPs have been given a rocket for forgetting the fifth of November, the date Britain commemorates the failure of Guy Fawkes to blow up their workplace, the Houses of Parliament.
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“We teach our school children the nursery rhyme ‘remember remember the 5th of November’, but on the very location for why we should remember, we seem to have sadly forgotten,” said John Robertson MP, who tables a motion on the subject today (Friday).
Parliament does have a small plaque referring to Fawkes’s infamous Gunpowder Plot, but it is by the Commons bike sheds, out of public view.
“This is not an adequate way to properly commemorate such an important moment in our country’s history,” said Robertson.
Robertson wants a new, fancier plaque installed along the route taken by parliamentary tours, so people can see it.
“Around the country people will be gathering around bonfires this weekend to remember the 5th of November as the time when we saved our democracy from an act of terrorism,” he added.
“Yet at Westminster you wouldn’t know this was where it all took place.”
It might help Robertson’s cause to have a firmer hold on history as it is way off beam to say that Britain was a democracy in 1605. Only very rich men had the vote and the King was within his rights to ignore even them.
Maybe that’s one reason for the popularity of Guy Fawkes masks at the anti-capitalist/Occupy events. The old rogue has become a symbol for opposition to the current political arrangements, albeit via V for Vendetta.
Some councils have cut free displays this year, but here are a selection of the biggest free events still up and running, all on Saturday 5 November:
Barham Park
Fireworks 8.30pm
Blackheath
Fireworks 8pm
Brockwell Park
Fireworks 8pm
Southwark Park
Fireworks 7pm
Three Parks in Tower Hamlets
Fireworks times vary
Wanstead Flats
Fireworks 7.45pm
Westway
Fireworks 7pm
