We all know how much of a contentious issue fireworks has become, with some people wanting the sale of them banned, whilst others fully support them being available to purchase all year round for whatever public or private functions / festivals. The truth is fireworks are still too easily available to anybody. Simply increasing the age limit to over-the-counter sales isn't the answer. It is high time the implications of wanton firework mis-use were addressed in a more constructive, and sensible way.
The government keep preaching to us about carbon footprints and other fashionable environmental issues, and yet they conveniently overlook one very obvious source of environmental pollution – the carbon and sulphur created in the air by millions of fireworks. So why not exercise some common sense and levy a tax on what is after all a non-essential 'luxury' item, say 50 to 100 per cent of the rrp of each firework sold? Surely by making them much more expensive, the manufacturers and greedy retailers can still make the same amount of profit from selling less but at an inflated price. And this may also then act as a deterrent so people may think twice before wasting hundreds if not thousands of pounds on fireworks.
So, far from banning them from being sold outright, it surely makes more sense to come up with a better way of regulating WHEN they are sold and how much extra revenue can be raised if these things were actually taxed at a much higher rate than normal VAT. This then would preclude the need to add the higher rate of VAT on essentials such as food, clothing, fuel, etc… I'm sure that this would be far more popular with the general public once they get used to the idea. I believe this is a perfectly achievable solution.