Shakin' All Over

29 Sept 08, 9.18am
If you ever thought that government regulations hit your own job or industry hard, then try, just for a moment, to consider how it would be to sell explosives to the public. Or detonate them in front of a crowd. If the thought makes you nervous it leaves officialdom positively quivering.

The British Pyrotechics Association (BPA) does a fine job in promoting safe firework displays and urging event organisers to use member companies who are 'proper'. They also represent the display industry in discussions with those who police the industry - principally the Health and Safety Executive Explosives Inspectorate.

These fine people at the H&SE have their home in Bootle, Merseyside, and it is their job to scrutinise imports, storage, and distribution of fireworks. The BPA has a meeting with them on October 1st to go over how things are working. Actually they are not. Bureaucracy is slowing the import clearance process to many months where it should be a few weeks. Someone suggested we give them a rocket or something stronger, but I am sure they were joking.

Really.