Tower Hamlets replaces Guy Fawkes with Bengali firework festival
02.11.06Consigned to history? Guy Fawkes has been dropped from bonfire night at Hackney
A left-wing council plans to abandon Guy Fawkes night in favour of holding a £75,000 fireworks party celebrating an obscure Indian folk tale, it emerged yesterday.
The decision to hold the event, 'The Emperor and The Tiger' on November 5 instead of the usual bonfire night celebration was described as 'political correctness gone mad'.
Critics accuse the Labour-controlled council of deleting from history one of Britain's most important episodes and destroying a tradition cherished by generations of children.
Tower Hamlets Council, in London, which has a large Asian community, held a Guy Fawkes-themed fireworks party last year.
Around 23,000 people flocked to Victoria Park to watch a huge model of the Houses of Parliament burn, marking the 400th anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot.
Rather than replicating the success, the council has dismissed objections by saying: 'We did Guy Fawkes last year.'
The borough will instead celebrate a folk tale from the Bengali community which tells the story of the 'Moghul Emperor, the Wise Man and the Guardian of the Jungle'.
A 12ft long mechanical Bengal Tiger, operated by four people will pace a giant catwalk as fire lights up a 'forest' to the sound of Bangla drummers and dancers.
'The greedy Emperor wants his taxes, and the people must pay,' according to the event's publicity.
The council said its policy was to use a different 'theme' for November 5 each year to draw the crowds.
Liz Pugh, producer for Manchester-based arts outfit Walk the Plank, which has been commissioned to run the show, said the 'theme' was the council's idea.
She said: 'They came to us last summer and commissioned a piece of work involving the Bengali community.
'They wanted us to build a show around the Bengal tiger and a Bengali Folk Tale and turn that into a fire show.'
Asked if the council had included scope for a bonfire or a Guy, she said: 'No, not at all.
'We did the Guy Fawkes theme last year and this year we wanted to do something different, but just as big.'
John Midgley, spokesman for the Campaign Against Political Correctness, said the council's decision would 'explode in their faces'.
He said: 'This is blatantly ridiculous. It's almost too insane for words. There's a time and a place for everything and November 5 is for Bonfire Night.
'It's time for common sense and for people to tell bureaucrats that politically correct actions like these undermine our historic occasions and harm community relations.
''This is a massive own goal.'
A Tory councillor, Tim Archer railed against the abandonment of a historic tradition.
Mr Archer said: 'Bonfire night is a celebration of our rich and proud history and it would appear it's being air-brushed out with some sort of attempt to be politically correct.'
Elsewhere in Britain, millions will commemorate the events of November 5, 1605, when Roman Catholic Guido Fawkes failed blow up Protestant James I in the Houses of Parliament.
Fawkes, voted among the 100 greatest ever Britons in BBC poll, was executed and the Scottish king later demanded his crime be marked with an annual sermon.
This sparked the traditional Bonfire Night celebrations which include the burning of a 'Guy' effigy and the recital of a famous poem: 'Remember, remember the fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot.
'I see no reason why gunpowder, treason Should ever be forgot.'
Tower Hamlets council denied they had forgotten the Gunpowder Plot, but that the authority's tradition was to pick a different theme each year with the previous year an Olympic Theme and the year before that a Mexican-themed party.
A spokeswoman said: 'A spokesman said: 'It is utter nonsense to suggest the council has banned Guy Fawkes or is acting politically correctly in relation to bonfire night.'
'Last year 23,000 people had a lot of fun burning the House of Commons and a Guy Fawkes and this year we'll be having a lot of fun doing something different.'
Tower Hamlets, with a population of 196,106 is 51 per cent white, 33 per cent Bangladeshi, 3 per cent Black African and 3 per cent black Caribbean according to the 2001 census.
The borough has the highest percentage of Muslims in Britain at 36.4 per cent.
