Hello and welcome to all our new signatories. Thank you so much for signing my petition.
I thought for all the new people and there are thousands … so exciting, thank you again. I would like to tell you about the firework campaign.
The campaign, or the idea for it, started as a Facebook group in 2014 since then it has morphed into something much bigger and better. We have a public page and a private group (necessary to keep out the trolls, of which there are many). We also have a website which shows what we have achieved so far, all the information you may need, interesting blogs to read and some advice about the law.
We have been campaigning for 7 years, generally myself and an admin team of 3. We work at this all year, in autumn and winter up to 8hrs a day. More sometimes if we have a new government petition to send around social media.
We have been behind 6 government petitions which have each reached well over 100,000 signatures. These have led to a Consultation by the Scottish Government, an inquiry by the Petitions Committee and the Office of Product Safety and Standards agreeing to collect data to better inform their decisions on firework law. The Scottish government are changing what laws they can (devolved powers permitting). Our 2020 government petition as reached close to 300,000 signatures and will be debated in 2021. 

Behind the scenes, we are working hard. We do extensive research, collecting and collating evidence to provide the government with information. Sadly they don’t seem to believe our huge file of anecdotal evidence. They want hard facts ..... There are no hard facts ..... The biggest fact we have is this petition. So far nearly 789,000 signatures, all people who want a change in firework law. When the Scottish Government consulted the public the result was overwhelmingly in favour of change.
The most difficult part of doing this is motivating people to help. Some say “it’s not worth it, I’ve signed so many petitions and nothing has been done”. Sadly it takes much more than a petition to change the law. You have to take action (not placards and standing in the cold!) Writing to your MPs, councillors, supermarkets who sell fireworks. All this will help. Some say “we wrote to our MP last year and got a standard reply, why bother to write again?” It is volume that makes an MP think hard about things if they think they will lose votes that is what counts. Some say “I shared it on my Facebook” and that is great but we need to be across ALL social media platforms and in every group. There are definitely more people out there that would like to see a change than we have been able to reach.
We are totally voluntary and have no funds for advertising. So we need YOUR help.
Please do everything you can to get this campaign to everyone you know who would like change. This petition asks for a review in the law, behind that needs to be millions of people saying to their MPs and Councillors, “CHANGE IT!”
Please follow the page if you would like to help with the campaign.
Things you can do -
Sign and share both this petition and the government one that ends on 21st Jan 2021. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/319891
Log all fireworks you hear from your home, this proves random use. https://bit.ly/fireworks-fab
Write to your MP. https://www.writetothem.com/ They will say there are “robust laws”.. write back and say,
THESE LAWS ARE NOT PROTECTING PEOPLE AND ANIMALS FROM THE NUISANCE RANDOM USE OF FIREWORKS.
Thank you for your continued support. If we work together from the same platform and with the same message, we will eventually achieve a change.
Julie