Letter: A bonfire commission doesn't go far enough - why not have a banners commission too?
A letter from Harry Patterson:
Arnold Carton writes that there should be in his opinion a 'bonfire commission' (Create a bonfire commission to take the difficult decisions, July 31).
It would be much the same as the Parades Commission, I would think, because Mr Carton thinks that the Parades Commission has been an incredible success and has taken the tension out of contentious parades.
Most if not all the tension around parades was engineered by republicans and their supporters.
There was a concerted campaign, it didn't arise out of thin air, it was engineered.
Mr Carton raises the issue of asbestos close to a bonfire site.
As far as I know, the asbestos was there before and is still there, but now that there is no bonfire it appears to have lost its news value.
No hospital lost power as a result of a bonfire either.
I feel though a bonfire commission doesn't go far enough.
There should also be:
A banners commission - to ensure the mostly biblical banner scenes don't upset anyone;
A bands music commission - to ensure that the music played doesn't upset anyone, for example, when passing an empty Sinn Fein office;
A bands ecological commission - to ensure that the grass and dandelions are protected in the various fields.
Or here's a better idea - let's just ban the whole thing. After all, that would only annoy Protestants/unionists and we have since ceased to matter.
Harry Patterson, Castlecaulfield