The answer is probably a long time ago because nowadays everything is geared towards keeping us safe. From the way we design roads to the fact that our homes are now stuffed with smoke alarms and fire retardant furniture, life is safer than it has ever been.

That is undoubtedly a good thing. Despite increasing traffic, the number of people killed in road accidents has fallen by a half in the past 25 years. Workplace injuries are also down.

Generally, we are just much better at keeping ourselves safer. So why on earth are we still selling fireworks to the public?

All the work being done to promote health and safety has to be set aside every autumn when we head to the shops for in search of explosives. Our justification? The actions of Guy Fawkes back in 1605 although the details surrounding what happened will be lost on most

people. We just know it is something we always do, like putting up a Christmas tree - but just much more hazardous.

Every November, hard pressed accident and emergency departments deal with thousands of people admitted with burns and firework injuries. On top of that there is the real terror caused to animals up and down the land and the depressing but inevitable stories of firefighters being attacked.

This year there was the additional spectacle of youths in Dundee firing pyrotechnics at people during a night of disorder. Local politicians immediately asked retailers in the area to stop selling fireworks but this highlights a key issue. The existing firework legislation just isn’t

The aftermath of a night in carnage in Dundee, when roads were blocked by a mob who lit fires, damaged cars and used fireworks as missiles, with riot police called in to deal with the disorder. PIC: Lisa Ferguson,

working.

Last year amendments to the Firework Scotland Regulations were introduced to limit the times when they can be sold or used, as well as restricting the amount that can be bought by the public at any one time.

Just as that would have been unlikely to stop Guy Fawkes trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament, it’s also not hampering anyone set on using fireworks for anti-social purposes.

Good luck to the police officers trying to track down those setting off fireworks at midnight so they can tell them that under the new legislation, they really should have stopped at 11pm.

The truth is that trying to legislate for sensible use of fireworks is like trying to stop stabbings by selling every knife with a leaflet explaining “this may be sharp”.

In the last 30 years fireworks have become louder and more powerful. The puny rockets of the past have replaced by pyrotechnics called Blitz, Avenger and Armageddon.

Anyone who has seen the displays at Hogmanay or the end of the Festival will know the incredible spectacle they can deliver but that is where they belong. In no other part of life would we accept this annual purge of common sense in pursuit of our obsession with low

explosive pyrotechnics.

If one good thing comes out of the mayhem in Dundee it will be a ban on fire work sales to the public and a focus on making tonight about safe, regulated and well organised public displays.

Dundee shows us a fireworks ban is the only answer to this dangerous lunacy - Stephen Jardine