1st Galaxy Bloggs – Electioneering

With the British parliamentary elections nearly finalised the news is full of the latest promises from the different parties, or one potential candidate sounding off about another’s views. Apart from modern staples such as the health service, arguments about migration and religious intolerance along with “radicalisation” seem to be regular themes, which started me thinking about the principle driver for so much pyrotechnic activity in the UK – “Guy Fawkes”.

Oddly enough the first meeting of the five principal Gunpowder Plot conspirators took place in May, just 411 years ago. A small group of English Catholics, led by Robert Catesby, planned to assassinate the Protestant King James, along with those sitting in Parliament at the same time, because of religious intolerance shown by the state towards Catholics.

Guy Fawkes seems to have been brought into the plot as a mercenary and explosives expert, but the plot suffered various set backs including failing to gain support from foreign powers, and the dates for the reopening of Parliament being changed due to the ever present threats of the Plague and related delays that resulted in at least one store of gunpowder decaying and needing to be bolstered with new supplies.

The plot was eventualy foiled early on the morning of November 5th after a number of searches had twice found Guy Fawkes in cellars below the House of Lords with fuses, a watch and the hidden barrels of gunpowder.

The plotters were pursued across the country several being killed in the process, others arrested, and the government also used the revelation of the plot to further persecute Catholics, which has lead inevitably to various conspiracy theories such as that the whole Gunpowder Plot was actually a government “false flag” operation to justify Catholic oppression.

The foiling of the plot had significant positive benefits for the King and his supporters, with a wave of national relief being reported, and in Parliament a mood of increased loyalty and goodwill. However King James was in no mood for tolerance. New laws were passed removing Catholics’ right to vote and restricting their role in public life. It would be another 200 years before these restrictions were fully lifted, and in January 1606 the “Observance of 5th November Act 1605” was passed, remaining in force until 1859.

Although the 5th of November has become known as Guy Fawkes Night, the intention of the Act was to celebrate the foiling of the plot and the survival of the King, and as a result the plot endures in the national memory, ensuring that pyrotechnicians armed with fuses, watches, gunpowder and a bit more luck than Guy Fawkes, can be found lighting up the night sky every year, you never know after the election the successful party might even celebrate with some fireworks!