It has been a long time coming, but at last it seems that the political tide is turning in favour of the sort of restrictions on the use of fireworks that this newspaper has been advocating for years.

The legislation introduced in 2003, when Bradford South MP Gerry Sutcliffe was consumer minister, went only part of the way towards addressing the considerable concerns many people feel about the sale of these explosive devices to the general public. Restrictions and safeguards including on-the-spot fines for people who throw fireworks, set them off outside permitted hours or on occasions other than the ones stipulated or sell them to under-18s were a welcome step forward. But the new rules are hard to police and easy to abuse.

Far better, surely, to take the decisive, straight-forward action being urged by the 38 cross-party MPs who have signed an early day motion calling for a complete ban on the sale of private fireworks. Well done Bradford West MP Marsha Singh and Keighley MP Ann Cryer for putting their names to this document which calls for fireworks to be banned apart from at public displays.

We have said time and again that these devices, which seem to be getting bigger and louder, are too dangerous to be allowed in the hands of untrained - and often irresponsible - people. As Marsha Singh says, they are a nuisance and a burden on the emergency services. He does not see the need for them and neither do we. A fireworks free-for-all is one tradition Britain would do well to consign to history.