Since 1 August, a Dutch law called the Wet veilige jaarwisseling has banned consumers from owning or setting off most fireworks. The aim is fewer injuries, less damage and less disturbance, with animals and the environment in the reasoning too. The law leaves mayors one lever: they may still allow associations and foundations to set fireworks off. On 26 August, Groningen’s mayor Roelien Kamminga said she would use it for nobody.
Her reasons are practical rather than moral. There is little time before New Year’s Eve, and exemptions scattered across a municipality are hard to police. “It is clearer if it is simply not allowed,” she said — then you know that anything going up is not supposed to be there. Exemptions, she thinks, also invite imitation. A rule with no exceptions is easier to enforce than a rule with good ones, and she has picked the version people can read from the pavement.
So…:
Where would a flat no be easier for people to follow than a fair maybe?
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