Plea for British PM to pardon Guy Fawkes
Petitioners are building straw effigies of Guy Fawkes and his family, which will be unveiled at the Durban Book Fair on Sunday.
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PARDON Guy Fawkes! Thats the appeal from organisers of the Durban Book Fair, which takes place on Sunday, 6 October at Mitchell Park, to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Fawkes famously tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London in 1605 and was executed. On 5 November each year, his straw effigy is carried aloft and usually ends with a grisly fate.
In a letter to Downing Street, Kiru Naidoo, the director of the First Sunday’s book fair, said that it had joined forces with the Brothers of Revolutionary Instigators Since-Passed (BORIS) in appealing to pardon Fawkes once and for all.
The organisers added that with the passage of time, much water and fireworks had passed under Westminster Bridge, and invoking the interests of global peace, harmony and climate change, they urged Johnson to pardon Brother Fawkes.
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The petitioners are building straw effigies of Guy Fawkes and his family to sit in Mitchell Park until 5 November. The effigies will be unveiled at the Durban Book Fair on Sunday at 10am. The public is invited to add their names to the petition.
The clemency project has also applauded the work of teenage environmental activist, Greta Thunberg. “She is changing the global face of environmental activism and this is one of our contributions to that mission.”
It is expected that thousands more will petition for Fawkes’s pardon from 11 to 13 October during Mitchell Park Trust’s Green Diwali celebrations.
“The Durban Book Fair faithful plan is to walk Fawkes and his family safely home on 5 November in anticipation of Johnson’s pardon,” said Naidoo.
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