We take part!

That's right! On Halloween we engaged with our local community and positioned an exquisitely and scarily carved (if I say so myself) pumpkin in our front window, thoughtfully illuminated by a candle placed deep in its eviscerated core and waited for the trick-or-treaters to arrive. For our scary pumpkin was there, not to scare away evil spirits but as a beacon, announcing the fact that this house was open for business. We didn't have to wait long.

We have never done this before, because over the last few years Halloween has been an opportunity for a mini-riot, with gangs of rat-faced scumbags roaming the streets, throwing fireworks and egging whatever they thought deserved it: cars, my front door, etc etc. However in the last couple of years things have been changing. Now we are beginning to adopt the American way, as exemplified by episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy, along with countless other TV programmes. So now groups of children made up to their horrific nines (sometimes accompanied by their parents, sometimes not) are going door to door to collect confectionary.

The chocolate companies have been remarkably quick to exploit this new trend. Brands like "Cadbury's screme eggs" "monster bites" and whatever have appeared in supermarkets and sweetshops up and down the country; indeed, we ourselves availed ourselves of several of them to hand out to our visitors. There were quite a few: nine in all, in 4 separate batches (2 of them Polish), some brilliantly made up with wounds, scars and fangs. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, almost euphoric in fact, as for the most part the rain held up. One bedraggled pair lost out and were drenched by a brief downpour; to these  I offered them a double handful as compensation for their trouble.

At one level I thoroughly approve of the de-thugging of Halloween, but make no mistake. The main winners from this little social interaction are the good people of Haribo, Cadbury's and Nestle. Capitalism in action, and who can blame them? That's the trouble with capitalists: they're so damned smart.