Watching the Guy Fawkes Day parades and firework displays across Britain this week has been pretty fun. Some have been quite impressive, especially considering the English are a pleasantly understated people not prone to senseless flash and bombast. This year, one of the most interesting (and popular) shows occurred in Lewes, a town south of London famous for its annual Guy Fawkes celebration.
It wasn’t the fireworks, or the floats and decorations, that made this parade notable. Rather, it was one of the giant effigies featured, and then joyfully torched during the show. Planted right in the middle of the Lewes parade was a hulking effigy of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. That’s not all. They had her doing a Nazi salute while standing amid the rubble of Greece’s Acropolis.
