Penny For The Guy?

It seems around mid October a glut of dirty clothed children from seemingly broken families, congregate in shop doorways and beg for money. The British tradition of “penny for the guy” is one that frustrates as an adult. Not only is it annoying because of the risk of tripping over the reprobates when trying to get into the shop, but because the begging is completely unfounded.
Firstly, do the kids even know who Mr. Fawkes is? I’m fairly sure some old clothes stuffed with paper (probably the daily star or razzle) and either a Halloween mask or a football in a carrier bag for a head is not an accurate representation of a well known British terrorist. These limp effigies are rubbish, if you want some money, put some effort in. You don’t see homeless people selling a photocopy of the big issue do you?

Where is your imagination and creativity? There is competition out there. Three doors down outside the chip shop, they have an even better guy! Why not re-enact the gunpowder plot outside cost cutter? You would probably get far more money… oh, what’s that little Johnny? You don’t know what the gunpowder plot is? There’s a shocker…
The chances are, these kids have no idea why they are doing this in the first place. I’m fairly sure schools don’t teach about Guy anymore because the officials would probably think that would be “promoting terrorism”.

The phrase ‘penny for the guy’ is one I find amusing. Just imagine if you gave the gaggle of chavs one pence. You would probably get stabbed. What they really want is a quid. For a generation that should be business savvy they give no opportunity for the charitable to haggle. At least start at twenty pence and give room for negotiation.

This British ‘tradition’ has been going on for decades, yet why are the general public so charitable toward a terrorist? Sure, he was one of our own, but you could hardly see an Al Qaeda suicide bomber getting a similar treatment. Despite their race, religion and methods used their intention and morals were fairly similar. Daily mail readers would probably see it as another way of funding terrorism, of course, we all know where the money goes… in the shop the youths are sat outside. Philanthropy it ain’t.