LONDON (Reuters) – He turned “You’re fired” into his reality show catch-phrase, but it was Donald Trump who went up in flames on Saturday – or at least an effigy of him did, as part of Britain’s annual Bonfire Night celebrations.
An 11-metre-high (36 feet) model of the Republican U.S. presidential candidate was burned at a fireworks display in the town of Edenbridge, 30 miles (50 km) south of London.
The sculpture showed Trump, complete with his trademark mop of hair, holding his Democratic rival for the White House, Hilary Clinton, in a headlock, and sporting a pair of Mexico-themed boxer shorts.
“I think he would be quietly amused,” artist Frank Shepherd said of his muse.
Britain celebrates the failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 by letting off fireworks and lighting bonfires with an effigy of the “Gunpowder Plot” leader Guy Fawkes on top.
The celebrations in Edenbridge also feature effigies of unpopular celebrities and in the past have included former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and disgraced American cyclist Lance Armstrong.
Other contenders for this year’s choice included Philip Green, the billionaire former owner of failed retail chain BHS who is under pressure to resolve the firm’s pension problems, and Sam Allardyce who quit as England soccer manager in September, after one game in charge, after a newspaper sting.
Effigies of Trump, including one of him sitting atop a Mexican border control wall, were also due to go up in smoke on Saturday at a fireworks display in the town of Lewes, 60 miles south of London.
(Writing by William Schomberg; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
