THE head of Guy Fawkes' old school in York has suggested people should stop burning his effigy on bonfires, saying he viewed the November 5 tradition as an outdated expression of religious intolerance.

Leo Winkley, of St Peter's School in Clifton - where Guys never been burnt - said: "It is time to move on and let the poor soul rest."

He said he was not seeking to be a 'party pooper', and prevent people having fun around a communal bonfire and letting off fireworks, but he felt the effigy need no longer be burnt as well.

He felt many people had already moved on in this direction, calling November 5 Bonfire Night nowadays rather than Guy Fawkes Night.

He said his own school had not had a bonfire for some years, but still had a firework display, which would take place this Thursday as normal.

He also said it was debatable whether Guy was a freedom fighter or a terrorist, saying: "Those who argue he was a freedom fighter would say he grew up in a time when about one per cent of the population was openly Catholic and he was, therefore, part of a persecuted minority.

"On the other hand, nobody could approve of the act of trying to blow up the instrument of democracy. One can't condone it even 400 or so years on. You could argue that he's an icon of the complex and flawed nature of human beings."

In the Gunpowder plot of 1605, York-born Fawkes wanted to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. A stylised Guy Fawkes mask has regularly been worn in recent times by political activists involved in the Occupy movement and other anti-government and anti-establishment protests around the world.

Mr Winkley said the school liked Guy as a former pupil but didn't regard him as a role model, and he was rather a hero/villain, and it was possible to have both in a lot of cultures. He said Robin Hood's actions were not legal but there was a moral purpose that people might approve of.