Sorting out the bank holiday mess

British public holidays do not fall evenly.  We have far too many in the Spring when the weather is unreliable, and none at all in the Autumn when it tends to be more pleasant.  Good Friday, Easter Monday, the early May holiday and the late May holiday come thick and fast.  Then there is nothing until the late August holiday, and then a complete desert until Christmas Day.  And we have fewer holidays than many other countries.

We could rectify both problems by a simple measure.  We should abandon the early May holiday, a Socialist workers' day that celebrates the promise of Spring planting, unlike the capitalist American Labor Day which celebrates when the harvest is in.  In return for its loss, we could trade it for two new holidays.  One could fill the Autumn desert as Trafalgar Day, October 21st, which could for convenience be the third or fourth Monday in October.

The other new holiday could be June 24th, with chance of better weather than early May.  And we could make it a UK Thanksgiving Day to celebrate our independence as a nation.

Previous
Previous

Redistribution: Not if, but how

Next
Next

Six reasons why Civitas and Peter Saunders are wrong about housing