please empty your brain below
Definitely not St Georges Day. I've never understood why St George is our patron saint when he has no connection to England whatsoever.

greatkingrat | 05.03.11 - 12:13 a.m. | #

Could the October holiday coincide with the same weekend we put the clocks back.

Steve | 05.03.11 - 3:16 a.m. | #

I know I'm being lazy and self-indulgent, but I just want to move one of (any of!) the early Bank Holidays to later in the year so we don't have the dire August-December drought without even a single nice long weekend where I can do nothing.

I don't care about the weather, I don't care about which day in particular they choose. I just want a long weekend at some point inbetween August and December.

Beth | 05.03.11 - 3:57 a.m. | #

If they must fiddle, how about:

- moving the second May BH (which has no real function since it lost the connection to Whitsun) to the second weekend in June (Queen's official birthday, Derby Day) and call that a UK Day if they must (it's nearest our diplomats overseas get to a national day for official receptions and the like)

- moving the August Bank Holiday back to the beginning of August, where it used to be

- have something in September to compensate (Battle of Britain day, if they must)

- and one for Bonfire Night (you could dress it up as a celebration of Parliament, though that worthy institution needs a lot more reform before it's worth celebrating).

It's worth noting, BTW, that quite close to Trafalgar Day is the anniversary of Cornwallis's surrender to Washington at the end of the American War of Independence. Perhaps we could call that Thanksgiving, on this side of the Atlantic.

Autolycus | Homepage | 05.03.11 - 8:07 a.m. | #

I prefer to take my holidays when I want to, not when the government tells me I should want to.

Max Roberts | Homepage | 05.03.11 - 8:16 a.m. | #

I am quite keen on some sort of tidy up of the Bank Holidays, but rather agnostic about the idea that they have to be used to commemorate something.

Why can't we just move a May holiday to late October and just call it a Bank Holiday?

Indeed, I think it might be better to stop calling them holidays at all - as that implies a sort of celebration.

They are National Days Off Work*

No need for special brand names - and even if we did call it Trafalgar Day (or whatever), I doubt many people will actually care - the key activity being DIY/Pub/Telly/Shopping regardless of the reason/name for the day off.

*exceptions apply to 30% of the population who work in services.

IanVisits | Homepage | 05.03.11 - 8:22 a.m. | #

I think we should have a bank holiday on the last Monday of June. This is just because every once in a while I will get my birthday off.

Barry | 05.03.11 - 8:59 a.m. | #

I find it odd that is deemed perfectly acceptable for English people to celebrate St Patrick's Day, but any mention of us celebrating St George's day is distasteful.

Embo | 05.03.11 - 10:10 a.m. | #

what Autolycus said, especially the bit about making Bonfire night the new holiday. Might not go down too well with the Catholics but I'm sure we could dress it up in some way

disgruntled | Homepage | 05.03.11 - 10:26 a.m. | #

Hang about... if Halloween isn't enough to stop the early display of Christmas stuff, what the hell does the government think having a Trafalgar Day or whatever is going to do to stop that happening? Do they really think that John Lewis will leave the beach balls and barbecues out for a couple of extra months instead? Or are they picturing a range of Trafalgar Day mechandise - cards, gifts, small French dolls? Presumably on the basis that there is so much May Day merchandise, and a billion-pound Happy Late Summer Bank Holiday gifting and card market.

simon hb | Homepage | 05.03.11 - 10:56 a.m. | #

By March/April/May everyone is tired from the cold, dark Winter days and is grateful for all the public holidays that come along.

I think for a lot of people September/October feels like that time of year after everyone has enjoyed their holidays but can now get 'back to work' with a burst of energy (even if they are not at school or uni it does have that 'beginning of the year' feel to it). Extending the summer holiday season to October would delay this psychological effect and might even damage the economy overall, which I'm sure the Tories wouldn't want.

James | 05.03.11 - 11:12 a.m. | #

Happy Love Day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G1zVvmoA2A

geofftech | Homepage | 05.03.11 - 11:13 a.m. | #

I would rather leave things as they are, but if there is a desire to move a May bank holiday, it would be insane to move it forward to April and closer to Easter.

I prefer the the idea of something between August and Xmas, but don't think it appropriate to have a 'Trafalgar Day' or similar, and don't think Halloween should be celebrated. Let's just have a Bank Holiday without a tag, like Augusts's.

I like the earlier suggestion that August bank holiday moves forward, and we have something in late September.

SELondoner | 05.03.11 - 11:15 a.m. | #

Why not keep May Day and scrap Easter Monday (which, unlike Good Friday, has no religious significance) instead?

As for things to mark in late October/early November, as well as existing suggestions, we could have

All Saints Day (Nov 1st): popular in many countries, and neatly covers Sts George, Andrew, Patrick and David. Conveniently, this would allow people to sleep off the Halloween party!

Parliament Day (Nov 5th) (state opening is usually around then, hence the Gunpowder Plot),

the (next) King's birthday (Nov 14th),

Note that the Prime Minister's birthday is Oct 9th, Thatcher's is Oct 13th and Churchill's Nov 30th (Aw, Yes!),

If your political persuasions are otherwise, the best I can come up with is Nye Bevan's on Nov 15th.

Timbo | 05.03.11 - 11:33 a.m. | #

How about moving it to the first Monday in August, as Autolycus suggests, and where one used to be, but leaving the last Monday in August as a Bank Holiday too - this would be of benefit to parents trying to juggle their time to manage holiday childcare, wouldn't make any difference to teachers and children because there's a statutory number of days in school so a day off one place means it's added somewhere else and, for those of us without children, it's a day off in the summer when we really want it.

Z | Homepage | 05.03.11 - 11:39 a.m. | #

I like the idea of an extra autumn bank holiday (which we could call 'October Bank Holiday'), so that parents get a long weekend at the same time as their children are off school at half term. It seems like a civilised, family-friendly move.

Chris p | 05.03.11 - 12:37 p.m. | #

I don't see why they can't just give us an extra one in the autumn rather than getting rid of May Day, which as you point out has various historical significances to please both left and right. It would bring us equal to the number they have in Scotland and would still leave us with fewer than most European countries. I mean, they gave us one extra in 2002 and another extra one this year without worrying about it too much, so if it wasn't damaging to have an extra one twice in the last decade, why not just give us an extra one permanently??

Geoff | Homepage | 05.03.11 - 1:26 p.m. | #

... also it's worth pointing out that whatever happens in England, Scotland will probably do its own thing, as it has done all along. Although Scotland appears to have an extra bank holiday, Geoff, in practice public holidays in Scotland are decreed by the local authorities - for example the Spring bank holiday falls on a different day in Glasgow to that in Edinburgh, and there is a lot less pressure on private employees to award any particular day off. Very few people actually have a day off from work on St. Andrew's day, for instance.

James | 05.03.11 - 2:47 p.m. | #

In the UK, May Day became a public holiday under the Callaghan, not Wilson, Labour government in 1978. If I recall correctly, for a few years the holiday was actually held on 1 May, but was changed to the first Monday in May sometime later, under Mrs T.
I now live in Ireland, where we have the last Monday in October as a public holiday. It doesn't have any particular name but it's very convenient for parents as that week is always the school half term week. We also get St Patrick's day off, so therefore get two more holidays than the English.
I have exercised restraint in not voting in your poll, DG, but if I have one I would opt for the last Monday in October -- or even better 5 November, as that marks a truly British occasion and not one tainted by the great Halloween commercial scam.

Charles | 05.03.11 - 4:49 p.m. | #

Charles - the May Day BH has always been on the first Monday in May. Consequently, since it was inaugurated on May 1st 1978, it has only actually fallen on the correc t date four more times: in 1978, 1989, 2000, and 2006. (It would have done so in 1995, but was shifted to May 8th to mark the 50th anniversary of VE day - May 1st fell only two weeks after Easter that year)
It will next fall on May 1st in 2017.

Timbo | 05.03.11 - 5:45 p.m. | #

Charles - Harold Wilson was PM when the May Day Bank Holiday was first announced, but it came into being under his successor.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 05.03.11 - 6:12 p.m. | #

A Harvest Festival bank holiday in late Sept would be a fitting match to the rampant fertility of the Easter symbols.

Great Aunt Annie | 05.03.11 - 6:18 p.m. | #

In for a penny, in for a pound: here is my Public Holiday proposal.

1) Make Easter Sunday the first Sunday in April (yeah, like international Christendom is going to stomach that one).

2) Move the holiday on the last Monday in May to the first Monday in June.

3) Move the holiday on the last Monday in August to the first Monday in September.

4) Two new holidays on the first Monday in July and the first Monday in August.

This leaves the first Monday in May untouched (workers/pagans need not worry!), gives an even spread of holidays from April through to September and two additional days in high Summer (i.e. when we can use them).

Julian | 05.03.11 - 7:12 p.m. | #

If May Day is to go it certainly shouldn't be to make way for St George's Day. Just looks English centric - won't play well in Scotland especially.

And given Scotland gets St Andrew's Day off, we should get a freebie too. Fed up of Scotland getting things we don't. Free prescriptions, no tuition fees, extra Bank Holidays, its own parliament... Frankly I've not understood why there hasn't been an English "revolt" on this already. (Oh yeah, can't celebrate nationalism cos of those bloomin' racists etc etc etc)

And I've never understood why Easter moves and Christmas doesn't anyway...

Andrew Bowden | Homepage | 06.03.11 - 9:20 a.m. | #

Why Easter moves, by DG.

diamond geezer | Homepage | 06.03.11 - 9:38 a.m. | #

"Charles - Harold Wilson was PM when the May Day Bank Holiday was first announced, but it came into being under his successor." DG
DG -- Thank you for correcting me!

Timbo -- Thanks also. I distinctly remember that first May Day BH being on 1 May itself, but didn't realise that it was only in 1978. So I was wrong to blame Mrs T. It was really capitalist running dog Jim Callaghan's fault.

Charles | 06.03.11 - 1:07 p.m. | #











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