Now personally I think it'll just be an excuse not to go to work, and I highly doubt there's enough British patriots left among all these nationalists to do much celebrating. Nevertheless I think it's a good belated effort to try to instill some pride in the Union.
Sadly the Government seems intent on allowing easy shots to be taken by the cynics and nationalists. Today we have Liam Byrne calling for the holiday to be on the current August Summer Bank Holiday... which Scotland doesn't celebrate!!! So... 1) it's not an extra day off for England and Wales, it's just a rebrand. Hardly in the spirit of generating any sort of buzz and 2) he made a hugely stupid gaffe.
Now ever since I got my very first diary when I was about 11, I've known that the various constituent nations of our Union have a slightly different set of Bank Holidays. Now I'm sure the minister has a diary. Surely it wouldn't have taken too much effort to at least know Scotland wasn't celebrating and point that out in the press release, showing he acknowledged that fact. Oh no, instead we have the SNP putting in a few choice words to give the Government a swift kick while it's down due to it's numerous other difficulties.
Mr Brown, take control and give us what we all want... another day off!
I say we have the Friday (just to be random, Monday may be the traditional day but Friday is so much more fun, a nice beginning to a long weekend) closest to the 18th June off. That was the day Winston Churchill gave his Their Finest Hour speech.
"if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour."
It's in the Summer, in a month when we don't have any other bank holidays, and is in memory of a day which is auspicious for the entire United Kingdom.
Yeah... I've still got my Churchill obsession...
Well although all days are holidays for me (!) I think that an additional public holiday in the UK is a good idea, and can be justified I think because we have fewer public holidays than many other countries.
ReplyDeleteThe celebration you suggest to commemorate one of Churchill's most important speeches seems a sound one and, as you say, it's in the summer when there's a fighting chance of decent weather. As Empire (now Commonwealth) Day is no longer really celebrated in the UK - and it's in March anyway - and Victoria Day (24 May) is celebrated only in Canada, I think the UK needs a symbolic day and we can all, surely, agree that the efforts of those who helped the country survice WWII should be remembered with honour, whatever some might think of the UK as an entity going forward into the future. It was certainly a foolish gaffe, amongst many of late, for a government minister to make suggesting an existing (England only) holiday in August.