Sunday 20 March 2011

New bank holiday

The UK government is considering moving the May Day bank holiday to either Trafalgar Day in October or St Georges Day in April.

There have been lots of calls in England for a bank holiday to celebrate our national saint’s day, 23 April.

The battle of Trafalgar, 21st October 1805, was one of the UK’s greatest military victories. Nelson's crushing defeat of the French and Spanish Navies, established Britain as the dominant world naval power for a century.

I completely agree with moving the holiday but why does it have to be one or the other?

Countries across the EU have the following numbers of public holidays:

Slovakia 18, Cyprus 16, Malta 14, Portugal 12-14, Spain 12-14, Austria 13, Hungary 13, Slovenia 13, Finland 12, Italy 12, Lithuania 12, Czech Republic 12, Greece 10-12, Germany 9-12, France 11, Sweden 11, Latvia 11, Belgium 10, Luxembourg 10, Northern Ireland 10, Poland 10, Denmark 9.5, Ireland 9, Estonia 9, Netherlands 8, Britain 8.

Britain is right at the bottom of the list so instead of choosing between the two why can we not have them both?