Member Article

UK "crying out" for new holiday

The UK needs a new bank holiday, according to trade union leaders. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) marked the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the May Day bank holiday by calling for another such day off to be introduced in the autumn.

The Callaghan Government introduced the May Day bank holiday on 1 May 1978. No new bank holidays have been introduced since then, leaving Britain with eight, the second lowest in Europe. The TUC want a new Community Day bank holiday in late October to celebrate and encourage volunteering and community activity.

Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary, said: “We’ve gone thirty years without a new bank holiday and the UK is now languishing behind the rest of Europe. People are crying out for a new bank holiday, a call that politicians should be listening to. A new bank holiday would give everyone much-needed time with friends and family. Timing it around late October would also create a welcome pit-stop to break the gruelling four-month stint between the August bank holiday and the Christmas break.

“But a new bank holiday should not just be a day off work, it should be a special day that brings the nation together. What better cause for us all to celebrate than our great British tradition of volunteering?”

(While researching this story we at bdaily found, to our delight, that the first legislation to create bank holidays was introduced by MP and cricket fan Sir John Lubbock in 1871, to allow bank employees to take part in local cricket matches. While not particularly concerned about cricket, we do like the arbitrary nature of Sir John’s reasoning.)

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .