The legacy of a century of vain politicians
Eamonn Butler 5:58pm
Monday is the August Bank Holiday – at least in England and Wales, where it is the
last weekend before the schools go back. In Scotland, the schools break up earlier (traditionally, so the kids could join in the work of lifting potatoes in the fields) but have already gone back.
The August Bank Holiday is just one of eight permanent bank holidays in England and Wales (along with New Year, Good Friday and Easter Monday, the Early May Bank Holiday, the Spring Bank Holiday in late May, Christmas Day and Boxing Day). In Scotland there are nine – an extra day at New Year and St Andrew's Day to replace the August holiday). Northern Ireland has ten, which include St Patrick's Day and the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Throughout the UK there will be an extra holiday on 5 June 2011, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
Bank holidays are a barbarous relic and should be abolished. Some religious holidays were long considered days of rest, but in 1871 the Liberal government added four more (five in Scotland). The idea was that, since all business was done in cash, closing the banks meant that firms couldn't operate and employees pretty much had to have a day off.
Today, under a 1971 law, bank holidays are made by royal proclamation. Which means that politicians decide them. Naturally, every politician wants to appear generous and to use the system for their political advantage. Jim Callaghan's Labour government added May Day (even though there is already a bank holiday in May) to express political solidarity with the world's workers (or maybe to make the left of the party feel better). There is a suggestion in England that St George's Day (or Shakespeare's Birthday) should be added. And that Trafalgar Day should be.
Employees don't have an automatic right to paid leave on public holidays; it depends on their contract of employment. But all UK workers have a right to 28 days' paid annual leave. So why do we still preserve this throwback? Their effect is that we all take off exactly the same days, instead of our holiday time being staggered. This weekend, if there's the faintest glimmer of sun, the roads to the coast will be as congested as they always are. Easter weekend is a travel nightmare (often helped along by striking French air traffic controllers). Curiously, despite the volume of traffic, the August Bank Holiday weekends is for some reason one of the safest on the roads. The Friday after the Holiday is the worst, and busy, holiday-period Fridays and Saturdays are bad generally. In general, though, bank holidays certainly don't help – the more congested the roads are, as with the Spring Bank Holiday, the likelier it is that there will be accidents.
So why should our holidays be nationalized, as they are? Maybe it just provides our politicians with some feelgood kudos. Standard holidays are very visible. If people take off exactly the same number of days, but at different times, they are not, and perhaps we would take them more for granted. But making our politicians look and feel good should, I think, not be a function of sensible public policy.
Eamonn Butler is director of the Adam Smith Institute
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Joseph
August 27th, 2010 6:24pm Report this commentMay I be the first to write:
Bah, humbug.
Rhoda Klapp
August 27th, 2010 6:26pm Report this commentNo matter how you paaphrase or precis this perfectly reasonable post, it sets off a curmudgeon alert.
I propose this be dealt with as soon as all the real problems are cleared up.
Noa Zrk
August 27th, 2010 6:56pm Report this commentI'd like to see the Mayday holiday replaced by St Georges Day. The Christmas/New Holiday period is too long but that traditional dies hard, the Easter holiday should be optional otherwise I support these generally sensible proposals.
EyeSee
August 27th, 2010 7:32pm Report this commentI'm aware EU law insists on 20 days holiday but where did 28 come from? Normally companies allow 20 days plus Bank Holidays which makes 28, but as the article says, they are not a right. The cogency of this article seems limited. A bit like criminal legislation which takes no interest in victims and education policy (and certainly the NUT's view) takes no account of education, this article doesn't ask what benefit the people feel they derive from it. Perhaps we are merely to do as we are told.
Tarka the Rotter
August 27th, 2010 7:46pm Report this commentactually, we have been diddled out of a load of holidays thanks to Henry VIII and the Reformation... we should still be enjoying Lammas Day, Michaelmas, Candlemas, The Feast of the Annunciation and goodness how many other 'Holy' or holidays... makes you want to become Catholic again, doesn't it? (Well, if you don't think too much about the darker side...)
Olaf Rye
August 27th, 2010 8:02pm Report this commentPlease abolish the communist anachronism of May Day and institute a Traflagar Day, or better still, make 11 November a national holiday.
Marcher Baron
August 27th, 2010 9:04pm Report this commentI think we should have September 15th (Battle of Britain Day) as a national holiday, along with November 5th. Get rid of MayDay (it means you're in distress, after all).
Victor Southern
August 27th, 2010 10:05pm Report this commentWhen did the legislation come in that provided for 28 days paid leave? Apart from that you say "all UK workers". Does a worker who works for 2 days a week get 28 days paid leave?
I respect your ability Dr. Butler but I abhor this type of overreaching statement for effect.
Jez
August 27th, 2010 10:25pm Report this commentThere are many more legacy 'mines' laid by vain (and a myriad of other slurs) 'politicians' that i'm quite certain we'll be stuck with for a long time to come.
dexey
August 27th, 2010 11:08pm Report this comment"Curiously, despite the volume of traffic, the August Bank Holiday weekends is for some reason one of the safest on the roads."
More cars equals slower speeds equals less accidents?
TomTom
August 28th, 2010 6:59am Report this commentMay Day is boring now we don't have any tanks or rockets to parade. At least in the old days we could watch Brezhnev but then we got Brown; they looked the same, but we had no rockets.
So it would be good to have Armistice Day as a public holiday throughout Europe - it is a national holiday in Poland as Independence Day.
St George should have an English public holiday
Roger Davies
August 28th, 2010 7:39am Report this commentAs it is now shown that longer weekends are more restful than normal two week holidays, why not trade all the holiday entitlement for a 4 day week. Business seems to stop at 1§230 on a Friday anyway.
David Bouvier
August 28th, 2010 9:48am Report this commentEamonn - on the other hand, I suspect many people like a few such days across the calendar. Not the least, it is easier to get a large group of family or friends to do something together.
There are benefits to this kind of coordination as well as costs.
Evolved social institutions may not always be ideologically pure, but it is pointless to trash them in the hope that they will re-emerge in some other form that suits your ideological preferences which most people won't care about. Not least, pre- some libertarian year-zero they won't. They will probably re-emerge in some more annoying stupid statist way.
As Hayek said in so many words - if a social institution ain't broke, don't fix it.
Rob C
August 28th, 2010 10:36am Report this commentThere is another plus side to bank holidays and that is for those of us that are self-employed. Like many self-employed I work 7 days a week and take no holidays, just an odd half-day here an there. This is partly because we can't afford it (choosing to give our son the decent education that the state fails to), but also because being in a service sector, the phone rings at any time - often urgent. Bank holidays are usually quieter than 'normal' weekends and thus give many self-employed a chance to catch up or relax. 10 years of New Labour and EU bureaucracy have destroyed the opportunity for many small businesses to expand. Many of my customers have downsized to just themselves and improved viability as a result. This has however had a knock on effect on their own hours as well as lost job opportunities for those starting out.
Bank holidays are also very important to seaside towns and other tourist attractions that often put on special events which need weight of numbers to justify and would otherwise not be viable.
Overall I would say they actually contribute significantly to the economy. The more there are however, the less this is true - so hopefully the politicians will keep their ego's boxed for now ;-)
Chris
August 28th, 2010 11:39am Report this comment5 June 2011 is a Sunday. I don't call that very generous of Her Madge. Either that, or Dr Butler's perpetual calendar is askew.
Ron Todd
August 28th, 2010 1:53pm Report this commentWhy not have the first Monday of every month as a holiday?
Or we could have an extra day picked at random.
The easter bank holiday should be at a fixed date. The religious minority could take extra days out of their annual leave if they require particular days off.
Simon Too
August 28th, 2010 3:21pm Report this commentThe Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2011? 2012, surely, or are we getting a discount version?
It was the Conservatives' Industrial Relations Act that provided for the May Day bank holiday.
Think of all the customary holidays we have lost such as the feast of that well-known misprint St. Evurtius on 7th September (or, as it was more commonly understood, the birthday of Queen Elizabeth I).
The author could do with revising his draft.
hadrian
August 28th, 2010 6:15pm Report this commentI suggest we institute a 'Glorious Revolution Day' to remind us and the visiting 'Infallible' Pontif that we are essentially a Protestant nation. One wonders what his church is costing the tax payer in time wasted by civil servants and others and in security measures for this disgracefully anti-Constitutional nonsense.
Trebor64
August 28th, 2010 6:31pm Report this commentConsidering MPs get almost the whole summer off it would take a brave politician to take away any BHs.
They'd be lynched quite rightly.
BTW some employees myself included don't get any BHs off.
Tyranosaurus
August 28th, 2010 10:55pm Report this commentWe should add Sept 9th as a holiday in England.
Robert Taggart
August 28th, 2010 11:25pm Report this commentBank Holidays are a tiresome relic. Abolish them.
But...
Should you wish for more days of rest join us... on benefits ! (money not great, but, the living be easy).
Athos
August 30th, 2010 1:38pm Report this commentThe Queen's jubilee holiday will be held on the 5th June 2012 and the end of may bank holiday will be moved to the 4th June for that year, giving us a four day weekend.
The Bank of England used to observe about 33 saints days and religious as public holidays but in 1834 reduced this to four including 1st May. James Lubbock, a politician , introduced the first act in 1871, and changed 1st May to Whit Sunday just because this was the date of a traditional cricket match in his local area.
At least the 1971 act introduced the August Bank holiday to mark the abolition of slavery.
Matt
September 2nd, 2010 2:03pm Report this commentHow about the 12th September to commemorate the day we won the Ashes in 2005
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